May 11, 2002

NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships
First Round
Courtney Tennis Center
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
May 11, 2002

First Round: NOTRE DAME 4, MICHIGAN 0

Notre Dame head coach Bob Bayliss

On the match today…
“The doubles point was huge. We lost the doubles point at Michigan, and we did win Nos. 4, 5, and 6. So I thought we were better at Nos. 4, 5, and 6. But I was not counting on winning as easily as Javier and Casey did. But we’re looking at two seniors who potentially were playing their last match in college, or their next to last home match. They played inspired tennis.”

On playing indoors…
“We wanted to play out. We felt they had the bigger servers, and the real advantage in consistency. It’s never bad to play on your own home court. These are easier and faster courts than Michigan’s. In some cases, maybe it helped us, because maybe they were not ready for the bounce.”

On matching up with Purdue…
“It will be a real tough match. We beat them earlier because they were missing their number 2 and number 3 players. We’re going to have to play really well. We played Ball State earlier this year, and Purdue beat them pretty handily. But we’ll have our hands full.”

Notre Dame senior Javier Taborga

On the match today…
“I really wanted to play him [Henry Beam] again. The last time we played and he won was the worst match of my life. He is a great player and competitor so the opportunity to play him again, and win, was great.”

On playing host to an NCAA Regional…
“I think it takes a little more concentration to play at home because you have all of your fans watching and you really want to win because of that. Today we came out strong with a lot of intensity and did really well.”

Notre Dame senior Casey Smith

On the match today…
“We knew it was going to be a very difficult match. Michigan really took it to us the first time. We knew that if we were to have a chance at winning, we needed to win the doubles point, which we did. So the doubles point really set the tone for the match. After that, we played with a lot of intensity and played a lot better than the last match against Michigan.”

Michigan head coach Mark Mees

On the match today…
“Notre Dame’s a great team. I was not unhappy with the way we played. I thought we competed well and we had some chances. Obviously the doubles point was a big point. I give credit to Notre Dame, they’re a really good team. They have a real chance to do so damage in this tournament.”