Notre Dame overcame a poor performance on its first day of competition to record several key victories in its first weekend of tournament action.
The team split up for the weekend to compete in two separate three-day tournaments, as eight members of the squad traveled to the Olympia Fields Country Club (OFCC) Invitational in Olympia Fields, Ill., and six members competed in the Vredevelt Invitational in Kalamazoo, Mich.
The Irish struggled Friday in the OFCC Invitational against a tough field that included Illinois, Kentucky, Memphis and defending NCAA champion Virginia. Junior Wyatt McCoy recorded the only singles victory of the day when he won, 7-5, 6-1, over Virginia sophomore Jonnie Cornish. The only other win came from the doubles team of senior Greg Andrews and sophomore Quentin Monaghan, who topped Kentucky freshmen Kevin Lai and Juan Pablo Murra, 8-7.
"We stress consistency with our guys," Irish coach Ryan Sachire said. "It's about the process and if you do well with the process, the results take care of themselves. Certainly, the aspects of the process we did not take care of on Friday were coming out with good energy and coming out with confidence."
Notre Dame performed much better on the second day of competition at the OFCC Invitational, as the Irish won 12 of 15 singles matches. Andrews, Monaghan, sophomore Nicolas Montoya and freshmen Eddy Covalschi and Josh Hagar each picked up two singles wins on the day.
Sachire said he was impressed with Covalschi and Hagar's performances in their first collegiate tournament.
"They're both going to be great college tennis players," he said of the freshmen. "They both have a ton of talent, a ton of upside, potential to be great college players, and it was exciting to watch them compete."
The Irish concluded the OFCC Invitational on Sunday with victories in five of six singles matches.
"There was a big difference in terms of how we approached the competition from Day One to then Day Two and Day Three, and it was just with a much greater sense of confidence and professionalism," Sachire said. "We really went after it and played to win in the last two days and played like a team that's capable of having a great season."
Competing against a less-heralded field at the Vredevelt Invitational, Notre Dame turned in a number of strong performances.
The Irish earned five singles wins and two doubles wins Friday. They followed it up by winning nine of 12 singles matches and two of three doubles matches Saturday. In Sunday's final round, Notre Dame won two of its four singles competitions and swept both of its doubles matches.
Senior Ryan Bandy went undefeated in singles play, concluding the tournament by defeating Western Michigan senior Nadin Indre in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5. The doubles duo of juniors Michael Fredericka and Dougie Barnard swept its three matches, defeating the team of Xavier sophomore Michael Moe and freshman Adam Krull, 8-6, in Sunday's final round.
Going forward, the Irish will use the results from this weekend's tournaments to tailor individual developmental plans for each team member, Sachire said.
"Our staff will sit down and try to come up with a plan for each guy to find two or three key areas of their games to work on," he said. "As a whole, I think our group needs to keep buying into the process of taking care of the details every single day and being prepared to practice and to compete."
Notre Dame will next compete at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla., which begin Sept. 28.
Contact Brian Hartnett at bhartnet@nd.edu
