April 3, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The No. 2 Notre Dame women’s tennis team made it 14 consecutive victories following its 6-1 rout of No. 46 Purdue on Tuesday afternoon at the Courtney Tennis Center. The Irish improve to 19-1 on the season, while the Boilermakers drop to 10-4.
Notre Dame extended its school-record home winning streak to 28 matches. The Irish have not lost at home since Feb. 26, 2005 against Texas. The Irish also improved to 4-0 on the season in outdoor matches. The match was the first outdoor home competition of the year.
Notre Dame wasted little time in securing the all-important doubles point. The freshman tandem of Cosmina Ciobanu (Brea, CA) and Colleen Rielley (Overland Park, KS) made quite a statement in their first career match together. The duo cruised past Anna Dzeva and Alejandra Boeker at No. 3 doubles, 8-0. The doubles match was the first for Rielley this spring (she now stands 10-2 in doubles overall and 1-0 in dual matches), while Ciobanu improves to 26-5 overall and 16-4 in dual action.
The Irish clinched the point at No. 2 doubles where sophomore Kelcy Tefft (Enid, OK) and freshman Kali Krisik (Arkansas City, KS) knocked off Cigdem Duru and Neela Vaez, 8-3. Tefft and Krisik registered their third consecutive victory since joining as a team this past weekend. Tefft and Krisik are a perfect 3-0 overall and 3-0 in dual matches.
Senior twin sisters Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, NV) and Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, NV) made it a clean sweep for Notre Dame. The All-American tandem struggled early in the match, falling behind 3-2 and 4-3, but regained control of the match. With the match tied 5-5, the eighth-ranked Irish broke Purdue to grab a 6-5 advantage and never looked back en route to an 8-5 victory over #45 Mallory Voelker and Brooke Beier at No. 1. They improve to 22-7 overall on the season and 14-4 in dual matches. The Thompsons now stand 94-38 for their career.
Krisik pushed the Irish advantage to 2-0 following her dominating performance at No. 6 singles. Krisik disposed off Boeker, 6-1, 6-1, in just over an hour. She improves to 11-4 overall and 4-0 in dual matches. Krisik has won each of her four dual matches in straight sets. In fact, she has surrendered two or less games in six of her eight sets.
Tefft quickly extended the lead to 3-0 for Notre Dame. The sophomore cruised past Duru in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3, at No. 4. She extended her winning streak to five matches and now stands 19-6 overall and 14-3 in dual action. After winning the last three matches in the No. 3 spot filling in for Rielley, Tefft improves to 11-3 at No. 4 this season.
#48 Ciobanu clinched the victory for the Irish. She took down Dzeva at No. 5 singles, 6-1, 6-0, for her team-leading 30th victory of the season. Ciobanu now stands an incredible 30-4 overall and even more amazing 20-0 in dual action. She still remains the only undefeated Notre Dame player in dual matches. Ciobanu also picked up her team-high sixth match-clinching victory of the campaign, which ranks tied for third in single-season school history. She is starting to enter some rare territory for any Irish player, let alone a freshman. Her dual match winning percentage (20-0, 1.000) would surpass the previous school record of .950 (Lisa Tholen, 19-1, 1992) as the highest in Notre Dame single-season history. She would also move into fourth for overall winning percentage (30-4, .882) in single-season school history. The school-record winning percentage of .903 is held by Laura Lee (28-3, 1981-82).
Rielley put Notre Dame on top by a score of 5-0. The freshman dismantled Vaez in the opening set, 6-2, but found herself trailing, 4-1, in the second set before regaining form. Rielley captured the next four games to grab a 5-4 lead and set up a chance to serve for the match, but Vaez broke to square the set 5-5. Rielley answered back with a break of her own to again set up match point at 6-5. The second time proved to be a charm as she took the second set, 7-5. Rielley improves to 21-10 overall and 10-7 in dual matches.
Christian Thompson gave the Irish a 6-0 lead at No. 2. She defeated Beier in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. Thompson improves to 14-12 overall and 11-8 in dual action. She now stands 7-5 in the No. 2 singles position.
Purdue picked up its only point of the match at No. 1 singles. Voelker upset #26 Catrina Thompson, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (11-9). After Thompson rebounded from a loss in the opening set, she evened the match at a set apiece before entering the third set, super tiebreaker. Thompson twice had match points, but was not able to put away Voelker, who pulled out the victory. Thompson drops to 20-8 overall and 15-5 in dual action.
Notre Dame returns to action this Saturday, April 7 against in state rival Indiana. First-serve in Bloomington with the Hoosiers is slated for 10:00 a.m. The all-time series with Indiana is tied 10-10, but the Irish have captured each of the last four meetings.
#2 NOTRE DAME 6, #46 PURDUE 1
Singles
1. Mallory Voelker (PU) def. #26 Catrina Thompson (ND); 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (11-9)
2. Christian Thompson (ND) def. Brooke Beier (PU); 6-3, 6-2
3. Colleen Rielley (ND) def. Neela Vaez (PU); 6-2, 7-5
4. Kelcy Tefft (ND) def. Cigdem Duru (PU); 6-0, 6-3
*5. #48 Cosmina Ciobanu (ND) def. Anya Dzeva (PU); 6-1, 6-0
6. Kali Krisik (ND) def. Alejandra Boeker (PU); 6-1, 6-1
Order of Finish: 6,4,5,3,2,1 * indicates clinching match
Doubles
1. #8 Thompson/Thompson (ND) def. #45 Voelker/Beier (PU); 8-5
*2. Krisik/Tefft (ND) def. Duru/Vaez (PU); 8-3
3. Ciobanu/Rielley (ND) def. Dzeva/Boeker (PU); 8-0
Order of Finish: 3,2,1 * indicates clinching match
— ND —