Oct. 24, 2006

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A day after the Notre Dame women’s tennis doubles team of junior Brook Buck and sophomore Kelcy Tefft captured the doubles draw, freshman Colleen Rielley completed an Irish sweep with a victory over teammate and fellow freshman Cosmina Ciobanu in the singles final at the 2006 ITA Midwest Regional Championships on Tuesday.

With their respective semifinal victories yesterday, Rielley and Ciobanu had each already guaranteed themselves berths in the main draw of the second grand slam of the season, the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships at The Ohio State University’s Racquet Club of Columbus.

Rielley and Ciobanu returned to South Bend following Monday’s semifinals and played their finals match at the Eck Tennis Pavilion. Rielley upended Ciobanu, 7-5, 6-4. She is the first Notre Dame singles player to capture the title since Michelle Dasso in 2000. In fact, only three previous Irish players had ever captured the award (1991: Melissa Harris, Wendy Crabtree: 1993, Michelle Dasso: 1997, 2000).

Ciobanu dropped to 10-2 on the season, while Rielley improved to 12-1.

Notre Dame’s top doubles team, Catrina and Christian Thompson, already guaranteed a bid to the National Indoors, so they did not compete in the ITA Midwest Championships. The National Indoor Championships is in February and is the third leg of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association grand slam.

ITA Midwest Championships (October 24)
Singles – Main Draw
Colleen Rielley (ND) def. Cosmina Ciobanu (ND); 7-5, 6-4

— ND —