It was a busy weekend for the Notre Dame men’s tennis team who hosted No. 23 NC State on Friday, followed by No. 3 seed Wake Forest and unranked Xavier on Sunday. The two ranked opponents defeated the Irish 4-0, but Notre Dame finished off Xavier 4-0 to end the weekend on a high note.
In the match against NC State, three of the singles went unfinished. Notre Dame highest ranked player, sophomore Sebastian Dominko, was among those unable to finish the match before the first three Wolfpack players won. In doubles competition, the NC State partners junior Joseph Wayand and sophomore Martin Borisiouk defeated Irish graduate student Nil Giraldez and freshman Chase Thompson 6-2. Additionally, Wolfpack juniors Braden Shick and Fons Van Sambeek won over junior Brian Bilsey and freshman Jayanth Devaiah, 6-0.
The third-ranked team in the nation had similar success against the Irish. Three of the singles matches were left unfinished or had no result. The three Wake Forest wins were in straight sets over Notre Dame. During the doubles competition, Dominko (ranked 13th for doubles) and senior Jean-Marc Malkowski went head-to-head with the Demon Deacons' Holden Koons (the best doubles player in the country) and DK Suresh Ekambaram. Wake Forest won 6-3 and went on to win again 6-4 to end the match.
A win over 2-13 Xavier brought Notre Dame back to 0.500 on the season. In singles, Dominko, junior Jameson Corsillo and freshman Kyran Magimay came away with victories, but the Irish were up in all six match-ups. In an unusual turn of events, all three doubles matches ended at the same time. Luckily for Notre Dame, they won all three easily.
The Irish’s challenging ACC schedule continues next weekend as they play No. 26 North Carolina on Friday, followed by No. 13 Duke on Sunday.
