Michigan State University
Notre Dame
Men's Tennis Suffers Second Loss Of The Season
2/20/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 20, 2002
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - In its first road contest of the season, the No. 60 Michigan State men's tennis team was unable to pick up a point today (Feb. 20) against No. 7 Notre Dame, falling 7-0. This was MSU's first match since being nationally ranked. It was also the third straight time the Fighting Irish blanked the Spartans.
After being swept in the doubles matches, Michigan State (7-2 overall, 0-0 Big Ten) was able to win only two sets in singles against Notre Dame (10-3 overall, 0-0 Big East). Junior Chris Mitchell (Ann Arbor, Mich.) reached a third set after winning the second set tiebreaker, but eventually fell, 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3. Junior Goran Topalo (Prague, Czech Rep.) won the first set of his match, but couldn't hang on and lost his first match of the year at three singles, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
The doubles team of Topalo and fellow junior Adam Hourani (Lansing, Mich.) played well at three doubles by taking their opponent to a tiebreak, but fell 9-8(2).
State will return home Saturday (Feb. 23) when No. 50 Northwestern opens the Spartans Big Ten season. No. 2 Illinois will also enter East Lansing Sunday (Feb. 24). Both matches are set to get underway at noon.
Wednesday's Results AgainstNo. 7 Notre DameDoublesNo. 1 #6 Smith/Taborga (ND) def. McGuire/Simonton (MSU) 8-3No. 2 Malhame/Raju (ND) def. Formanczyk/Mitchell (MSU) 8-3No. 3 D'Amico/Talarico (ND) def. Hourani/Topalo (MSU) 9-8(2)
SinglesNo. 1 #95 Javier Taborga (ND) def. Chris Mitchell (MSU) 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3No. 2 #88 Casey Smith (ND) def. Andrew Formanczyk (MSU) 6-4, 6-4No. 3 #83 Luis Haddock-Morales (ND) def. Goran Topalo (MSU) 2-6, 6-3, 6-1No. 4 Matthew Scott (ND) def. Eric Simonton (MSU) 6-3, 6-1No. 5 Brian Farrell (ND) def. Jimmy McGuire (MSU) 6-2, 7-6(4)No. 6 Andrew Laflin (ND) def. Cameron Marshall (MSU) 6-2, 6-2Notre Dame defeats Michigan State, 7-0
