Friday, May 12, 2006

Second seed Notre Dame ended Valparaiso's outstanding season on Friday afternoon as the Fighting Irish defeated the Crusaders 5-0 in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament in South Bend, Ind.

Notre Dame showed why they are ranked second in the nation winning doubles with little trouble. The third doubles team of Lauren Connelly and Kristina Stastny topped Jill Dierberg (Saint Louis, Mo./Lutheran South H.S.) and Charmaine Stanislaw (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville H.S.) 8-0 at the third spot. Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft downed Whitney Chada (Downers Grove, Ill./North H.S.) and Kate Evangelist (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard West H.S.) by the same score to secure the opening point. Valpo's Rachel Janssen (Fort Wayne, Ind./Dwenger H.S.) and Jenny Schwartz (Aurora, Ill./West Aurora H.S.) hung tough with the fifth-ranked doubles team in the nation of Catrina Thompson and Christina Thompson before their match was suspended 6-1.

In singles play, Janssen was the only Crusader to win a game in the opening set, taking one from Catrina Thompson at number one singles. Dierberg and Stanislaw each managed to record a game in the second set, but it was not enough for the Crusaders. Katie Potts defeated Kim Sajevic(Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury H.S.) 6-0, 6-0 at sixth singles in the first match finished while Christian Thompson downed Dierberg 6-0, 6-1 at the second spot. The deciding points ended simultaneously as Chada fell to Buck, ranked 87th in the country in singles 6-0, 6-0 while Evangelist fell by the same score to Tefft. Janssen's match against Catrina Thompson, ranked 30th in the nation, was suspended 6-1, 5-0 while Stanislaw's contest against Stastny was stopped at the fifth spot 6-0, 4-1.

With the loss, Valparaiso sees its season end with a 15-8 record while Notre Dame (25-1) advances to Saturday's Second Round to face Michigan.