Jan. 30, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – In a hard fought battle, the No. 11 Notre Dame men’s tennis squad picked up its third win of the season in dual action as they defeated the No. 64 Michigan State Spartans, 4-3, at the Eck Tennis Pavilion on Wednesday afternoon. The Irish improved their record in dual action to 3-1 with the victory.
Early on in the match, Notre Dame went down 1-0 after losing the doubles point. The pair of Tyler Davis and Santiago Montoya brought in a win for the Irish, defeating the Michigan State pair of John Stratton and John Allare, 8-6. Unfortunately the point was already lost with Sheeva Parbhu and Brett Helgeson losing their match 8-4 and Andrew Roth and Stephen Havens being defeated 8-5.
Onto the singles action, the Irish started out hot, winning the first four singles matches to secure the victory. Helgeson, ranked 11th nationally, easily defeated Alex Forger in the No. 2 spot, dominating over Forger, 6-1, 6-4. Notre Dame’s David Anderson went on to cruise past Scott Rasmussen, 6-3, 6-2, picking up another point for Notre Dame.
In the No. 3 spot, Roth made a strong comeback, going on to win his match after losing his first set 6-0. Roth bounced back, taking control of the second set, 6-3, and sustained through the final set, 6-3, for the win.
Davis, in the No. 6 spot, secured the final point for Notre Dame to take the win, defeating Clark Richardson. Davis started out strong, with a 6-1 win in the first set. The second set proved to be much closer, but it was Davis out on top once again, claiming the win with a 7-5 victory in the second set.
With the Notre Dame win intact, the Irish went on to lose the final two matches with both Havens and Parbhu losing a close battles. Havens took the first set, 6-3, but would go on to lose, 6-3, 6-3. Parbhu went down early, losing the first set, 6-4. He came back with a powerful 6-0 victory in the second set, but it would not be enough as he lost the final set, 6-2.
The Notre Dame men travel to Northwestern tomorrow to take on the Wildcats at 4 p.m.
–ND–