May 25, 2005
ATHENS, Ga. – For the second year in a row, Notre Dame sophomore twins Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) bowed out in the round of 16 of the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Doubles Championship. The sisters, ranked sixth in the nation and one of the Nos. 5-8 seeds, lost 6-1, 6-2 to the 29th-ranked team of Ana Cetnik and Story Tweedie-Yates of Texas Christian on Tuesday afternoon at the University of Georgia’s Dan Magill Tennis Complex, bringing to a conclusion the 2004-05 season for the Irish women’s tennis team.
The Horned Frogs started out quickly, winning the first four games en route to taking the opening set. Cetnik and Tweedie-Yates then went up 5-1 in the second set and closed out the match, snapping the Thompsons’ five-match winning streak. The TCU team, which has lost just seven total games in upsetting a pair of top-20 teams in the tournament, is now 21-3 on the season and will face either the No. 3 seed, Audrey Banada and Megan Bradley of Miami, or the ninth-ranked team of Jennifer Magley and Zerene Reyes of Florida in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
The Thompsons finished the season with a 28-7 record, including 15-4 against nationally-ranked teams and 8-2 vs. the top 15. They were the only team to reach the semifinals of both of the first two legs of the collegiate grand slam, and they finished the season with a 6-3 record in grand-slam events. The previous Irish record for grand-slam doubles victories in a season was done in 2000-01, when current assistant coach Michelle Dasso and Becky Varnum went 4-4. That pair also is the only ND doubles team ever to win more matches in a season than the Thompsons (35-9 record). The Thompsons became the third Irish team to reach the final 16 on two different occasions.
Notre Dame loses just one player – Sarah Jane Connelly (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness H.S.), who played No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles – to graduation from this year’s squad that finished 15-10, won the BIG EAST title and is ranked 23rd in the nation.
2005 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Doubles Championship
Round of 16
#29 Ana Cetnik/Story Tweedie-Yates (TCU) def. [5-8 seed] #6 Catrina Thompson/Christian Thompson (ND) 6-1, 6-2