Printer-Friendly Format     E-mail this article     Bret Helgeson and the Irish will be in search of their second straight BIG EAST crown on Sunday afternoon and will look to earn the league's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

Top-seeded Irish will face No. 3 seed South Florida in championship.

April 19, 2008

Complete Results

Tampa, Fla. - The top-seeded Notre Dame men's tennis team will make its 13th straight appearance in the BIG EAST Championship title match as the Irish dispatched No. 5 seed DePaul at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts. Coach Bobby Bayliss' squad will looking for its second straight league championship and seventh title overall.

The Irish will face third-seeded USF that reached its first-ever championship appearance after the Bulls earned a hard-fought 4-3 victory over second-seeded Louisville. It will mark the first time the two schools have played each other in the BIG EAST final.

Under Bayliss, the Irish have won titles in 2007, '05, '04, '02, '99 and '96.

Notre Dame, 33rd in the April 13 ITA rankings, lost eight games in the doubles matches and scored the team point by winning both the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. The No. 1 doubles team of Bret Helgeson and Sheeva Parbhu defeated Austin Doerner and Jose Moncada 8-5, while the No. 3 duo of freshmen Stephen Havens and Tyler Davis earned a resounding 8-1 victory.

The No. 2 doubles team of Andrew Roth and Santiago Montoya were leading their match 6-2 before it was suspended after Notre Dame had clinched the point.

Notre Dame clinched its way into the title match by winning the top three singles matches. Helgeson was dominant for the second straight day as he produced a 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 1 singles with a victory over Moncada. After edging Doerner 7-5 in the opening set, Parbhu cruised to a 6-2 win in the second set. Roth claimed the win at No. 3 singles with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Vanja Gregee.

David Anderson trailed Ben Hartman 2-6, 4-5 when that match suspended at No. 5 singles. Daniel Stahl also did not finish his match against Bartosz Jozwiak when that match also was discontinued.