The No. 21 Irish fell 5-2 in a tough match to No. 18 Texas A&M at the Eck Tennis Pavilion Friday before turning their luck around Sunday with a win over No. 60 Northwestern 6-1.
Notre Dame lost a hard-fought battle in doubles to give up their only point of the day, beginning with the duo of junior Niall Fitzgerald and sophomore Spencer Talmadge losing 8-4 to Joshua Graves and Spencer Wolf at No. 1 doubles.
At No. 3, senior Tyler Davis and freshman Greg Andrews earned the only doubles victory for the Irish, knotting the point at a doubles match apiece, when they defeated Chris Jackman and Raleigh Smith, 8-4.
But the victory was not enough as senior Stephen Havens teamed with junior Casey Watt at No. 2 doubles, falling 9-7 to Andrew McCarthy and Tobias Reitz.
The Irish got off to a strong start in singles, however, with No. 124 Havens defeating Wolf 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2.
Senior Dan Stahl was able to finish off McCarthy 6-4, 6-4, at
No. 3 singles to give the Irish a 2-1 advantage.
Sophomore Blas Moros was able to come up with a big win for the Irish at No. 5 singles over Smith 6-2, 7-5, to pull the Irish to within one point of the victory.
Andrews then defeated Reitz 7-5, 6-2, at No. 4 to clinch the vi
ctory for the Irish.
No. 64 Watt defeated Graves 7-6, 6-4 at No. 1 singles.
Anderson meanwhile came back strong after dropping the first set 7-6 to Jackman, he came back to claim the second, 7-6, and eventually won the match in a 10-point tie breaker.
Friday was not as successful for Notre Dame, as the day began with the Aggies sweeping the doubles competition.
Fitzgerald and Talmadge played the closest match at No. 1, losing 8-6 to Jeff Dadamo and Austin Krajicek.
The duo of Havens and Davis fell 8-3 at No. 2 doubles to Alexey Grigorov and Junior Ore. Watt and Andrews fell by the same score at No. 3 to Alberto Bautista and Colin Hoover.
"All of our doubles teams have made good strides this year, but particularly at No. 2 and No. 3, where we have become pretty darn good," Irish coach Bobby Bayliss said. "We knew that [Havens] and [Davis] were going to be a potent combo because they have good skills and plenty of experience, but the maturation of [Fitzgerald] and [Talmadge] has been great to see."
The Aggies quickly took a 3-0 lead when Grigorov took down Andrews 6-4, 6-3, at No. 4 singles. Hoover then took down Fitzgerald at No. 5, 6-3, 6-3.
At No. 3 singles Stahl earned a hard fought win over No. 80 Alexis Klegou 7-6 (5), 6-3.
No. 64 Watt lost his first set 6-4, but battled back to win the second 6-3 off of No. 38 Krajicek before dropping the third set 6-3 at No. 1.
No. 55 Dadamo defeated Havens 6-7 (8-6), 7-6 (4), `1-0 (11-9) at No. 2.
At No. 6 senior David Anderson was able to defeat Bautista also in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-3) to give the Irish their second and final point of the day.
The Irish will next play host to Illinois on Tuesday with matches beginning at 6 p.m. at the Eck Tennis Center.
