Printer-Friendly Format     E-mail this article     Buck and Tefft Reach NCAA Quarterfinals for only the fifth time in Irish history

 
Brook Buck And Kelcy Tefft Advance To Quarterfinals

Survive another thriller to move on in the NCAA Championships

May 23, 2008

Notre Dame, Ind. - Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft have punched their ticket to the quarterfinals of the NCAA doubles championships. The tandem becomes the fifth Irish team to play this deep into the postseason tournament, with Catrina and Christian Thompson being the last to accomplish that feat last year.

Buck and Tefft did not face an easy challenge today, as they would be on court for just under three hours of match time. The tandem was faced up against the team of Macall Harkins and Anna Sydorska of TCU in a match that would go all three sets.

In the first set Buck and Tefft were extremely sluggish, not even managing to capture a game on the scoreboard. They would quickly find themselves down one set to none after the 6-0 set was finished.

However, as has been the case all season, Buck and Tefft would not give up with their season on the ropes. The duo quickly jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the set, before losing focus for a few games and seeing the score climb back to 5-5 with the Irish entering their service game. The brief stumble was quickly thwarted as Buck and Tefft would go on to hold and break to even the match at a set apiece, winning the second set 7-5.

The Irish team would then show their experience in the third and final set. With the teams tied 2-2 they faced a double break point and were able to battle back to win the game and take the 3-2 lead in the set. TCU would see themselves only win one more game in the match, as they held their following serve to knot the set at 3-3. Buck and Tefft would win the following three game and secure their second straight three set victory, 0-6, 7-5, 6-3.

The No. 3 ranked squad will move on to play in the quarterfinals on Saturday, May 23. They will play the winner of the match between California's Susie Babos and Stephanie Kusano, and USC's Amanda Fink and Gabriela Niculescu. Fink and Niculescu are seed as a No. 5-8 seed, while Babos and Kusano are unseeded.

Continue to visit UND.com for news on the third-seeded doubles team of Tefft and Buck in the doubles championships Quarterfinal match on Saturday afternoon. Live scoring and video of all NCAA Division I Tennis Championship events are available through the University of Tulsa's official athletics website, www.tulsahurricane.com.

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