Hurricanes Take BIG EAST Title
April 23, 2000
Coral Gables, FL – The top-seeded University of Miami men’s tennis team defeated defending champion and No. 2 seed Notre Dame, 5-2, Sunday at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center to claim its sixth BIG EAST Tennis Championship in the last eight years.
With the win the Hurricanes (19-4) secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tennis Championships beginning May 12th.
Notre Dame (12-10), ranked 29th in the nation, jumped out to an early lead winning two of the three doubles matches in earning the doubles point. The Fighting Irish then increased their lead to 2-0 when BIG EAST Player of the Year Ryan Sachire defeated the Hurricanes’ Tomas Smid 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 singles.
Miami, the nation’s 21st ranked team, then mounted its comeback.
Joel Berman (Seminole, FL) started things off with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Notre Dame’s Trent Miller at No. 6 singles. The Hurricanes then pulled even when Michael Lang (Sarasota, FL) at No. 4 singles dispatched Aaron Talarico in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. Miami then took a 3-2 lead when Jose Leiberman (Los Angeles, CA) defeated Andrew Laflin 7-6, 6-1 at No. 5 singles.
Down 3-2 and needing to win both remaining matches, Notre Dame took an early advantage winning the first set at both No. 2 and No. 3 singles. The Hurricanes, however, would not be denied. Miami’s Peter Hoffman (Key Biscayne, FL) came back to defeat Matt Daly 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2 singles while at No. 3 singles Johan Lindqvist (Kil, Sweden) came back to knock off Notre Dame’s Casey Smith 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Following the match head coach Jay Berger was named BIG EAST Coach of the Year.
BIG EAST Men’s Tennis Championship Match
#1 Miami 5, #2 Notre Dame 2
Doubles
No. 1 Talarico/Javier Taborga (ND) def. Smid/Hoffman (UM) 8-4
No. 2 Lang/Lieberman (UM) vs. Sachire/Miller (ND) DNF
No. 3 Smith/Matt Daly (ND) def. Berman/Mark Arrowsmith (UM) 8-1
Singles
No. 1 Ryan Sachire (ND) def. Tomas Smid (UM) 6-1, 6-2
No. 2 Peter Hoffman (UM) def. Matt Daly (ND) 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
No. 3 Johan Lindqvist (UM) def. Casey Smith (ND) 3-6, 7-5, 6-2
No. 4 Michael Lang (UM) def. Aaron Talarico (ND) 6-2, 6-2
No. 5 Jose Lieberman (UM) def. Andrew Laflin (ND) 7-6 (5), 6-1
No. 6 Joel Berman (UM) def. Trent Miller (ND) 6-2, 6-4
