Irish golf near end of season after busy week

By ANDREW McGUINNESS sports e ditor

most of notre dame’s student body was away during the past week for spring break, and both the men’s and women’s golf teams were no exception. but rather than hitting the sand, the irish were trying to avoid it. as the acc championships reach the ”objects in mirror are closer than they appear” stage of the season, both teams looked to generate momentum. While they still have work to do before that critical mid-april competition, they did a lot of it during the past week, with the men’s and women’s teams each competing in a pair of tournaments over break.

coming off a top-five finish in the columbia classic in feb., the women’s team lost a bit of momentum, tying for 10th in the annual clover cup tournament that the irish host. Junior chloe schiavone recorded another top-25 finish; however, she shot shot 74-72-75 to finish tied for 24th. seniors Lauren beaudreau and madelyn Jones both ended the competition on high notes. both golfers tallied a score of 72 or better in the third and final round. beaudreau in particular was able to carry that strong finish into the florida state matchup at the seminole Legacy golf club in Tallahassee. The event paired each of the 12 competing schools with one another, and notre dame’s partnership with Kentucky produced a second-place finish. beaudreau, sophomore montgomery ferreira and graduate student caroline curtis led the irish. They each tallied a combined score of 233 across the three rounds. curtis recorded the irish’s lowest single-round score, a 73 in the middle round.

The men’s team also suffered a bit of regression. after finishing in the top seven in all but one of their first six competitions, the irish placed eighth and tied for ninth at the Johnnie-o at sea island and schenkel invitational tournaments, respectively. notre dame did flash some exciting potential during the twoday Johnnie-o event, though. freshman nate stevens and sophomore owen mullen combined to tally three c hampionships appearance. Linder, meanwhile, has qualified in all three of his years with the i rish. serving the i rish in foil, senior marcello olivares brings to the table two years of experience. a dditionally, c hase e mmer, a freshman, is the lone competitor from the men’s to be making a debut in this tournament. o ver the competition’s four days of matchups, the nation’s top athletes will differentiate amongst themselves through individual events in each of the six weapons — round-robin style. following the round robin, which consists of five-touch bouts and 24 fencers, the top-four finishers in each of the six weapons advance to the semifinals. Those are 15-touch bouts.

Winners of the semifinal round go on to face one another to determine first and second place. The competition, however, halts for semifinal-round losers. There is no third-place fight, with those who fall in the semifinals officially tying for third. a team’s finish in the ncaa s is contingent on the total points earned by individual individual rounds of sub-70 scores. in fact, stevens’ 64 in the middle round was the lowest single-round score of the entire tournament. notre dame finished the schenkel invitational, hosted by georgia southern, at plus14, just five strokes back of sixth-place Wisconsin. Like stevens earlier in the week, graduate student andrew o’Leary notched a top-20 finish at the tournament. o’Leary finished at 11, just two strokes back of the top ten. freshman calen sanderson was responsible for notre dame’s lone sub-70 round of the tournament, a 69 in the final round. both teams showed upside that could shine in the postseason. but there is still more golf to be played before then. The men continue their regular season at the augusta haskins award invitational on april 1-2. meanwhile, the women are back in action april 2-4 in the chattanooga classic, their final regular season event.

Contact Andrew McGuinness at amcguinn@nd.edu

fencers. Teams accumulate one point for each victory obtained during the round-robin portion of tournament.

irish fencing has amassed more team championships than any other program on campus. This season, the i rish have the opportunity to land its 13th national title. h ead coach g ia Kvaratskhelia, who joined the program in 2014, has led notre d ame to the team crown four times in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022, among other accolades.

i n the 2022 ncaa c hampionships, held on campus at the Joyce c enter, notre d ame won its fourth title of the past five years. The i rish finished 21 points ahead of the next two challengers, h arvard and c olumbia, who each tallied 168 points. h sieh took home the i rish’s sole individual national championship in last year’s competition in the women’s epee.

The national c ollegiate men’s and Women’s fencing c hampionships semifinal and final bouts can be viewed live at 1:30 p.m. on es Pn +. o n a pril 6, the semifinals, the finals and championship highlights will air on esPnu at 2 p.m.

Contact Peter Breen at pbreen2@nd.edu