July 15, 2005
Notre Dame tennis stars Catrina Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) and Christian Thompson (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman H.S.) will be the one women’s doubles team representing the United States in the World University Games, scheduled for Aug. 11-21 in Izmir, Turkey, it was announced this week. The twins, who will be juniors upon returning to campus in the fall, finished the 2004-05 season as the highest-ranked collegiate women’s doubles team consisting of two Americans.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced the eight-player roster that will compete in the competition between the top collegiate athletes in the world. Others selected were two-time NCAA singles champion Amber Liu of Stanford and Florida’s Jennifer Magley in women’s singles, Georgia’s John Isner and Ryler DeHeart of Illinois in men’s singles, and the Ohio State team of Scott Green and Ross Wilson in men’s doubles.
Lori McNeil, who was a standout at Oklahoma State before a professional career that saw her climb to as high as #4 in the world in doubles (plus #9 in singles), is the coach of the U.S. women’s team. The men’s team will be coached by David Roditi, a three-year All-American and national #1 in doubles at Texas Christian before rising into the world’s top 50 in doubles.
The World University Games – which also have been known as the International University Games and World Student Games – were first contested in 1923 in Paris, France, and 2005 will mark the 35th staging. They have been held every two years since 1973, with the most-recent games taking place in Daegu, South Korea, in ’03. Turkey has never previously played host to the World University Games.
The Thompsons finished their sophomore season with a 28-7 record and ranked #5 in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national rankings after being the first Irish duo ever to ascend to the top spot. They became the first set of Notre Dame sisters – and first Irish twins – ever to become All-Americans. The sisters were 19-4 in dual match action and held a sparkling 7-2 record in close matches (8-6, 9-7, or tiebreakers) in 2004-05. They excelled against the nation’s best, finishing 15-4 against nationally-ranked teams, 8-2 vs. the top 15, and 4-1 when playing higher-ranked squads. 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, reaching the final 16 in the NCAA Doubles Championship for the second straight year. Only two Division I teams recorded more victories in the main draws of grand slams in 2004-05.
Prior to coming to Notre Dame, the Thompsons were the #1-ranked 18-and-under girls’ doubles team in the nation, having won national USTA championships on every surface. They were ranked as high as 573rd in the world in limited professional doubles action and played in the girls’ doubles main draw in the U.S. Open.
Last summer, 2004 Notre Dame graduate Alicia Salas was part of an ITA all-star team that traveled to China, meaning that the Irish program has produced three of the nine women’s collegiate players selected to represent the U.S. in foreign competition over the past two years.
At least four Notre Dame student-athletes will be participating in the World University Games, as the Thompsons will be joined by a pair of soccer players that will play for the defending national-champion Irish in 2006: sophomore-to-be Jannica Tjeder (Finland) and incoming freshman Rebecca Mendoza (Mexico). Notre Dame standout point guard Megan Duffy also is a finalist for the U.S. women’s basketball squad, to be announced later this month.