Sept. 25, 2014
ITA All-American Championships – Tournament Central
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team seeks to continue its early season success this weekend as the team splits up to compete in three different fall tournaments.
Irish players Kenneth Sabacinski, Josh Hagar, Quentin Monaghan, Billy Pecor and Alex Lawson are competing at the elite Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The event consists of three rounds: pre-qualifying, qualifying and main draw. Sabacinski begins singles play in the pre-qualifying round Saturday while Monaghan and Hagar are slated to enter the singles mix in the qualifying round Monday.
Monaghan is ranked No. 88 in the country and coming off a huge win Sunday over No. 6 Jared Hiltzik of Illinois. He is no stranger to the event, after advancing to the quarterfinals of the qualifying round last year. The junior will need to win two single elimination singles matches to advance to the main draw, which begins Oct. 2.
Lawson and Pecor will be the lone Irish doubles duo at the event, and will begin competition in the main draw in large part to their No. 27 ranking in the ITA’s preseason doubles poll.
Head coach Ryan Sachire says the tournament will be an opportunity for his players to continue to hone their craft against some of the best collegiate competition in the country.
“All five of those guys are capable of doing really well results wise,” Sachire said. “But by the same token, the level of competition is good.”
Meanwhile, Brendon Kempin, Drew Dawson, Nicolas Montoya and Eric Schnurrenberger are traveling to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to compete in the Crimson Tide Four In The Fall tournament.
Joining host Alabama and Notre Dame is Dartmouth, Florida State, Illinois, Middle Tennessee State, Princeton, Rice, Samford, South Alabama, Tulane and UAB.
The tournament consists of a compass format, in which there are three 16-player singles draws and three eight-team doubles draws resulting in seven guaranteed matches.
Play begins at 9 a.m. (CT) Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Rounding out the weekend of competition for the Irish are a group comprised of Eddy Covalschi, Michael Fredericka and Dougie Barnard – in addition to Pecor and Lawson – that are heading to the Vredevelt Invitational in Kalamazoo, Michigan (Pecor and Lawson will compete in some doubles matches before traveling to the ITA All-American Championships).
Competition begins Friday at 3 p.m. (ET) with three rounds of doubles before resuming Saturday with two rounds of singles play at 9:30 a.m. (ET). Sunday features the last round of singles beginning at 8:30/9 a.m. (ET).
Irish fans can track the players’ progress during the course of the weekend at UND.com, as well as on Twitter (@NDMensTennis).
–Connor Killoren, Media Relations Student Assistant
–ND–