Although Notre Dame captured multiple individual titles at last week's Michigan Invitational, the Irish had no such luck this week at the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships.
Senior captain Brook Buck and junior Kelcy Tefft traveled west to participate in the tournament, held at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
No. 91 Buck started play on Tuesday, participating in the qualifying singles bracket against USC's Amanda Fink. It was a hard fought match, but No. 53 Fink proved too great a challenge for Buck, downing her in three sets.
Buck struggled to perform in her first set and eventually lost 6-0. Her second round showed improvement, and she managed a 6-3 win. However, Fink got the best of her, claiming the third set, 6-3.
In the consolation draw against Auburn's Alex Haney, Buck was once again unable to best her opponent. While she ended her first set victorious with a score of 6-2, she could not continue this performance, dropping the last two sets 6-2 and 6-4.
Although Buck was unable to win her matches, she can still be proud of her performance and set wins, Irish head coach Jay Louderback said.
"All of the top kids in the country are there," Louderback said. "This is the best tournament of the fall, ranked just a little under the NCAA Tournament."
On Thursday, Buck joined Tefft to compete in the doubles portion of the tournament.
Ranked No. 9, the duo faced Clemson's No. 2 seed Ani Mijacika and Federica van Adrichem. Although this was the first time Tefft and Buck played together this year - and although the two lost to Mijacika and Adrichem in the opening round of last year's NCAA doubles tournament - Louderback was not worried. Tefft and Buck had played together extensively last year.
They were excited for a rematch, but unfortunately for Buck and Tefft, this year's tournament had a similar result. They lost in the first round 8-4, coming home empty handed, but still optimistic for future matches.
The Irish will next compete Oct. 18 at the ITA Midwest Regional Qualifier held in Ann Arbor, Mich.
