Feb. 28, 2014
DURHAM, N.C. — It has been a rough stretch of matches for the Notre Dame women’s tennis team. Tonight, the 25th-ranked Irish fell to the No. 1 Duke, 6-1. Despite this loss that moved them to 5-5 on the season, head coach Jay Louderback said that the match showed promising growth in his team.
“I thought our intensity was much better,” Louderback explained. “We also played longer points and gave ourselves a chance to win matches.”
Louderback switched up his usual doubles teams at Nos. 2 and 3, but it was the 23rd-ranked team of sophomore Quinn Gleason and senior Britney Sanders at No. 1 who defeated their Duke opponents Beatrice Capra and Hanna Mar, ranked fourth in the country, 8-4. Despite this triumph, Notre Dame lost the other two doubles matches and the point to Duke before moving into singles.
The Blue Devils took five of the six singles matches with the exception of Gleason, who defeated 18th-ranked Ester Goldfeld, 6-0, 6-4. The victory comes at a good time, as Gleason has now broken a three-match rough spot in her singles game.
The Irish will next play Clemson at home this Friday, Mar. 7 at 4 p.m. at the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
–Lauren Chval, Media Relations Assistant
–ND–