February 27, 1999

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The No. 24 Notre Dame Fighting Irish capped off a perfect week by defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes, 7-0, Saturday night at the Racquet Club of Columbus. UNDs record improves to 7-4 while OSU drops to 3-6.

The Irish took an early 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point. That set the stage for Notre Dame's Ryan Sachire, who took control of his match with OSUs Chris Porter early his with big serve and groundstrokes. Sachire ended up cruising past Porter, 6-2, 6-2.

UND's lead was extended to 2-0 when Brian Patterson won at No. 2 singles. The Fighting Irish clinched the match when Matt Daly beat Kevin Hawke, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 3.

The night's closest match came at No. 4 singles, where Notre Dame's Andrew Laflin and Ohio State's Derek DeFalco battled for two and a half hours. After Laflin won the first set, 6-4, he and DeFalco fought tooth and nail into a second set tiebreaker. Laflin jumped out to a 6-2 lead only to have DeFalco storm back to tie it at 6-6. The OSU sophomore eventually won the tiebreaker, 9-7, but it wasn't enough as Laflin was just a bit better in the third set, which he won, 6-3. The win was the freshman's 16th overall victory of the year. He has also has compiled a stellar 10-1 dual match record.

The win was the Fighting Irish's third in three matches this week. They also defeated Iowa, 7-0, Wednesday and Boise State, 6-1, Friday.

The Irish will continue with competition in the Big Ten in their next dual match, which will be at home against the Indiana Hoosiers. Match time is scheduled for 3 p.m

Match Scores
No. 24 Notre Dame   7
Ohio State          0

Doubles
No. 1 - Sachire/Patterson, UND def. Carlson/Hawke, OSU         8-4
No. 2 - Basil/DeFalco, OSU def. Miller/Horsley, UND            8-5
No. 3 - Talarico/Warford, UND def. Johansen/Richardson, OSU    8-1

Singles
No. 1 - No. 2 Ryan Sachire, UND def. No. 93 Chris Porter, OSU  6-2, 6-2
No. 2 - Brian Patterson, UND def. Andrew Carlson, OSU          7-6(4), 6-1
No. 3 - Matt Daly, UND def. Kevin Hawke, OSU                   6-2, 6-2
No. 4 - Andrew Laflin, UND def. Derek DeFalco, OSU             6-4, 6-7(7), 6-4
No. 5 - Casey Smith, UND def. Ben Basil, OSU                   7-6(5), 6-4
No. 6 - Andy Warford, UND def. Ben Wellstein, OSU              6-0, 6-1

Records
Notre Dame - 7-4 (0-0 Big East); Ohio State - 3-6 (0-2 Big Ten)

Time of Match: 3:46