TCU
NCAA Individual Championships
Season Ends in Elite 8 for Norrie
5/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - The 2015 season came to an end for the TCU men's tennis program, as freshman Cameron Norrie fell to No. 9 Quentin Monaghan of Notre Dame, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the 2015 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Singles Championships at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.
The No. 39 Auckland, New Zealand native was able to snag the first set, but could not hold onto the momentum as Monaghan used early breaks to take the final two sets and move into the final four of the singles bracket. Norrie becomes the second freshman to earn All-America honors in TCU program history following David Pate who was a singles and doubles All-American in 1981.
"Cameron played a good match," head coach David Roditi said. "We all knew it would be a hard fought battle between two very competitive players. Quentin raised his energy level in the middle of the third set, got the break and we almost got it back.
"Cameron has played a lot of tennis these last eight days and he had a very good freshman season. We are all proud of him and thankful for his contribution to our program. He will have a very busy summer training and competing and could be back next year as one of the best players in the country. This is the end of a productive season and I'm leaving Monday for Europe so we can keep building our program."
The duo held serve through the first four games, before Monaghan got the first break of the match to go up 3-2. Norrie would not stay down for long and broke back to get the set back on serve at 4-4. The freshman prevailed in holding his serve to go up 5-4 and then got his first break of the match to take the first set 6-4.
The battle continued into the second set and after holding his first service game, Norrie was once again broken and faced an uphill battle as Monaghan went up 3-1 in the set. Monaghan proved to be too much the rest of the set as the Fighting Irish won the next three games to win the set, 6-1, and even out the match at a set apiece.
The early break once again hurt Norrie in the final set, as Monaghan was able to capitalize off of two breaks to take a 5-2 lead. Norrie would not go down without a fight and broke back to make it 5-3 in the set. Monaghan took the momentum back and closed out the set by breaking the freshman one final time and winning the set and the match.
Norrie concludes his debut campaign for TCU with a 28-11 overall record in singles action and victories in 12 of his last 13 matches. The freshman brought down 12 ranked opponents in his first season and finished with an 11-3 record in tournament action.
Players Mentioned
