The Notre Dame men’s tennis team wrapped up their regular season last Saturday in Kentucky, falling in a 4-3 heartbreaker to ACC opponent Louisville. The over three-hour thriller saw the Irish surrender a 3-0 lead after securing the doubles point and first two singles matches on courts one and six. The Cardinals rattled off four straight singles wins on courts 2-5 en route to the comeback victory. Despite the loss, Junior Sebastian Dominko continued his dominance in both singles and doubles play, securing a comfortable 6-2 win alongside sophomore Chase Thompson before taking down No. 81 Will Mayew 6-2, 6-4 for the 18th win of his singles campaign. The Slovenian lefty improved to 7-2 with Thompson and 18-3 on his own, finishing the regular season with a 9-1 conference mark and nine wins against nationally ranked opponents. The freshman duo of Peter Nad and Luis Llorens have complimented Dominko/Thompson all year on court three and delivered yet again with their 12th straight victory on Saturday.
Following the defeat, Notre Dame fell to 13-14 overall and 1-12 in ACC play. Their struggles in conference placed them second-to-last in the field for the 16-team ACC Tournament. As the No. 15 seed, they will look to get even with No. 37 Miami in the First Round at Cary Tennis Park on Wednesday evening after losing the regular season edition of the matchup. Should they get by the Hurricanes, they will have a date with No. 7 seed Duke in the Second Round. In 2023-24, Notre Dame came into the tournament seeded eighth and lost 4-1 in the First Round to Clemson.
The Miami matchup
Miami finished their regular season with a disappointing 4-1 loss to in-state opponents Florida State in Tallahassee on Friday. The loss dropped the Hurricanes to 13-9 overall and 6-7 in ACC play, earning them the No. 10 seed in the tournament. In 2025, Miami has been two different teams depending on the venue. After toppling the Irish on April 5, they completed an undefeated season on home courts, where they went 13-0. However, they have yet to win a match outside of the Neil Schiff Tennis Center, going 0-8 on the road and losing their sole match at a neutral site. Going in as a 12-seed, Miami’s ACC Tournament run in 2023-24 ended in the Second Round with a sweep against No. 5 seed North Carolina after they coasted past Boston College in a 4-0 round-one victory.
No. 21 Martin Katz leads the way for the Hurricanes on the singles courts, pacing the team with 15 wins, all at the No. 1 spot. He is 7-1 in his last eight matches and finished ACC play with a 8-2 record. Most importantly, he is the only ACC player to have taken down Dominko, besting the Irish No. 1 in resounding 6-4, 6-0 fashion. Nacho Serra Sanchez is right behind Katz with 14 wins on the No. 3 court, while Antonio Prat rounds out one of the stronger top-threes in the conference with his 11-4 mark on the No. 2 court. The bottom half of the lineup between Leonardo Dal Boni, Mehdi Sadaoui and Jules Garot has been less productive, combining for an 18-30 record across the three courts. Dal Boni, however, stepped up in a third-set tiebreak against Nad to close out Miami’s win over Notre Dame in their matchup, securing the Hurricanes’ undefeated home season in the process.
Prat joins Katz to form the team’s go-to doubles pairing, boasting a team-best 13-6 record in dual matches and a No. 49 national ranking. They cruised past the No. 21 Dominko/Thompson pairing 6-1 despite losing the overall doubles point as a team. Dal Boni and Serra Sanchez are just below .500 for the year at 9-10 on court two and Garot/Sadaoui round out the lineup with a 5-11 mark on court three. Both pairings fell against the Irish last time out.
The First Round match is set for Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, North Carolina.
