The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Notre Dame (ITA Kick-Off Weekend)
Notre Dame edges No. 8 Men's Tennis, 4-3
01.27.2018 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns meet Tennessee on Sunday.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 8 Texas (3-1) won the doubles point and collected singles wins from junior Rodrigo Banzer and All-America sophomore Yuya Ito, but Notre Dame (4-0) edged the Longhorns by a 4-3 count Saturday evening in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event at Texas Tennis Center.
Notre Dame advances to meet Minnesota on Sunday (1 p.m. CT) with a bid to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on the line. The Longhorns will take on Tennessee (1 p.m. CT), who suffered a 4-3 defeat to the Golden Gophers. Both matches will be held outdoors at Texas Tennis Center.
Texas got off to a strong start and won the doubles point. Juniors Colin Markes and Adrian Ortiz dealt Richard Ciamarra and Matt Gamble a 6-2 defeat at third doubles. The fifth-ranked tandem of UT's Banzer and junior Leonardo Telles made short work of Brendon Kempin and Tristan McCormick at first doubles and won by a 6-2 margin to close out the doubles point. The remaining match was suspended.
Ito staked the Horns to a 2-0 lead behind his 6-1, 6-0 win over Gamble at third singles. Notre Dame got on the board at fifth singles with a 6-2, 6-2 victory from Ciamarra over UT senior John Mee. Banzer held off the Irish's McCormick 7-6 (4), 6-4 at fourth singles to give Texas a 3-1 lead, but the Irish won the remaining courts to finish off their 4-3 win.
Notre Dame's Guillermo Cabrera pulled the Irish within 3-2 with his 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-2 win over the 27th-ranked Scott at second singles. Grayson Broadus evened the match with his 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-4 win over Ortiz at sixth singles. The final contest at first singles progressed to a third-set tiebreaker between Texas' 37th-ranked Telles and Notre Dame's 45th-ranked Lebedev. Telles saved multiple match points, but Lebedev won the tiebreaker 7-4 to give Notre Dame the match victory.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
It was exciting to play here at Texas Tennis Center. We showed again today that our doubles has improved a lot. I felt like we had some opportunities with some early momentum to really put some pressure on Notre Dame and we didn't do it. They're a good team and they played hard, they played well. You could sense that as they got some opportunities and the momentum started to shift, even though we were ahead 3-1, that we were struggling to find that fourth point today. We just came up short. I'm disappointed that we're not going to the National Indoors. We've got another match tomorrow and it's early in the season, but we've got to improve if we're going to be a great team.
Notre Dame 4, No. 8 Texas 3
Doubles – Order of Finish: 3, 1
1 No. 5 Rodrigo Banzer/Leonardo Telles (UT) def. Brendon Kempin/Tristan McCormick (ND), 6-2
2 No. 23 Yuya Ito/Harrison Scott (UT) vs. William Howells/Alex Lebedev (ND), 4-3, susp.
3 Colin Markes/Adrian Ortiz (UT) def. Richard Ciamarra/Matt Gamble (ND), 6-2
Singles – Order of Finish: 3, 5, 4, 2, 6, 1
1 No. 45 Alex Lebedev (ND) def. No. 37 Leonardo Telles (UT), 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4)
2 Guillermo Cabrera (ND) def. No. 27 Harrison Scott (UT), 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-2
3 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Matt Gamble (ND), 6-1, 6-0
4 No. 98 Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Tristan McCormick (ND), 7-6 (4), 6-4
5 Richard Ciamarra (ND) def. No. 52 John Mee (UT), 6-2, 6-2
6 Grayson Broadus (ND) def. Adrian Ortiz (UT), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4
Players Mentioned
