April 2, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue (3-11, 1-3 Big Ten) dropped a 7-0 decision to No. 20 Notre Dame (14-7, 2-0 Big East) Wednesday afternoon at the Schwartz Tennis Center.
The lopsided score did not greatly upset Boilermaker head coach Laura Glitz who admired her team's energy.
"We came out to singles with more energy," she said. "The team was bouncing on its toes looking to go after any ball, but we have to keep it up more in doubles because an eight-point pro set goes quick and you have to start strong against a No. 1 team from Notre Dame. Their coach said he thought we competed hard and good things are going to happen if we keep it up."
Notre Dame's Brooke Buck and Kelsey Tefft certainly played up to their No. 1 national ranking against Purdue's Brooke Beier and Stephanie Wooten, winning 8-2.
Today's loss for Beier and Wooten marked their largest margin of defeat this season through nine games. The duo's second worst loss was an 8-3 defeat Saturday against the nation's 28th-ranked doubles team of Northwestern's Lauren Liu and Georgia Rose.
Overall, Wooten and Beier remain a solid No. 1 pairing for Purdue with a 5-4 record.
The No. 3 combo of Alejandra Boeker and Whitney Reys had its best outing in three tries, falling 8-6 to Kali Krisik and Katie Potts. Boeker and Reys led at one point, 6-3, but couldn't hold off the resurgent Irish tandem in the latter stages.
Four of six singles matches went either to a third set or tiebreaker, but once again Notre Dame proved its resiliency and won all of them plus two more in completing the clean sweep.
Buck at No. 2 singles, and Colleen Rielley at No. 5, both came back from a set down against Wooten and Joanna Craven, and No. 122 Cosmina Ciobanu played bonus tennis with Cigdem Duru at No. 3, winning 7-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-7).
Boeker, Anna Dzeva and Beier lost in straight sets at the No. 6, 5 and 1 positions. Dzeva was blanked by Krisik in the first set, but pushed her opponent to a 6-6 tiebreak in the second.
Purdue returns to the road this weekend with matches at Penn State and Michigan. Glitz said both duals will present their own unique set of challenges and opportunities.
"I'm a little nervous playing at Penn State since there are only four indoor courts and I don't know how they'll rotate players on and off - that can certainly change the dynamic of the game," she said. "Penn State is going to be out to get us - same as Michigan - so we'll have to be fired up from start to finish.
"Michigan plays well at home and they're solid all the way down the lineup. They're attacking players who compete on fast courts, which allow them to step into the ball and rip winners."
Both road duals begin at 11 a.m. EDT.