Sept. 19, 2004
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team was nearly perfect on the final day of action in the Tom Fallon Invitational, winning 10 of 12 matches Sunday at the Courtney Tennis Center to conclude action in its lone home fall tournament. The Irish finished the event with a 40-13 record in singles matches and sophomore Stephen Bass (Bronxville, N.Y./Iona Preparatory School) posted a perfect 7-0 mark during the four-day tournament.
On Sunday, Notre Dame won six of seven singles matches against Purdue and a pair vs. Maryland. In doubles action, the Irish took two of three from the Boilermakers, who had gone 2-1 vs. Notre Dame on Saturday.
Junior Eric Langenkamp (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale H.S.) and freshman Sheeva Parbhu (Omaha, Neb./Millard North H.S.) both were victorious in singles and doubles contests. The elder player beat Purdue’s Scott Warner 6-3, 6-2 before teaming with senior Jimmy Bass (Bronxville, N.Y./Iona Preparatory School) to defeat two more Boilers, Chris Cozad and Filip Koziell, 8-5 in doubles. Parbhu downed Cozad 7-5, 6-2 in singles and then paired with sophomore Barry King (Dublin, Ireland/Gonzaga College) to beat Purdue’s Matt Zollman and Scott Warner 8-6.
Bass completed his perfect weekend with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Koziell. He was 5-0 in singles contests and unbeaten in two doubles matches. One of his victories in singles was his first career win vs. a ranked player, #56 Paul Rose of Purdue.
Four other Irish players were victorious in their only match of the day. Sophomore Irackli Akhvlediani (Vienna, Austria/Vienna International School) beat Eric Hodgman of Purdue 7-5, 6-1 and junior Patrick Buchanan (Fullerton, Calif./Servite H.S.) surrendered just one game in beating Zollman 6-1, 6-1. Freshman Andrew Roth (Houston, Texas/Tenney School) downed Maryland’s Josh Brauser 6-1, 7-5, while his classmate, Yuichi Uda (Wesley Chapel, Fla./Laurel Springs School [CA]), beat another Terp, Scott Fink, 6-4, 6-0.
Notre Dame’s other winner was senior co-captain Brent D’Amico (Castle Rock, Colo./St. Stephen’s Episcopal School [TX]), who defeated Colin Foster of Purdue 6-2, 0-6, 1-0 (10-6).
Parbhu led the Irish in victories in the Tom Fallon Invitational, with eight. He was unbeaten in his first five collegiate singles matches and posted a 3-2 mark in doubles. In addition to Parbhu and Bass, three other players – Langenkamp, Roth, and Jimmy Bass – had perfect marks in singles. Langenkamp led that trio with five wins, while Roth is 4-0 as a collegian, and Bass was 3-0. Roth was 7-1 overall on the tournament, a record also held by Buchanan, who was 4-1 in singles (his only loss coming in a match tiebreaker) and 3-0 in doubles.
The Irish will have nearly a month off, as they return to action by splitting up their roster and sending participants to both the Midland Invitational (Oct. 14-17) in Midland, Texas, and the Wolverine Invitational (Oct. 15-17) in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The Tom Fallon Invitational is named after legendary former Irish tennis coach Tom Fallon, who compiled a 514-194 (.726) record in 31 years leading the program, winning the 1959 national championship. He was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) Hall of Fame in 1988. Fallon began the tradition of a fall tennis season, starting the Irish Invitational in 1970. The tournament was renamed in his honor when he retired in 1987 and is being played for the 36th consecutive fall. The TFI features a “hidden dual” format, in which teams play simulated dual matches against each other, but no team scores are recorded. All individual results are counted for ranking purposes.
Singles
#56 Paul Rose (P) d. Barry King (ND) 6-2, 6-4
Brent D’Amico (ND) d. Colin Foster (P) 6-2, 0-6, 1-0 (10-6)
Stephen Bass (ND) d. Filip Koziell (P) 6-2, 6-1
Eric Langenkamp (ND) d. Scott Warner (P) 6-3, 6-2
Sheeva Parbhu (ND) d. Chris Cozad (P) 7-5, 6-2
Irackli Akhvlediani (ND) d. Eric Hodgman (P) 7-5, 6-1
Patrick Buchanan (ND) d. Matt Zollman (P) 6-1, 6-0
Andrew Roth (ND) d. Josh Brauser (M) 6-1, 7-5
Yuichi Uda (ND) d. Scott Fink (M) 6-4, 6-0
Doubles
Paul Rose/Sounak Chatterjee (P) d. Brent D’Amico/Ryan Keckley (ND) 8-3
Eric Langenkamp/Jimmy Bass (ND) d. Chris Cozad/Filip Koziell (P) 8-5
Sheeva Parbhu/Barry King (ND) d. Matt Zollman/Scott Warner (P) 8-6