Irish sophomore Kelcy Tefft advanced to the finals of the Eck Classic Saturday at the Eck Tennis Pavilion, but lost in the final of the singles tournament to DePaul's Dunja Antunovic 6-4, 7-5.
"I did OK. I didn't play great, but I didn't play bad," said Tefft, who was one of three Notre Dame players in the event. "The better I played, the better she played it seemed."
On Friday, the first day of the tournament, Tefft overcame a second set deficit and a gutsy performance from DePaul's Petra Rehsova in a 7-5, 7-5 victory. On Saturday, Tefft earned a spot in the finals by winning 11 straight games in her 7-5, 6-0 win over Megan Fudge of Illinois.
"Kelcy played very well in the tournament. [Antunovic] is a streaky player, but she played well all the way through to beat Kelcy," Irish coach Jay Louderback said. "Kelcy's played a lot of doubles recently so we wanted her to get some good play in singles, and she did. That was important."
The other two Irish participants, freshman Kali Krisik and sophomore Katie Potts, each lost in the first round of their respective singles matches but wound up taking the doubles title together with an 8-6 victory over Western Michigan's Kerstin Paul and Ashley Moccia.
"Kali and Katie played really well all around for the tournament," Tefft said.
In her singles match, Krisik fell to DePaul's Kirsten Gambrell 6-4, 6-4, but won the Gold Flight Consolation title against Kristina Minor of Illinois with a 6-2, 7-5 win.
"Kali played well. In her singles matches, she got to play kids that were in the top four of their teams, so it was a good experience for her to be in this," Louderback said.
Potts dropped her first round singles match against Western Michigan's Carrie Jeanmarie 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, but rebounded to win the Blue Flight Consolation title with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Paul.
"She needed to get some tough matches in and she did," Louderback said. "She played better in each round she played in this tournament."
Only three Notre Dame players participated in the event because of the restriction that teams can only enter 25 dates on the year.
