April 22, 2005

Tampa, FL - The St. John's women's tennis team's ten-match winning streak was snapped this afternoon as the Red Storm fell to the No. 1 seeded and No. 25 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish 4-1 in the second day of action at the BIG EAST Championship.

St. John's, which advanced to today's match with a win over No. 5 West Virginia in yesterday's first round, will face either Boston College or Syracuse in the third place match tomorrow afternoon. The women's tennis team has not finished in the top-four since placing fourth at the 1989 championships.

St. John's played several tight singles matches and stole one doubles match, but the Irish hung on for the win.

Notre Dame opened the match with an 8-4 win over the Red Storm's No. 3 pair of Kristina Bothova and Barbora Blahatiakova. St. John's No. 2 set of Lauren Leo and Mariana Chachua played one of the day's top matches and battled to an 8-4 win over the nationally ranked Notre Dame duo of Brook Buck and Lauren Connelly. Despite the upset at No. 2, the Irish went on to claim the point as their top pair of Catrina Thomspon and Christian Thompson topped the Red Storm 8-3.

In singles play, St. John's struggled in three matches, but was in contention in the remaining three, surprising many of the fans and the entire conference. Kiki Stastny opened up with a win at No. 4 over Hande Gorur and Blahatiakova fell to Catrina Thompson, who is ranked No. 37 in the nation, 6-2, 6-0 in the No. 1 position. The decisive point came at the No. 2 position, where No. 90 Buck upended Bothova in a closer match, 6-2, 6-4.

St. John's was en route to a win at the No. 6 position when the match was called. Chachua, the Red Storm newcomer, topped Notre Dame veteran Liz Donohue 6-2 in the first set and was leading 4-3 in the second. After dropping her first set at No. 5, Allison Davidson bounced back and was close in the second set and Lauren Leo played a tight match at the No. 3 position against Lauren Connelly.