The Notre Dame men’s tennis program enters the spring season with high hopes following a stellar individual fall season. After a strong 10-2 start to the 2025 team season, the Irish struggled against a tough ACC schedule, finishing 1-12 in conference matchups. By the end of the ACC Men’s Tennis Championship, Notre Dame gutted out a promising 4-3 win over Miami, avenging a 2-4 loss earlier in the season, before falling 1-4 to No. 19 Duke. With flashes of potential last spring, combined with a strong recruiting season, tennis fans are hoping for a big jump for the Irish men’s team in 2026.
Notre Dame’s men’s team rebounded in the fall of 2025, with strong individual performances on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) circuit. Senior Sebastian Dominko continued his dominant form from the spring before. Dominko went 9-3 in ITA matches, and beat three ranked opponents at the ITA Sectional tournament in November, securing a place in the NCAA Singles Championships for a fourth straight year. The 6-four-8-inch lefty from Maribor, Slovenia will aim to cement his legacy with a strong run this spring, before potentially turning to the professional tour.
Freshmen Nolan Balthazor and Nicholas Patrick showed poise and maturity during their individual seasons. Balthazor posted a 9-4 singles record, while Patrick went 4-4 in individual matches. The former five-stars also went 5-3 as a doubles pair, foreshadowing a potential dynamic duo in the team season ahead. Sophomore Giuseppe Cerasuolo, junior Kyran Magimay, and graduate student Perry Gregg also performed well in the singles department, finishing 9-4, 10-4, and 10-4, respectively. Magimay and Gregg participated in six doubles ITA’s, dominating the circuit with a 5-1 record. The strong individual season last fall was the perfect warmup for what looks to be another tough schedule this spring.
The Irish season kicks off with a trip to New Haven, Connecticut for a duel against Yale. Last January, the Irish earned a hard fought 4-3 home win against the Bulldogs, with four of the seven matches going to a deciding third set. The Notre Dame men’s team will hope to emulate that grit in Friday’s away duel at 5:00 p.m. EST.
The Irish will start the year with three non-conference matchups before heading to Kentucky for a showdown against Louisville on Jan. 25. February’s schedule consists of solely non-conference play, which the Irish will use as a tuneup before hosting three top-ten ranked ACC rivals: No. 1 Wake Forest on March 13, No. 9 NC State on March 15, and No. 4 Stanford on March 20.
If the Notre Dame men’s team can upset at least one of their ACC rivals during this stretch, they will set themselves up for a solid run at the ACC Tournament in mid-April, and a potential qualification to the NCAA DI Men’s Tennis Team Championships.
The return of seasoned veterans like Dominko, paired with the rise of young talent and a solid ITA season has left Irish men’s tennis fans with much to hope for. Despite the daunting schedule, Notre Dame’s men’s tennis team is poised for a strong rebound after last spring, and potentially its first winning season since 2022.
