Aug. 18, 1999

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The Notre Dame men's and women's tennis teams have been selected as one of 16 schools to participate in the first-ever coed intercollegiate national tennis championship this fall at the WingspanBank.com/WTT National Collegiate Tennis Championships, Oct. 1-3, at Stanford University. The Irish will face Illinois on Oct. 1, at 2:00 p.m. at the Taube Family Tennis Center. Notre Dame received one of seven regional slots while the remaining nine teams were selected at-large based on their combined season-ending Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

The championship will use the World Team Tennis format that features teams comprised of two men and two women. Each team will play five sets, with one set each of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. One point is awarded for each game won in the five sets.

The Irish will enter two of the top men's and women's players in the field in senior Ryan Sachire and junior Michelle Dasso. Sachire finished the 1998 season ranked fifth and is ranked second in the preseason rankings, while Dasso finished 13th and is seventh preseason. Notre Dame joins Stanford as the only two teams in the field with a men's and women's singles player ranked in the top 15 of the final 1998 ITA rankings.

WingspanBank.com/WTT Nat'l
Collegiate Tennis Championships pairings

(1) Duke vs. Princeton
Tennessee vs. Pepperdine

NOTRE DAME vs. Illinois
South Carolina vs. Fresno State

Vanderbilt vs. USC
Texas A&M vs. (3) Stanford

LSU vs. Arizona State
Kansas vs. (2) Mississippi