The University of Washington men's tennis team will be happy to return home after a grueling weekend on the road. Yesterday's 6-1 loss to No. 8 Notre Dame, coming on the heels of a 5-2 defeat at the University of Minnesota on Saturday, was the third loss for the 9-3 Huskies, with all three losses coming on the road.

"It was one of the most disappointing road trips in my career as a coach," said coach Matt Anger.

The Huskies only managed to get one singles and one doubles win in the match against Notre Dame. Alex Slovic and Daniel Chu remained undefeated when playing together at No. 1 doubles with an 8-4 victory over the ninth-ranked doubles team in the country. Coming after losses at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, however, Slovic and Chu's victory wasn't enough, and the UW started off the singles down 1-0.

Notre Dame's three ranked singles players easily defeated Slovic, Chu and Andy Kuharszky on the top three singles courts, winning each match in straight sets. Notre Dame went on to claim victories at No. 4 and No. 5 singles against freshmen Patrik Fischer and Derek Drabble before senior Mike Ricks provided the UW with its only singles win, defeating Notre Dame's Andrew Roth at the No. 6 position 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

"Mike Ricks fought very hard today to pull out his match," Anger said. "But overall we can do better than we did today. Their guys played better — they deserved the win."

The UW will have to make changes both mentally and tactically to make sure losing doesn't become a habit.

"The guys will have to make adjustments, and learn how to get tougher if things aren't going well," Anger said. "If we want to be happy with our season, we'll have to improve."

Reach reporter Risa Pavia at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.