Incoming student body president Jerry Vielhauer and vice president Sonia Lumley are gearing up to begin their term on April 1, pledging to focus their administration on transparency, student advocacy and community belonging. After weeks of transition meetings, the two expressed their eagerness to begin serving the undergraduate population.
“We honestly want to listen to the student body at all times,” Lumley said. “We just want to make sure that students understand that we are hearing, we are listening and we’re trying to be as personable as possible.”
Vielhauer, a sophomore political science major with minors in business economics, constitutional studies and theology, currently
Student body president-elect Jerry Vielhauer and vice president-elect Sonia Lumley discussed goals for their administration. The pair will assume office on April 1 after weeks of transition meetings.
serves as vice president for the Class of 2027. Lumley, a junior political science major with a minor in the Hesburgh Program for Public
Service, brings leadership experience through cultural clubs and national political internships, including one with Vice President Kamala
Harris.
The pair connected through mutual friends in student government, with the match ultimately coming
Conference addresses rise in religious nationalism
By Isabel Torres Staff Writer
Last week, the Institute for Social Concerns hosted their biannual Catholic Social Tradition Conference. The theme for this year’s conference was Interdisciplinary Responses to Religious Nationalism.
The conference had six keynote lectures, all of which centered around religious nationalism. Specific topics included the context of political perspectives, religious affiliations, Christian nationalism and European religious nationalism. The conference attracted national and international academic scholars whose research examines the various injustices that are promoted and upheld within societies around the world.
Ryan Juskus, assistant professor of practice at the Institute for Social Concerns and faculty director of NDBridge, expressed the significance of the event, titled Signs of the Times: Interdisciplinary Responses to Religious Nationalism.
through a recommendation from Blayne Schwarz, the newly elected Walsh Hall president. After a series of conversations and meetings, Vielhauer and Lumley decided to run together.
“We seemed like we had a lot of the same goals and missions for the University,” Vielhauer said.
Lumley and Vielhauer emphasized several key issues they hope to tackle in office: campus drainage, expanded mental health services and improvements to dining.
“One of the big things that we’ve heard every student talk about are the drainage issues on campus,” Vielhauer said. “Mental health resources and the UCC are a big priority. And then the dining hall, that’s something that affects every student.”
To address dining
Vielhauer and Lumley prepare new agenda ND WBB advances to Sweet 16
By BEN HICKS Associate Sports Editor
Notre Dame women’s basketball continued their NCAA Tournament run on Sunday afternoon by hosting Michigan for the right to move to the Sweet 16. Although a classic football rivalry, the women’s basketball
programs have met only 21 times, with the most recent being a 76-66 Michigan victory in South Bend back on Dec. 3, 2020. The No. 3 seeded Irish responded to their late-season slide with a resounding 106-54 win over No. 14 Stephen
Acceptance rate drops to 9%
Observer Staff Report
In the first keynote panel on Thursday, Gary Adler, an associate professor of Sociology at
“This topic was so important to the Institute that it was actually selected two years ago, after the last Catholic Social Tradition Conference,” said Juskus.
Notre Dame wrapped up admissions for the class of 2029 Thursday evening with the release for regular decision applicants. The University announced Friday these decisions came with a decrease in acceptance rate of over two percentage
points, dropping to 9% from last year’s 11.1% for the class of 2028.
The Enrollment Division shared in a press release that Notre Dame saw 35,401 restricted early action and regular decision applicants. Last year, the University saw see ACCEPTANCE PAGE 3
ANNELISE DEMERS | The Observer
ISABEL TORRES | The Observer
Associate professor Janna Hunter-Bowman of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, spoke on Christian nationalism on Friday.
Sophomore guard, Hannah Hidalgo, handles the basketball during Notre Dame’s 76-55 defeat of Michigan in the NCAA Tournament Second Round at Purcell Pavilion on March 23, 2025. At the game, Hidalgo scored a game-high 21 points against Wolverines.
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Saint Mary’s hosts ninth annual student health fair
By BERHAN HAGEZOM Saint Mary’s News Editor
On Friday, from noon to 3 p.m., Saint Mary’s Wellness Committee hosted the “2025 Student Health Fair” at the Angela Athletic and Wellness Complex’s fieldhouse. Students were able to take part in a travel-themed fair where students were able to learn about health resources, clubs and organizations, along with chances to win a variety of giveaways and prizes.
Madeline Maher, a registered nurse at the Health and Counseling Center, described the purpose of the health fair as helping students being able to be more aware of the different health services provided around campus. This includes learning about the ‘five pillars’ of wellness and how facilities on campus assist in a student’s well-being. She also discussed the purpose of the travel-themed design of the fair.
“Our wellness committee focuses on five pillars of wellness, so mental, physical, emotional, financial and spiritual health. The health fair is just a way for us to find different places on-campus and off campus that support those different pillars of wellness, so that students are made aware
that they exist,” Maher said. “We like to have a fun theme every year just to get people more engaged … This year the theme was travel, because it’s happening after spring break.”
The health fair has been held at Saint Mary’s since 2016, where students have the opportunity to hear medical and health presentations from peers and community members. At the fieldhouse, table booths were hosted by different organizations pertaining to health, including ‘Smoke Free St. Joe’ along with clubs such as ‘Yoga Belles.’
“We are doing some separate presentations about things like credit card scores, financial health, when you want to study abroad and Green Dot training,” Maher said. “We have information ranging anywhere from the Wellness Society, which is a new club on campus, to the overuse of antibiotics that the nurses are presenting on.”
As another perk, the first 300 students arriving to the travel-themed fair received a travel kit along with a personalized SMC luggage tag. They were also able to receive a unique passport where they could get stamps from each table booth they visited, with them receiving one ticket for each stamp.
Prizes included tickets for one night at The Inn at Saint Mary’s, 1st Source Bank prizes, hiking materials, Chicago musical tickets, car safety and road trip kits, album covers, a beach package and luggage. At the back of the fieldhouse, a walking taco station from ‘Sugar Rush’ and mocktails provided refreshments.
Attendees from the event mentioned how it was interesting to see the different services provided on campus. Despite coming in with no expectations for the
event, they liked how easily it was to pick up more information about the campus.
“I thought it might be kind of fun to check out and see what … everyone has here. I think it’s really fun … It’s also a good way to get information on what’s happening on campus and how you’re supported,” freshman Abi Fletcher said.
Some students would also like to see future additions to the fair that will strengthen its message to prioritize taking care of one’s health. The event was able to provide information on how students can be involved with such organizations that support it as well.
“I think it was great. I would love to see Morgan’s
Acceptance
29,943 applications, a 18.2% increase year over year.
The press release characterized applicants as “distinguished not only by their academic preparation and excellence but also by their leadership, enthusiasm for the University’s distinct Catholic character, and a commitment to service.”
In December, the University announced that they had admitted 1,669 out of 12,917 restrictive early action applicants, a 12.9% acceptance rate.
The University acceptance rate has dropped roughly 15% in the last decade and 26% since the beginning of the 21st century.
As they noted in December, this application cycle is the first since University president Fr. Robert Dowd announced the expansion of need-blind admissions to international students through his Pathways to Notre Dame initiative. “The program
Message a part of it, or other student involvement clubs,” sophomore Clarisse Lorin said.
Organizers hoped that the fair allowed students to expand their knowledge about available health services and ways that the College can assist them. They hope students become familiar with the faculty who serve as health education resources and provide supplementary programming.
“We are here to support them, and there are a lot of avenues by which we can do that. We want them to know that we are all here with a common goal for them,” Maher said.
Contact Berhan Hagezom at bhagezom01@saintmarys.edu
expands opportunities for talented students from all backgrounds to join the Notre Dame community, ensuring that financial circumstances do not hinder access to a world-class education,” the statement read.
The University noted in December that restrictive early action applicants originated from 149 countries, but further demographic information about admitted students was not immediately available. The Enrollment Division wrote that more details about the class of 2029 will be available in August.
The University has invited admitted students to campus April 3-5 for The Rally admitted-student days, a change from the traditional two versions of The Rally (an early one for REA and later one for RD applicants). Accepted students must confirm their enrollment by May 1.
Additional enrollment and admissions information about the Class of 2029 will be distributed in late August 2025.
BERHAN HAGEZOM | The Observer
Students were seen at the fieldhouse around table booths for the 2025 Student Health Fair. A wide variety of health-educational organizations were available for the students to interact with throughout the event.
Vielhauer
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
concerns, the duo plans to introduce a new Department of Campus Nutrition. This department would be responsible for advocating for changes like increased Flex Points, expanded meal plan options, more late-night dining and greater accessibility for students with dietary restrictions.
“As someone who’s gluten free and lactose intolerant, I know how hard it can be to find food options,” Lumley said. “Sometimes I’m forced to eat gluten, which is not good for my body. So, expanding those options is something we will prioritize.”
Vielhauer added that campus health and wellness will remain a priority through this new department, which he described as a more focused approach than
Conference
Penn State University, shared insight into his research on hyperlevel government relationships and religious affiliation. According to Adler, the connection is virtually nonexistent.
He explored the notion of government officials at the local level being highly uninvolved in religious conversations, in part because of the unrelated aspect of their job and because they do not believe they have enough of an impact to run on a platform associated with religion.
“Hyperlevel government officials, like mayors, stay out of religious discussions, largely because it is not part of their job description and is ultimately not relevant,” said Adler.
When asked specifically why this occurs, Adler implied that religion at this level is simply inconvenient, even if officials have their own religious views.
“Hyperlevel government officials do not feel like they have enough political power to exercise any sort of religious stance,” said Adler.
The third keynote on Friday explored the concept of ideology and Christian nationalism. Speaker Janna Hunter-Bowman, associate professor of Peace Studies and Christian Social Ethics and director of Peace Studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, expressed the concern for conformity between religious affiliation and imposing ideology on the government, specifically pertaining to Christians.
She claimed that Christian individuals have begun investing their entire morals into political parties that are actively against the moral
the existing health and wellness structure.
Their administration plans to reinstate a department on student-athlete relationships which had previously been cut. Vielhauer said the goal is to bridge the gap between student-athletes and the broader campus community.
“There’s a divide between athletes and students in general and that’s something we want to bridge,” he said. “We want every student group represented and to feel part of campus.”
As student leaders, Lumley and Vielhauer also hope to elevate underrepresented voices across Notre Dame through departments like Title IX and the Women’s Initiative, LGBTQ+ advocacy and racial, ethnic and international inclusion.
“We’re doing increased programming across the board,” Lumley said. “We want every student to feel
teachings of Jesus. According to Hunter-Bowman, individuals do this in order to remain consistent in their voting participation.
“This is an occasion in which it’s useful to distinguish the ideology of the state from the state’s claim to power as above, so that we have grounds on which to protest the brazen dismantling of federal agencies, corrupt money in politics and the executive branch over running the other branches of government,” said Hunter-Bowman.
She went on to say that the deep association between religious claims to political power, which are largely dominated by Christian political agencies, have a direct correlation with negative repercussions on minorities. She urges Christians in highly political spheres to proceed with
elevated and included culturally and socially.”
Lumley, who is Black and a first-generation, low-income (FGLI) student, is particularly passionate about supporting these communities.
“I’m really excited to continue the Golden Generation dinners and connect with groups like AnBryce, Balfour and TLP,” she said. “I was actually just nominated for the Trailblazer Award for the next dinner. It’s a huge honor.”
The administration is also looking forward to continuing events such as the Black Excellence Dinner and PrideFest, while expanding visibility and resources for all identity-based communities on campus.
Lumley and Vielhauer acknowledged that initial proposals to restructure student government departments faced student pushback.
caution in order to protect minorities.
“It means not erasing moral minorities from the narrative, but supporting the existence of moral minorities to contribute to collective political imaginations,” said Hunter-Bowman.
She expressed that faith should not be a mode to dominate minorities within societies, but instead offer a sense of collective support through a common identification of being a minority group, therefore upholding community through commonality.
“A profound pluralism, in which multiple ways of life negotiate and cooperate with one another, because each party understands itself as a minority amidst minorities,” said Hunter-Bowman.
Continually, she proposed that there is a feasible way
In response, they met with members of various student communities and adjusted their plans based on that feedback.
“There was a lot of miscommunication at first,” Vielhauer said. “We came in wanting to empower people and make change and once we talked to more people, we revised our original vision. We feel confident in the changes we’ve made.”
To maintain transparency, the administration plans to rely on regular surveys, public communications and consistent updates via email and Instagram.
“We want to send out an unprecedented number of forms and feedback opportunities,” Vielhauer said. “We want to know how your laundry system is working, how your dining experience is going so we can take that data and show the administration what students need.”
to incorporate not only tolerance, but an active stride towards an increasingly equitable multi-religious society.
“I would argue four ways of peace, theology, non-resistance, transformation, reckoning and responsibility,” said Hunter-Bowman.
Through this, HunterBowman stated that the implication of the “four ways” are not enough and highlighted the negative actions of religious groups that promote violence. She expressed that this violence advocacy is a moral inconsistency with the legitimate religious teachings of said groups.
“Initiative responses to violence born from God’s refusal to conform to violence are contradictory,” said Hunter-Bowman.
The Institute for Social Concerns aspires to utilize
As they prepare to take office, Lumley and Vielhauer hope to leave a legacy of inclusivity, compassion and action.
“I want to encourage belonging,” Lumley said. “Every student should be able to feel like they belong on Notre Dame’s campus, no matter who they are.”
Vielhauer echoed her sentiments.
“I think it’s less about leaving a legacy and being remembered personally and more about having those changes that we implement be seen as positive things whether it’s associated with us or not,” he said.
The Vielhauer-Lumley administration officially begins April 1, with the first Senate meeting under their leadership scheduled for April 2.
Contact Annelise Demers at ademers@nd.edu
their biannual Catholic Social Tradition Conference as a promotional tool for religious-based equity in an increasingly polarizing political climate. Therefore, speakers were urged to remind attendees that there is an ultimate responsibility to promote religious diversity as a means for overarching social enhancement.
“To see the power of small movements of dissidents, refusing imperial, nationalistic framing of in group, out group opposition that does not absorb others and that is not absorbed by others, perhaps it helps us to think about the possibilities of creating new alliances and agonisms, to confront authoritarianisms,” said Hunter-Bowman.
Contact Isabel Torres at itorres@nd.edu
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Likes over tikes: family vloggers
“We never chose to be internet celebrities. But that made no difference — soon, our lives now revolved around nonstop content creation — whether we liked it or not,” Shari Franke writes in her January 2025 debut novel, “The House of My Mother.” In it, she details the excruciating mental and physical abuse that she and her siblings endured at the hands of her mother, Ruby Franke, who documented practically every moment of their lives for tens of millions of viewers on YouTube.
Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, are now currently serving up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to child abuse charges. Such indictments arose due to Ruby’s 12-year-old son climbing out of a window to a neighbor’s house to seek help, malnourished with lacerations and duct tape on his ankles and wrists.
According to Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke, Franke and Hildebrandt’s crimes were impelled by their Mormon faith. While this may be an instance of religious extremism, given that the abuse was viewed as a form of repentance, this case calls to attention the unsung crisis of child exploitation in the form of family vlogging. Her case caused an uproar, calling into question how safe these internet kids really are.
Family vlogging is seemingly innocuous and profitable. After all, what could possibly be the harm in documenting your child’s life stages for an audience of tens of millions of strangers? There are certainly benefits to exploiting your children online. According to a 2019 Pew Research Center study, videos featuring a young child, on average, have three times the views as ones that do not.
But why is this? It is no secret that YouTube has become a cesspool for pedophiles to roam freely. According to a New
York Times article, YouTube’s algorithm recommended seemingly harmless family content to users who had previously consumed prepubescent “sexually themed content.” Viewers utilized YouTube’s open, unfiltered comment section to lead other predators to these videos. YouTube’s solution? Keep the algorithm the same, but turn off the comments. Children are still being put at risk by two puppeteers: their parents and the algorithm that supports their content.
An added benefit to content creation is the unlimited tax loopholes. After all, when you can monetize your entire life, anything becomes a tax write-off: your living expenses can become business expenses so long as they’re being recorded. With the addition of brand PR and gifts, all expenses paid trips and significant tax breaks, it is evident that family vlogging is advantageous and highly lucrative.
I have a hard time believing that parents are not cognizant of the predators that hide in plain sight on the internet. After all, creators have access to their analytics and channel demographics on their videos. Hence, they can see exactly who is viewing their content and cater to it accordingly — all at the expense of their children.
It absolutely does not help that parasocial relationships are formed as a result of this practice. The overwhelming love and support (which can come in the form of views, likes, comments, etc.) from fans and public recognition garners even more potentially unwanted attention for the children and enables parents to continue exploiting their kids, who then become trapped in a creatively vicious cycle of abuse.
Family vlogging is inherently unethical and morally wrong because it involves parents profiting off of creating a digital footprint that their child cannot consent to, which begs the question: what does consent even look like in regard to parent-child relationships? Why are children being thrust in front of a camera before they can quite literally speak for themselves or even verbalize the word “no?”
To make matters worse, it is widely speculated on TikTok
that family vloggers are moving to Tennessee from California amid California’s new child labor laws. In September, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 764, which requires parents who feature their children in 30% or more of their content to put a proportionate amount of their earnings in a trust fund for their child to access when they turn 18. California became just the third state to do this, following Illinois and Minnesota. Notable families, like the LaBrants (Cole, Savannah and their five children), have moved because they feel “called by God” to Tennessee and that it “aligns more with their conservative values.” While this is all speculative, the timing of the moves amid the passing of child protective legislation is a bit suspicious.
Imagine the most vulnerable stages of your life being documented under the spotlight of tens of millions of strangers. Periods, breakups, braces, you name it. What are the lasting psychological implications of being exploited in the public eye by your parents for that long? How will their relationships with themselves, parents and perceptions of privacy be affected as a result of being recorded during their formative years? How much more abuse under the guise of “religion” are these children being subjected to? Are these kids doomed to end up like the sob stories of our favorite child actors? While this is still uncertain, it is definitely something that needs to be researched further for the sake of these kids’ wellbeing. We must do more to protect these children from being exploited by the one force whose job it is to keep them safe.
Zora Rodgers is a junior studying film, television, and theatre. She’s from Falls Church, Virginia and has the pajama pants to prove it. When not watching the TODAY Show or writing, she can be found wearing too much perfume and spending her NBC paychecks on SKIMS. You can reach out to her at zrodgers@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
The horror of Christopher Grady
endorsement of his record and the legacy his leadership left in the Middle East, not a repudiation of it.
stalled, military aid to Israel continued uninterrupted. What homeless has he sheltered?
This past week, the University of Notre Dame announced that Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Notre Dame alumnus, will deliver the 2025 commencement address. In choosing Grady, the University is endorsing the power structures he represents over its commitment to Catholic values.
Grady built his career within the military-industrial complex, an institution that inherently lacks public accounting and has repeated histories of violating international and human rights law. His selection reflects a broader moral failure: Notre Dame is celebrating a figure whose legacy is defined by war and destruction, rather than peace and justice.
Grady has been a key architect of U.S. military operations that contradict Catholic values, devastating civilian populations and undermining Middle Eastern sovereignty. To be clear, my criticism is not of the brave men and women — some from my own neighborhood — who sacrificed their lives after 9/11. It is aimed at the architects of that war, like Grady, whose documented disregard for human life is undeniable.
As sea combat commander for the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group during the war on terror, Grady played a leading role in Operation Enduring Freedom. Under his leadership, Carrier Air Wing One (CVW-1) aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) executed relentless bombing campaigns in Afghanistan. Between October and December 2001 alone, CVW-1 flew 7,086 sorties and dropped 800 tons of ordnance — flattening villages, displacing families and killing untold numbers of civilians under the guise of counterterrorism.
Some might hope — without evidence — that Grady was an internal voice of restraint, pushing for a more measured approach as a Notre Dame alum. But that claim is both unverifiable and illogical. If he had meaningfully opposed these indiscriminate bombings, he would not have continued to ascend the ranks of military leadership. Instead, in 2021, he was appointed vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — an
Through JROC, Grady has supported joint U.S.-Israel defense programs like the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow-3, which provide Israel with an unparalleled technological advantage over the stateless, besieged Palestinian population. Since October 2023, the U.S. has delivered thousands of bombs and munitions to Israel, fueling an airstrike campaign that has leveled entire neighborhoods, targeted hospitals and massacred tens of thousands. Grady ensures that this flow of arms remains uninterrupted, keeping Israel’s military well-stocked regardless of mounting war crimes accusations and international human rights concerns. If the White House were to scale back or halt weapons transfers due to global outrage, Grady would be central to assessing the “risks” of limiting military support to Israel.
As the Biden administration faced mounting calls to restrict military aid to Israel — amid harrowing images of devastation circulating online, including a father holding the lifeless, headless body of his child — Grady played a key role in ensuring that support remained uninterrupted. His influence reinforced a status quo in which Palestinian lives are treated as expendable in service of U.S. strategic interests.
This is the man Notre Dame has chosen to honor. What does that say about the University’s so-called Catholic values? Catholicism has always been a faith of peace — rejecting the violence of Roman authorities, Nazi Germany and today, the Israeli Defense Forces. Catholic leaders have long stood against war, and Dorothy Day, a pillar of the Catholic anti-war movement, reminds us: “The works of mercy are the opposite of the works of war — feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, nursing the sick, visiting the prisoner.”
By celebrating Grady, Notre Dame signals its willingness to forsake these fundamental tenets in favor of power and militarism. Where in Adm. Grady’s record are the works of mercy?
What hungry has he fed?
None. Instead, he played a central role in the failed Gaza pier project — an empty gesture of humanitarian aid that did nothing to challenge Israel’s blockade. While food shipments
None. Under his oversight, the weapons supplied to Israel have reduced 80% of Gaza’s infrastructure to rubble, displacing nearly 2 million people by December 2024.
What sick has he nursed?
None. Israel’s assault, enabled by U.S. military support, has left 31 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals destroyed or inoperable, depriving the wounded of even basic medical care.
And what prisoner has he visited?
None. As U.S.-backed airstrikes continue, more than 300 Palestinian children remain in Israeli custody, many held without formal charges or due process.
Yet, here we are — called to be Catholic forces for good, yet presented with a model of leadership that secures violence rather than peace and power rather than justice. Notre Dame could have chosen to uplift voices of resilience; those who have suffered under the weight of war yet still call for mercy. In the past, we have welcomed leaders like a Ukrainian Bishop who embody the struggle for dignity and self-determination. Instead, we honor a man who has helped sustain war, displacement and destruction.
A Catholic education should not ask us to accept power for power’s sake. It should challenge us to lead with compassion, stand against the machinery of war and build a world where peace is not an afterthought but a calling. If Notre Dame is to be true to its mission, it must ask itself: are we preparing students to perpetuate the status quo or to transform it into something closer to Christ’s will — into something that favors more prayers and less war?
Editor’s note: this is an abbreviated version of the column. The full version can be found online.
Connor Marrott is a senior from Cleveland. His writing has appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Cincinnati Enquirer. He serves on the board of SolidarityND and is always eager to discuss any and all ideas. You can contact Connor at cmarrott@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Connor Marrott Lefty with a Laugh
Zora Rodgers The Quiet Part Out Loud
A word on reading
When I started doing really well in my classes during my first semester of high school, I thought to myself, “Hey, it looks like I’m kind of smart. What do smart people do? They read. Maybe I should read more...” I read as a kid, but I wasn’t, you know, a reader.
I remember one of my high school teachers telling me that the best way to prepare for the ACT was to “read every day.” So I started reading more — not for pleasure but for self-improvement.
One of the first books I embarked on (yes, back then starting a book really did feel like embarking on an arduous journey) was Cal Newport’s “Deep Work,” which hammered into me the power of long periods of totally undistracted work and the danger of taking breaks to check my phone or email. From then on, I tried to read in long chunks.
I had three major struggles as a beginning reader. First, I often thought more about how I was reading or that I was reading than what I was reading. Second, I was a pagecounter — I cared more about how many pages I had read than how much I was learning. Third, I craved YouTube videos or Podcasts or movies or audiobooks instead. I still struggle with all three of these, but much less.
I was (and still am) convinced that I learn more naturally by listening and watching than by reading. Who would deny that watching a movie is easier than reading a novel? But, as I now recognize, reading a five-hundred-page novel is usually much more profound than watching a two-hour movie, and reading an argument is usually much faster and clearer than listening to a debate. So although reading is not the easiest or most natural way of absorbing information — check out the NPR interview with Maryanne
Wolf, an expert on the science of reading — it is extremely powerful. I think we often assume that reading is reading and once we get to high school we can read proficiently and that is that; or we mistake reading speed for reading expertise. What counts, though, is not speed but digestion of ideas. I digress.
I read Plato’s “Republic” and Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” and Camus’ “Myth of Sisyphus.” That is how I became interested in philosophy — it seemed to me that the fundamental books — the books that would teach me the most — were philosophy books. I have since realized that philosophy (especially our somewhat distorted modern version of it) overthinks some things and underthinks others when it does not have the support of faith. My reading, almost by itself, shifted to theology. I read a lot of C.S. Lewis and Chesterton, and eventually Aquinas’ “Summa” and now Augustine’s “City of God.”
When I came to Notre Dame, I met people who had read widely but more randomly and for pleasure. I realized that my way of reading ‘fundamental books’ (to borrow a phrase from Walker Percy’s protagonist Binx Bolling) is not the only way nor the best way of reading. It is a shame to never read books — it is also a shame to only read the classics to accumulate a library of knowledge. I started to read more fiction and more books just because. I must confess, though, that I do still have a bent toward the classics.
Our beloved Hesburgh Library has also had a big impact on my reading. I used to have to buy books — now I can find any book I want at the library. I have discovered and refined my interests by browsing the stacks at Hesburgh, which is sometimes meditative and other times overwhelming; there is so much to read and so little time!
The real reason I ditched my iPhone (see my previous article, “A year with dumb phones”) was to become a better reader. I wanted reading to become less of a chore
and more of something I did because I really wanted to, because there was nothing better to do (e.g., go on my phone). I wanted to want to read.
At the end of last summer, I felt that I might be idolizing books too much. I decided to take a break from reading any non-assigned books for a while. That did not last very long.
I am now, after more than six years, quite content with my reading habits and abilities. I still feel, though, that I have read almost nothing compared to what I want to read. I am most happy with the love of reading I have cultivated. I do believe that we can learn to love things — that we can train our desires — and that is what I have done with books.
To conclude, here is the beginning and the end of a poem I wrote about books:
In a good book is a treasure,
In a letter a letter
From eternity.
A word is a cute bow tied tightly ‘Round a gift of mind.
How God’s gems, Mined and refined by His graced servants, Rejoice when a simple student
Meets, owns, leaves and wishes,
And like a tot with a new toy and a bud, Spreads the sparkle of the Word, Strewing the markets of mind with riches of the King?
Richard Taylor is a junior from St. Louis living in Keenan Hall. He studies physics and theology. He encourages all readers to send reactions, reflections or refutations to rtaylo23@nd.edu
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
An invitation to the Video Game Olympics
If there was one thing that I would change from my early college experience would, by far, be my willingness to attend extraordinary events.
Notre Dame, in all its foretold glory, has infinite possibilities where one can grow as a student, an academic, a professional or even as a human. As great as all these opportunities are, I would always find a certain dullness to their alleged vanguardist edge. They lacked some essential vitality, something lost in the corporate atmosphere emerging from their organization. Good intentions aplenty, there remained an unnatural tension. Many proved to be too staged, too rehearsed — somewhat forced.
That was until I discovered certain club events.
When people are not unnaturally constrained by given expectations; when their passions and genuine attitudes take hold, something changes. When tradition need not smother creativity and when external pressures cease to be, something new is born. When people allow themselves to be, at last, people, the lacking livelihood turns unrestrained.
Therefore, I have one single proposal, both for you and my past self alike.
This Sunday, March 30, from 2 to 8 p.m., make your way to Dahnke Ballroom in Duncan Student Center to take part in THE VIDEO GAME OLYMPICS 2025.
Open to the tri-campus community, The Video Game Olympics will be a one of a kind tournament that will bring together three person teams for a double elimination showdown across a gauntlet of games. That is, to truly discover the greatest of all, the tournament has one key characteristic: different round, different game. Pushing teams to adapt, strategize and display their versatility, every match will feature a new video game in which to duel — each belonging to a distinct genre spanning across varying consoles: a faithful celebration of the artform of gaming.
The tournament will open with a surprise secret game, from which the team placements will be created. Afterwards, players will be prepared for the headliner: Minecraft! In one of the most recognizable and popular games of all time, players shall fight tooth-and-nail on the game’s beloved and chaotic Bed Wars game mode.
Those that survive will then switch gears into the speedrunning genre in the high stakes Chained Together, a cooperative platformer where they must climb as high as possible without falling within a given timeframe. The third game will bring another change of pace, the strategic autobattler Super Auto Pets, testing the intellect of the team members. After which point, the semifinals will be a head-to-head battle in the year’s biggest fast-paced team shooter, Marvel Rivals. For the ultimate finale, the last standing teams will duel in the fighting icon Super Smash Bros. A unique tournament for the ages, a neverbefore attempted event, open for all to witness.
A grandiose tournament must, rightly, offer grandiose prizes. The lengths at which players will exert themselves shall be rewarded with something better than an ND beanie or a $10 Starbucks gift card. The prize pool has real prizes, amongst which lay the newest generation of AirPods, TVs, gaming consoles, computer accessories, blankets (somehow due to popular demand), an air fryer and more!
Importantly, these prizes are not just restricted to participants, but to any and all spectators that attend through giveaways and side-events. Even better, players and spectators alike can indulge in the complimentary Cane’s available throughout the duration of the event.
The most ambitious event ever attempted by The Video Game Club of Notre Dame, a bold reimagining of what interactive club events can truly be, ought to be a celebration of the entire community.
Therefore, the club has partnered with a host of organizations to provide activities as the tournament rages on. Emblematic special interest clubs — the Board Game Club and Role Playing Games Club — will welcome spectators and contestants to tabletop and storytelling experiences.
Emerging 2025 clubs such as the Computer Club and Animation Club will be present to share their work and introduce themselves to the community. Branches of The Video Game Club, the Video Game Development Club and E-Sports Club, will give unique opportunities to attendees to discover the creative and competitive sides of gaming. To top it all off, The Warehouse, a local business, will be on site to present their comics, cards and games, bringing the broader gaming culture to campus.
The event is completely free of cost and applications are open, with limited space swiftly being exhausted. You may sign up as a full team, or as either a duo or an individual to later be assigned into a full team. No prior experience in any of the games is required nor expected, though if you would like to test them prior to the event, stop by the Gaming Lab in ITC 121 in the evenings this week! Reach out to me with any questions.
If you are interested in becoming part of history, if you are prepared to exit the monotony and dullness and live up to the dreams of university life or if you’re simply looking for a fun, crazy time, REGISTER NOW!
If not convinced in your gaming prowess, by all means, you should come by and witness those of others, participate in some giveaways, play some games, eat some free Cane’s, and make your University life what you once thought it would be. Open to all, even to faculty and beyond — I repeat — that shall be this Sunday March 30, from 2 to 8 p.m. in the Dahnke Ballroom in Duncan Student Center.
Make a favor to your future self, be part of The Video Game Olympics 2025.
Carlos A. Basurto is a junior at Notre Dame studying philosophy, computer science and German. He’s president of the video game club and will convince you to join, regardless of your degree of interest. Now, with the power to channel his least insane ideas, feel free to talk about them further at cbasurto@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Richard Taylor
Just Glad To Be Here
Carlos Basurto
Eudaemonic Banter
An ode to The Observer’s SDH basement office
When I first tried to attend a meeting of The Observer — ostensibly as a member of a Student International Business Council (SIBC) “campus consulting” team trying to come up with strategies to increase the student newspaper’s readership or something to that effect — it was important I knew where The Observer office was.
During my sophomore year, I transferred to a dorm on the south side of campus, a move I had no idea would affect my career ambitions so much. Now in Baumer Hall, I began regularly eating at South Dining Hall and occasionally using its restroom. Weirdly enough, during my time under the Dome, an undergraduate would only really have two reasons for going into the basement of South Dining Hall: using the restroom before or after a meal and going to The Observer office.
As a member of a SIBC campus consulting team trying to help out the paper, for once in my life, I decided to take a little initiative. I thought that if I was truly going to help out this newspaper, I better attend one of its meetings and figure out how it worked. I was not content to do research on media companies in Hesburgh Library and then present my findings at the team’s weekly meeting in DeBartolo Hall, like the rest of the students on the team. (No disrespect to my former teammates, they are probably happily employed and have stable lives, while I’m an unemployed journalist.) I was going to dig around in the weeds.
The first thing I did to try to figure out how the newspaper actually worked was call a phone number on The Observer’s website and ask when the paper had meetings. No one picked up the phone and I left a message. I have yet to receive a call back.
The next thing I did was nervously approach the door of The Observer office when I was at South Dining Hall for a meal. I reached out and grabbed the door handle for a second, just long enough to learn that the door was locked. I didn’t knock.
I scurried out of the basement hoping no one had seen me actually trying to get involved with a productive campus group.
When my first two attempts to get in contact with the paper failed, I was devastated. But I also became obsessed, a modern day Captain Ahab, if you will — obsessed with getting to the bottom of how this newspaper worked. I saw copies of The Observer three times a week on that table on the first floor of O’Shaughnessy Hall by the advising deans’ office. I saw The Observer office every time I went to the restroom at South Dining Hall. I became convinced that print journalism was somehow still alive and thriving at Notre Dame.
I knew that if I didn’t do more to try to connect with some of the paper’s staffers, I would feel a tinge of regret every time I used the restroom at South Dining Hall for the rest of my college career — and possibly every time I came back to campus as an alumnus.
So I sent a message to an email address on the newspaper’s website, and the Notre Dame news editor at the time promptly got back to me. He told me when the Notre Dame news department met, and I attended the next meeting.
When I first crossed the threshold of The Observer office, I was a consultant with a business club on campus. When I crossed the threshold again to go out into the world, I was a journalist with a story assignment, and I have never been the same since.
With the exception of maybe the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, when I was a student, I came to regard The Observer office in the basement of South Dining Hall as the most sacred spot on campus.
It had no windows. Some said it smelled. But it had character.
It had yellow newspapers pinned to the wall projecting an aura of coolness possessed by Notre Dame athletes which bespoke an era when I was first learning how to hold a pen,
likely the early aughts. Glossy photos from years gone by of Observer staffers — people that looked like the dearest of friends — so too were scattered about.
A generation of reporters and editors and photographers had pinned or tapped up the crowning achievements of their time on campus all over the walls, transforming the office into one great bulletin board: the definitive ranking of Taylor Swift albums, that one time an Observer reporter snuck into a photo that made it on the front page of The Observer, a slip of paper making that feeling of triumph after successfully designing one section of the one edition after spending half of college like a tumbleweed.
In one forgotten closet, I found a massive stack of the Observer edition of former University President Fr. Theodore Hesburgh when he died in 2015. In one forgotten drawer, I found a piece of paper from 2005 that outlined how the Fr. Hesburgh obituary edition would look.
The Observer office was also sacred to me for what wasn’t recorded on some wall or in some drawer: the friendship I forged in the space, the hours I spent inside way past midnight happily nitpicking headlines with the loveliest minds at Notre Dame, the hard lessons I learned in that basement abode and so much more that I struggle to put into words.
I recently heard from former Observer colleagues that the newspaper might be moving out of its office in South Dining Hall. If The Observer does move, I hope it’s to somewhere that’s very visible to the entire student population. I knew I could learn more about The Observer because I saw it when I went to the dining hall. After I learned more about The Observer, my life has never been the same since.
March 23
“Dear Liam, thank you for your interest in Teach For America and for the time and effort you invested in interviewing with us. After careful consideration, I am sorry to inform you that we will not be extending you an offer to join the corps,” the Teach For America email read. That was not the end of the email — there was some B.S. about other opportunities “BEFORE YOU GO,” but I had all I could take. To my surprise, it was just another rejection email.
I quickly gathered my belongings from my desk in the first floor reading room of the British Library (my chances of returning to my studies that night had gone out the window), hurried to the bathroom in the building’s basement and let the tears flow hard.
I was devastated. I exited the building on the phone with my mom.
My mom told me the customary “everything happens for a reason” cliché, which failed to calm me down. I can provide no such takeaway for my reader here.
Teach For America had captured my attention at the Dahnke Ballroom job fair in January, and I
quickly started to dream about life as an English teacher in Philadelphia, sharing the love for reading that I’ve been able to nurture at Notre Dame with my students. I was definitely drinking the AmeriCorps Kool-Aid, but I dreamed of inviting Zadie Smith to Zoom into my classroom or of introducing students to Joe Mitchell, James Baldwin and Malcolm X.
Was I more prepared than the person they chose over me? I genuinely thought so. I think they messed up and missed out — I’m passionate about this stuff!
But was I actually prepared to enter an inner city school and, as Teach For America proclaims, “build a more just world”? Was I about to use my passion for reading to reveal the liberating power of reading to my students?
Ten days of reflection later, I think that may have been a fantasy. I have no interest in bashing Teach For America in this column, but being rejected has allowed me the space to reflect on the realities of the program.
However, many of my classmates here at Notre Dame have sought out the fantasy (of which I seem to be the only one to have been rejected) in the quixotic pursuit of a decent and dignified job which none of us really deserve.
This fantasy, by the way, still sounds pretty appealing
to me. So, if any readers know of any English teacher openings in the Greater Philadelphia area or anywhere in the Northeast for a passionate, unemployed and uncertified senior graduating from Notre Dame, you can find my email below.
As I have said already, there are no uplifting takeaways to this story. And the breaking news notifications from my phone’s NYTimes app haven’t offered much hope for finding a “good” occupation or graduate school opportunities — it’s all DOGE, DOGE, DOGE!
I don’t want to sound unappreciative here — after all, an education from Notre Dame puts me in one of the world’s most enviable positions for a young person to be in. Nobody can take the experience away from us who have attended this school. Not the books we’ve read, not the friends we’ve made and not the Ginger races we’ve watched.
It is hard to complain without sounding ungrateful. I would rather laugh here in my final inside column, as I did in my first some years ago, but it is hard to laugh when you want to cry.
You can contact Liam at lprice3@nd.edu
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Peter Breen class of 2024
INSIDE COLUMN
Liam Price
Viewpoint Editor Emeritus
By PETER MIKULSKI Scene Editor
I’m bad at watching detective and spy thrillers because it only takes the protagonist getting double-crossed one or two times for me to lose the thread. I’m too embarrassed to admit how many times I had to watch “Chinatown” before I managed to get a handle on what exactly Jack Nicholson was up to, although I could appreciate Faye Dunaway’s stunning face from the get-go.
“Black Bag,” a spy film by the Academy Award–winning director Steven Soderbergh which stars Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett and the only Academy Award-nominated actor Michael Fassbender, nevertheless managed to hit the sweet spot. It was tight enough to be comprehensible but still had enough twists to avoid being trite.
It’s a very British movie. Michael Fassbender’s character, George Woodhouse, wears trim-tailored Sable Row suits and likes to fish in the countryside when not working at MI6. Cate Blanchett’s character, Kathryn Woodhouse (i.e., George’s wife and coworker), has a similar accent to the “Queen’s English” of the Dowager Countess Violet Crawley from “Downton Abbey.” Tom Burke — who plays their friend and coworker Freddie Smalls — looks like Orson Welles, the consummate American (whom he played in “Mank”), but delivers his lines
in that distinctive way all stage-trained British actors do. Pierce Brosnan, who plays their boss Arthur Stieglitz, can still harness all of the English suavité he brought to 007 in the 90s.
When someone says “spy thriller,” that often implies “international spy thriller.” When I imagine a spy, I usually picture them traipsing around tropical islands or tearing through foreign metropolises. “Black Bag” mostly sticks to its overcast and moody British setting, though — it’s a “domestic spy thriller,” if you will. It vaguely touches upon the war in Ukraine, which might end up dating it in the way passing references to the USSR date old political dramas, but the audience ends up seeing a lot more of the Woodhouses’ London residence and the MI6 office building than any overseas destination.
Still, the movie’s relatively narrow scope doesn’t mean it’s boring. In fact, “Black Bag” is pretty riveting, from its zippy opening to its sudden ending. Indeed, the film clocks in at only 94 minutes long — that means you can watch “Black Bag” two times over with half an hour to spare in the same amount of time it’d take you to watch “The Brutalist” (and you’ll probably have twice as much fun watching “Black Bag,” too). I suspect the movie’s ability to be suspenseful and surprising without being undecipherable and grating is a happy consequence of this brevity. I can tolerate a maximum of two hours of twists, but after that point, the good guys
and the bad guys have swapped identities so many times that I can’t really bring myself to care who ends up winning out.
Overall, “Black Bag” knew its limits and its strengths. Steven Soderbergh doesn’t have Cate Blanchett doing Catwoman-style gymnastics or Michael Fassbender doing “Mission Impossible” styled stunts. Rather, he frames the movie around two dinner parties thrown by the Woodhouses for their fellow spies — one of whom they suspect to be a traitor. The witty, feinting dialogue in these scenes is just as good as a choreographed action sequence.
While I was initially skeptical of “Black Bag,” partially because of my previously mentioned aversion to spy movies and partially because I am wary of Cate Blanchett in brunette roles, it quickly won me over. It’s certainly worth 94 minutes of your time — and if you’re a reader of the Irish Rover, maybe the fact that one character’s Catholic faith is plot-critical and elegantly treated will sell you on the picture.
If you want to see Cate Blanchett in blonde hair, though, the Browning Cinema at the Debartolo Performing Arts Center is screening the comedy horror film “Rumours” in which she plays an Angela Merkel-type Chancellor of Germany this weekend.
Contact Peter Mikulski at pmikulsk@nd.edu
By SHEILA-MARIE MANYARA Scene Writer
For the past decade, the highest-grossing animated films have been from Disney (and its now-subsidiary Pixar) or Illumination: major Western animation studios. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, “Ne Zha 2” — from a collection of animation studios in China — has taken this title.
In the first “Ne Zha,” we learn about the chaos pearl, a destructive and unpredictable force that threatens the order of the gods in heaven. The pearl is split in two leaving a spirit pearl (the “good” part) and a demon pearl (the “bad” part). Since the demon pearl cannot easily be destroyed, a curse is placed on it so that a bolt of lightning will appear and destroy it three years later. The spirit pearl is supposed to be given to a mortal general so that his son will carry its power, but the pearls are swapped. The spirit pearl is given to the son of the dragon king, Ao Bing, and the general’s son, Ne Zha, is born with the demon pearl’s power. Unfortunately, this means Ne Zha will die on his third birthday. Many of the first movie’s main themes center on the question of whether Ne Zha is truly evil and whether his behavior is because of the demon pearl or because everybody treats him like a demon.
The second film opens with a retelling of the first movie in an art style so beautiful that I was left speechless. When my mind could find words again, all I could think was, “OK, I get the hype.” Without giving too much away, this film takes the themes of good and evil from its predecessor an extra step further, especially with the idea of demons and immortals (“xians”). There is not much of a difference between the two except that some are seen as good and others bad.
There wasn’t a single moment in which the drama was over-manufactured for the sake of a third-act emotional climax. The stakes were really high in this film, and I got a sense of that at every moment. It got shockingly dark and graphic at times, but there were still some genuinely hilarious moments, and I never felt like I was experiencing a drastic tonal shift.
The final battle of this film could honestly rival many live action blockbusters, especially from Marvel or DC. The scale and magnitude of all the characters as they fought and the force of each impact were wonderfully executed. It also occasionally depicted each side of the final battle not as individuals but rather as a collective unit, leading to some stunning visuals.
The action alone in this film is a good enough reason to watch it. On top of it being really fluid, it never feels like
the same fight scene twice. There’s so much creativity in the moves, the effects and the camera angle. As a person who sometimes gets action fatigue when watching movies, I never felt tired or bored with the many different fight sequences in the film. Despite there being multiple fight scenes throughout the film, it manages to steadily and consistently build up the tension until the final climax. One of the ways it does this is through its outstanding soundtrack which grows in intensity as the film goes on. Similar to the previous film, at the end of “Ne Zha 2,” Ne Zha transforms into his true form (taller, hair standing up like a flame, more slender like Ao Bing and with a red mark on his forehead) which I was expecting to see again. Even then, I could not help geeking out in the cinema when we got the transformation as well as Ne Zha’s signature guitar riff playing in the soundtrack.
To me, “Ne Zha 2” felt like the blockbuster I have always wanted: amazing action, humor that lands, characters I care about plus an actually good and intriguing story with all these elements working towards a clear theme. I hope its reign as the highest-grossing animated film is long-lived.
Contact Sheila-Marie Manyara at smanyara01@saintmarys.edu
By HARRY PENNE Scene Writer
“The Breakfast Club” is one of the most iconic films of the 1980s and still resonates with audiences today. Fundamentally about acceptance and friendship, it tells the story of five high school stereotypes: “a brain, an athlete, a basket-case, a princess and a criminal” who are stuck in Saturday detention. As the day progresses, they share their stories and discover that, despite being from varying social circles, they aren’t that different after all. In 2025, “The Breakfast Club” celebrates its 40th anniversary. The film was the sophomore picture from writerdirector John Hughes, one of the most revered directors in the industry. Before directing, Hughes wrote for “National Lampoon” and penned the iconic 1983 Chevy Chase comedy, “Vacation”. Initially, he intended “The Breakfast Club” as his directorial debut, but Universal was impressed with another script he wrote, “Sixteen Candles,” and they selected it to be made first. Following the commercial success of this first film, “The Breakfast Club” proved an even bigger hit, further catapulting Hughes’ career.
The film was originally called “The Lunch Bunch,” but a friend of Hughes’ saw the title on the first drafts of the screenplay and recommended that he change the name to “The Breakfast Club,” the name for detention back at his high school. Hughes liked the idea, and the rest is history.
The film is set in the fictional Shermer High School but was filmed on location at Main North High School — which closed two years before production began — near Chicago. At the end of the movie, Hughes makes a Hitchcockian cameo outside the school, playing Brian’s (“the brain”) dad who picks him up from detention. The library, where most of the action happens, was a set created for the film inside the school’s gym, as Hughes felt the actual library was too small. The Chicago Public Library donated 10,000 books to decorate the set.
One of the best parts of “The Breakfast Club” is the soundtrack, and its opening track, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds, is instantly recognizable and still played today in 2025. The rest of the soundtrack is similarly pure 80s vibes. Hughes’ films have a distinct musical vibe that matches whatever decade he was working in while still keeping in touch with contemporary music trends. Today, his soundtracks are enduringly nostalgic. One of the best uses of music in the film is the dance scene toward the end set to “We Are Not Alone” by Karla Devito. Initially, Hughes only wanted Claire (“the princess”) to dance in the scene, but Molly Ringwald was uncomfortable about it. In solidarity, the rest of the cast joined her in the “detention dance,” now one of the most memorable parts of the movie.
Hughes held several weeks of rehearsals on the set ahead of filming, giving the young actors a stage play
environment. Following the rehearsal period, the film was shot in chronological order, a relatively unorthodox practice. Hughes wanted to give his actors a sense of freedom during filming; he encouraged improvisation and valued their input. Some of the most famous scenes in the movie were improvised. One example is the reason Brian has a fake ID: Anthony Michael Hall came up with the line “so I can vote.” Another was Allison’s (“the basketcase”) remark that “When you grow up, your heart dies.” Additionally, much of the group therapy scene toward the end of the film was improvised, giving it a real and raw feeling. When production wrapped, the film’s first cut was around 150 minutes, significantly longer than the current version available today (97 minutes). The extended director’s cut does still exist, as revealed by Ally Sheedy, but its whereabouts are unknown.
The film’s budget was around $1 million, but it grossed over $50 million at the box office, becoming both a critical and financial success. 40 years later, its popularity has not dwindled. Even people who have never seen the film are familiar with the premise, characters and some of the more famous moments. Both comedic and tragic, “The Breakfast Club” is a statement on the teen experience, and this personal resonance has indelibly cemented its place in American pop culture.
Contact Harry Penne at hpenne@nd.edu MEG
Happy
rolling, be fearless, and work toward an affordable and rewarding future. The personal gain comes with a positive attitude and desire to achieve. Your numbers are 2, 14, 21, 24, 33, 35, 49.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Leave nothing to chance. Put your energy into completing what you start and promoting your skills and ideas. High energy, desire, and making a difference will help motivate you to turn any negative experience into a positive outcome. Physical and mental improvements will help you shine in romantic situations. .
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Invest more time in yourself, learning, traveling, and exploring new possibilities. Awaken the spirit within by embarking on subjects, events, and proposals that offer purpose. Changing your lifestyle or direction will give you hope for a brighter future. A favorable exchange with someone will encourage you to implement your plans.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Use your talents, skills, and experience to help a cause or someone in need. A kind gesture will start a trend that helps build a stronger community and resources that will help you connect with people who share your intentions. Personal gain and interesting opportunities are heading in your direction.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Pay attention to how you look, feel, and handle responsibilities. Taking an interest in others and what they do will be insightful and encourage you to adjust how you deal with changes that affect your life and daily routine. Take some “me” time, and stop feeling guilty and being so hard on yourself.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Go on a learning adventure, and you’ll discover what’s possible and excellent for your mental and physical well-being. A healthy attitude and schedule will be energizing and attract positive people eager to be part of your circle. To be active is attractive and can shape an exhilarating lifestyle. Romance is favored.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A change will give you a positive perspective on life, love, and becoming more vibrant and active in your community. Reach out, see what’s happening, meet new people, and take responsibility for your happiness. Settle in with new beginnings. Social events, attending a reunion, and travel are favored.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Reach across the table and introduce yourself, make your voice heard and your presence felt. Show compassion for those in dark places, and be aware of your gratitude for your life. Refuse to let uncertainty cause you to miss out. Live in the moment and say yes to life.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): If you want something, make it happen. Fuel the fire and embark on what interests you. How you manage your life is what counts; stop looking in the rearview mirror when what’s new and exciting lies ahead. Take your wisdom and skills and contribute what you can; something good will transpire.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Change how you handle your money to ward off someone trying to take advantage of you monetarily. Question shared expenses and joint ventures, and consider the best way to handle your relationships with others. Set boundaries and establish a financial safety net to get the most out of any partnership.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Converse, socialize, get in the game of life, and see what transpires. Be aware of what others want or expect and consider whether a relationship with them offers balance and equality before you get involved. You are best to align yourself with those you share the most with mentally, emotionally, and financially.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Push your way forward and participate in what excites you most. Clear a space for a project you want to pursue and change your routine to suit your needs. Refuse to let the changes others make interfere with your plans. Proceed in the direction that brings you the most comfort and greatest joy.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Pour energy into something worthwhile. Put a cap on how much you spend and the promises you make. Trust your instincts and adjust as you move forward. Refuse to let anyone dictate what you can and cannot do. Take the road that suits you and the lifestyle you want to pursue.
Birthday Baby: You are friendly, accommodating, and eager. You are hardworking and persuasive.
F. Austin in Friday’s First Round. The 52-point triumph was the largest margin of victory in school history, and the team also set a program record for most field goals in a NCAA Tournament game with 45.
Fifth-year head coach Niele Ivey’s side is led by a dynamic backcourt which features ACC Player of the Year Hannah Hidalgo. The sophomore from New Jersey scored 24 points in the win over the Ladyjacks to match her season average, while also getting it done on the defensive end, ranking fourth in the nation in steals per game with 3.7. Hidalgo is complemented by projected top-3 picks in April’s upcoming WNBA Draft, graduate Olivia Miles and senior Sonia Citron. Miles runs the show on the offensive end for Notre Dame, leading the nation with three triple-doubles. A versatile wing, Citron has been on fire recently, averaging over 16 points on 40% three-point shooting over the last ten games.
The No. 6 seeded Wolverines are making their seventh consecutive March Madness appearance, and used a comeback win over No. 11 seed Iowa State on Friday to advance to the Second Round for the seventh time in school history. Senior guard Jordan Hobbs led Michigan with a career-high 28 points in the 80-74 win over the Cyclones. 13th-year head coach Kim Barnes Arico utilizes a small
ND SOFTBALL
ball, five-guard lineup, spearheaded by the freshmen tandem of Olivia Olson and Syla Swords.
A New Hope, Minnesota native, Olson leads Michigan in scoring with over 16 points per game, with the Canadian Swords not far behind at 15.9.
The Irish were shot out of a cannon to start the game, quickly gaining a 6-0 advantage that prompted Michigan to burn a timeout. Notre Dame then closed the frame on a 15-2 run to push the lead to 20 at 32-12. Hidalgo, Citron and graduate forward Liatu King each scored eight points in the first quarter, with the Irish shooting an astounding 75% from the floor. Notre Dame out-rebounded Michigan 12-4 and held the Wolverines to just 4-15 shooting in the opening ten minutes.
When asked how Notre Dame matched up with the quick Wolverines, Citron said, “Our post players are pretty versatile, so that helped us switch 1 through 5 and exploit some of those matchups against them.”
Focusing on the offense, Ivey cited shot selection for the first quarter surge. “Everyone took efficient shots. I thought we got great shots in transition and in the halfcourt, which was better than last game,” she said.
Michigan senior guard Greta Kampschroeder noticed that the Irish pace didn’t allow her team to settle into the game. “We couldn’t get ourselves situated on defense, and we weren’t helping or playing team defense. We just weren’t ourselves in that
first quarter,” she said.
The Wolverines started the second on a 12-2 run before a Hidalgo dish and driving layup on successive possessions pushed the lead back out to 16, forcing Barnes Arico to use her second timeout. Notre Dame’s stifling defense would continue through the remainder of the half, with the Irish taking a 46-28 lead into the intermission. King, the transfer from Pittsburgh, led the way with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Citron and Hidalgo both reached double figures with 11 and 10, respectively.
In the third quarter, the Irish used a 12-0 run to build their lead up to as much as 28. The defense held the Wolverines to just eight points, including a seven-minute stretch where Michigan was held without a field goal.
Notre Dame would get up by as much as 35 midway through the fourth quarter, before taking out Citron, Miles and graduate forward Maddy Westbeld to a raucous applause from the Irish faithful.
Hidalgo advocated for her seniors in the press conference, proclaiming, “They’re dogs. They’re gonna fight. No matter what situation they are in, they are always gonna get better, be versatile, and have strong careers.”
Michigan would close the contest on a 15-1 run, but Notre Dame prevailed 76-55 to reach their fourth consecutive Sweet Sixteen, and 21st all-time.
When asked postgame about what this game proves about the
Irish, Citron stated, “We showed that we are a bunch of fighters. Coach Ivey challenged us, and we responded.”
Hidalgo took it a step further, attesting, “I learned how we can dominate and take another team’s heart away from the start of the game.” She continued by saying, “It doesn’t matter what the doubters or the media thinks. We know the talent that we have in that locker room, and we had confidence that we could advance far in this tournament.”
Her play backed up her talk, as she led the Irish in scoring for the 25th time this season, finishing with 21. King recorded her 13th double-double of the year, tallying 18 points and 15 rebounds, good for her fourth 15-rebound performance of the campaign. Citron added 16 points and six boards for Notre Dame.
King praised her teammates for aiding her performance, adding, “My teammates found me, and saw the mismatches with how they were defending ball screens. I give them credit for finding me in open spots.”
After Ivey implored her side to improve their effort on the defensive end following the ACC Tournament Semifinal loss to Duke, Notre Dame has held both Stephen F. Austin and Michigan to their season lows in points.
“Everyone knows that we went through a tough stretch the last couple weeks. The way we’ve defended the last two games has been phenomenal. We are excited to keep dancing and survive and
advance into the next round,” Ivey said. “This group wants to win. They are unselfish. I knew this team was gonna respond because they’ve done it before. The stakes are high, so I’m happy that they have shown up at the right time.”
Olson and Swords led the Wolverines as they have all season, the pair of freshman guards combining to shoot 14-32 for 37 of Michigan’s 55 points. Alongside starting freshman guard Mila Holloway, the Wolverines have a strong nucleus for the future.
Barnes Arico lauded her freshmen class postgame, saying, “Being a freshman point guard and having to play against Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo is a heavy load. [Holloway] is very hard on herself, but I told her that this is what she has to go through to get to the next level. All of them stepped up today and I am proud of the way they handled themselves in this environment.”
Notre Dame moves on to the Birmingham Regional where they are set for a rematch with No. 2 seeded TCU. Led by star graduate guard Hailey Van Lith, the Horned Frogs captured the Big 12 regular season and Tournament championships and also bested the Irish 76-68 back in November in the Cayman Islands. The Sweet 16 showdown will take place next Saturday in Birmingham, Alabama. Tip-off time is still to be determined, with coverage on ABC or ESPN.
Contact Ben Hicks at bhicks2@nd.edu
Irish continue March skid with Stanford sweep
By TYLER REIDY Associate Sports Editor
It’s been a melancholy month of March for Notre Dame softball. Since the calendar turned to the first full month of the regular season, the Irish are 3-10 overall with a 2-7 mark in ACC games.
This past weekend, they were swept in their first home series of the Kris Ganeff era, losing three games to No. 17 Stanford. Notre Dame now sits at 1319 (2-7 ACC), a far cry from the 32-game records of the teams that made 24 straight NCAA Tournaments between 1999 and 2023. Stanford, meanwhile, is sitting pretty at 23-3 overall and 8-1 within the conference as it rolls into a challenging part of the schedule against Kentucky, Virginia Tech, Saint Mary’s and Clemson on an 11-game win streak.
Friday: Stanford 10, Notre Dame 0
The series opener was practically over before it could begin. The Cardinal hung six runs on junior starting pitcher Micaela Kastor before making an out, finishing the first inning with
an 8-0 lead.
Stanford’s eight-run frame started unconventionally with a hit by pitch, a wild pitch, an 11-pitch walk, a bunt single and a basesloaded walk. After Jade Berry and Kyra Chan each singled home two runs, senior Shannon Becker entered the game in the circle. She managed to get three outs but didn’t fare much better, conceding three additional runs – two of them on an Emily Jones single.
Chan, who joined Caelan Koch in individually recording three hits, pushed Stanford to 10 runs with the final two of her four runs batted in. Her second-inning home run off the scoreboard in left-center field made it 9-0 before her single in the fourth moved the Cardinal into a double-digit advantage. Stanford starting pitcher Kylie Chung made sure it held up, earning her ninth win of the season by striking out three in a fiveinning complete game cut short by the run rule.
Saturday: Stanford 6, Notre Dame 2
Though Stanford put each of the game’s first four hitters and scored in the first
inning on a Jones double, Notre Dame hung around a bit longer in game two. Both starting pitchers – b for Stanford and freshman Brianne Weiss for Notre Dame – worked around baserunning traffic in the second and third innings, getting the game to the fourth inning with the Cardinal up 1-0.
Things got away from the Irish in fourth inning, as five unearned Stanford runs crossed the plate. With two outs, Weiss walked the bases loaded before inducing a grounder to first that should’ve ended the inning. However, sophomore utility player Sydny Poeck made a critical error that brought home two runs. More importantly, she extended the inning to .425 hitter River Mahler, who sent a backbreaker of a three-run home run over the left-center wall to make it 6-0.
Sophomore Kami Kamzik silenced Stanford’s offense across the final three innings, allowing the Irish offense to break an 11-inning
scoring drought. Senior infielder Anna Holloway got Notre Dame going in the fifth with an RBI double to the corner in right, and senior outfielder Emily Tran followed with a single that made it 6-2. The buck stopped, however, with Chung, as the Stanford ace shut out the Irish across the game’s final two innings.
Sunday: Stanford 13, Notre Dame 7
Notre Dame finally grabbed its first lead of the weekend to start Sunday’s action, scoring three runs in the first two innings against Chung. Sophomore infielder Addison Amaral and senior utility player Jane Kronenberger went doublesingle to drive in first-inning runs that made it 2-0. Although Stanford tied the game on a Joie Economides home run off Kamzik in the second, freshman catcher Rebecca Eckart restored the Irish lead with her first collegiate long ball.
The 3-2 lead disappeared rapidly as Stanford got to
Kamzik for five runs in the third inning, then Kastor for six more on seven hits and five walks across the game’s final four frames. Allie Clements and Economides each went deep for Stanford in the third, Clements giving the Cardinal their first lead on a two-run shot and Economides expanding it with her three-run blast. Another softball flew over the fence in the fourth on Berry’s three-run home run, making it a 10-3 lead for Stanford. The Cardinal would eventually go ahead 12-3 after the top of the sixth, putting the Irish within three outs of another runrule loss.
Notre Dame kept fighting, though, plating four runs in the sixth. Amaral led off with a home run, and Poeck later doubled in two to keep the Irish alive and down 12-7 entering the seventh. However, they still had a long way to go and went down quietly to end the game after giving up one more Stanford run in the see ND SOFTBALL PAGE 13
ND Softball
top of the final inning.
Five different Stanford hitters finished Sunday’s game with multiple hits, and four of them drove in multiple runs. Amaral and Poeck were Notre Dame’s main bright spots, combining to go 5-for-7 with four RBIs and
ND
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
three runs scored.
UIC on deck
Before returning to conference play with a home series against Virginia next weekend, the Irish will host the University of Illinois Chicago for a midweek contest at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Notre Dame shut out the Flames 1-0 last year on a
10-strikeout complete game pitched by Kastor.
UIC enters this week’s game at 4-26 overall and 0-6 within Missouri Valley Conference play. The Flames have lost 22 consecutive games, including three to Northern Iowa over the weekend at home, culminating in a 16-4 beatdown on Saturday.
Redshirt senior outfielder
Dee Dee Caskey leads a UIC offense that has homered only four times. Caskey has one of them to go with 10 RBIs, 11 doubles, 20 runs scored and a .325/.419/.575 slash line. Freshman infielder Sequoia Sanchez paces the team with 12 RBIs on the year. UIC hasn’t fared much better in the circle given its
6.86 team earned run average. Redshirt senior Alyssa McIntosh and freshman Jasmine Whorley have made 25 of the team’s 29 starts, the two combining for more than 150 innings with 73 walks, 69 strikeouts and an ERA near 6.00.
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu
Irish race past Stephen F. Austin in First Round
By BEN HICKS Associate Sports Editor
After dropping three of their last five to end the season, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team returned to Purcell Pavilion on Friday afternoon to host Stephen F. Austin in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
Despite this being Notre Dame’s 30th March Madness appearance, it would be the first alltime meeting between the two programs.
Since the March 8 defeat to Duke in the ACC Semifinal, the Irish have had 13 days to step away before preparing for the NCAA Tournament. “Having a reset as an athlete is so important to be able to regroup and reflect before having the opportunity to play in this tournament,” sophomore guard and ACC Player of the Year Hannah Hidalgo said.
Despite the late season struggles, fifth-year head coach Niele Ivey has the most talented Irish side of her tenure. Led by the starstudded backcourt of Hidalgo, graduate Olivia Miles and senior Sonia Citron, Notre Dame reeled off 19 consecutive victories from the start of December through mid-February, even reaching the No. 1 ranking for the first time in six seasons.
A candidate for Naismith Player of the Year, Hidalgo followed up her breakout freshman
campaign by ranking fourth nationally in both points (24.2) and steals (3.7) per game. While Hidalgo has blossomed into the best two-way star in the nation, fellow New Jersey native and backcourt mate Olivia Miles has returned from a knee injury to run the Irish offense, which ranks fifth nationally in scoring efficiency. Expected to be the second selection in April’s WNBA Draft, Miles has turned in averages of 16.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists, while also becoming the first ACC player ever to record back-to-back triple-doubles. A reliable 3-and-D wing, Citron is also expected to be selected top-three in the draft. The Eastchester, New York native has taken her play up a level throughout the last month of the regular season, averaging 15.2 points on 40% shooting from deep over the last 10 games. Led by second-year bench boss Leonard Bishop, the Ladyjacks compiled a 15-game win streak of their own to close the season and capture the Southland Conference Tournament for an automatic bid to the Big Dance. A proud program, SFA reached five Sweet Sixteens from 1989-1996, but are making their first tournament appearance since 2022 and seeking their first win since 2000. Located in Nacogdoches, Texas, Stephen F. Austin is led by senior guard Faith Blackstone, who averages nearly 15 PPG.
The No. 3 seed Notre Dame weathered the storm following a rapid 6-0 start from No. 14 seed SFA, eventually holding a 26-13 lead after one. The Irish forced seven Ladyjack turnovers to close the first quarter on a 24-5 run. Notre Dame took 11 more shots than SFA and out-rebounded the ‘Jacks by eight in the first. Hidalgo led the way with eight points and four rebounds, while Marquette transfer forward Liza Karlen provided a spark off the bench with seven points and five rebounds. Graduate forward Maddy Westbeld added six of her own on perfect 3-3 shooting, while Miles tallied four assists in the frame.
Notre Dame’s high-powered offense, which seemed to go dormant during the last two weeks of the season, kept up the frenetic pace during the second quarter to take a 46-25 edge into the intermission. Citron canned her second and three triples of the afternoon en route to 11 first-half points, while Westbeld joined her in double figures with 10. Sharpshooting junior guard Avery Vansickle knocked down two treys tying her for the team lead in points with eight alongside senior forward Trinity Moore.
The Irish energy continued on the other side of halftime, as Notre Dame used a 9-0 run in less than a minute to ignite the
soldout crowd and push the lead to 67-33 midway through the third. All told, Notre Dame would score 32 points in the period, and the advantage was 78-41 heading into the fourth.
Speaking postgame about the third quarter run, Moore said, “The turnovers were more of us just not taking care of the ball, and less of the crowd. We’ve played in big environments all year, but give credit to Notre Dame for speeding us up.”
Coach Ivey also credited her group’s defense, adding, “I’m really pleased with our defensive effort. Our preparation all week paid off. This was the result of our team locking in, staying focused, and being prepared to start the tournament.”
It was a scary sight to begin the fourth though, as Miles went down after twisting her ankle. The second-team All-American rolled over in pain as the crowd came to a hush, but eventually was able to walk to the locker room under her own power. Ivey said postgame that Miles’ status for Sunday is unclear, but added she will continue to rehab over the next 48 hours.
After pulling the stars out, the Irish eclipsed 100 points for the fifth time this season, with a three-pointer from walk-on freshman guard Luci Jensen and and a running floater from fan-favorite graduate guard
Sarah Cernugel. Walk-on junior forward Bella Tehrani made it three-for-three by converting a transition layup off a sweet dish from Cernugel.
All 11 Irish players scored in the 106-54 victory, headlined by 24 points apiece from All-Americans Hidalgo and Citron. Hidalgo also contributed six rebounds and five assists, and reached the 1,500 point plateau in Notre Dame’s triumph. Westbeld and Pittsburgh transfer forward Liatu King also reached double-figures, while Karlen recorded her first doubledouble at Notre Dame with 13 points and 10 boards. Miles also totaled eight assists before exiting with the injury.
Moore and Vansickle led the Ladyjacks with 14 and 12 points, respectively, while junior guard Ashlyn Traylor-Walker added 10 in her return to her home state of Indiana. SFA finishes the year with a school-record 29 wins, and should be positioned for continued success with seven expected returners next season.
“We’ll just continue to recruit high-character student-athletes who also are great basketball players. It’s about representing the city of Nacogdoches and Stephen F. Austin University and I’m confident we’ll continue to succeed,” Bishop said postgame.
Contact Ben Hicks at bhicks2@nd.edu
Belles bounce back with big defeat of Anderson
By CLAIRE WATSON
Associate Sports Editor
Following a 14-5 loss to Aurora, Saint Mary’s lacrosse
made its comeback in a 17-5 victory over Anderson. The win advances Saint Mary’s to 2-4 overall on the season. Starting off the first quarter,
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senior midfielder Valentina Rubio took no time to score and put the Belles ahead 1-0 within the first minute. Sophomore attacker Lana Skibins followed up with another goal to make the score 2-0. Anderson, not backing down, added two to tie but the Belle’s persisted as Skibins added two more. Freshman midfielder Annabelle Spruill tacked on a goal and sophomore attack Cate Krema did as well to end the quarter with the Belles ahead 6-2.
Going into the second quarter, Saint Mary’s continued to dominate as Skibins added on her fourth goal of the game to bring the score to 7-2. Sophomore attack Kathryn Kalinowski scored on another for the Belles alongside Spruill to bring the score
to 9-2. To end the quarter, Skibins put in a free-position shot to bring the score to 10-2. Anderson started off the third quarter putting in two goals to bring the score to 104. Saint Mary’s battled back as Krema found the back of the net to bring the score to 11-
4. Following her, Rubio made two more goals for the Belles to bring the score to 13-4 and end the quarter.
In the final quarter, Krema wasted no time to tack on two more goals for the Belles, bringing the score to 15-4. Following her, Rubio pushed the now-lopsided score further on another goal to make the score 16-4. Kalinowski found the back of the net to add on her second goal of the day and bring the score to 174. Anderson closed out the
game with a goal to make the final 17-5.
Multiple players contributed to the Belles’ win throughout the game. Rubio, the senior from Michigan, finished with a hat trick and an assist alongside Skibins, an Indiana native, who finished her game with a hat trick and two assists. Krema ended with a hat trick and an assist as well. Georgia natives Spruill and Kalinowski both finished the game with two goals. In addition to this, Skibins led the team with two assists.
The Belles look to keep winning as they prepare to host North Central on March 26 at 6 p.m.
Contact Claire Watson at cwatson01@saintmarys.edu
ND WOMEN’S LACROSSE
Irish fall short on the road against Syracuse
By NOAH CAHILL Sports Editor
Head coach Christine
Halfpenny’s No. 21-ranked Irish squad is much better than its record shows. The young group, which turned over 17 seniors and graduates from last year’s historic team, has come into its own as the season has progressed, and entered Sunday’s matchup with No. 8 Syracuse coming off of three straight wins. Playing in the gauntlet of the ACC, which boasts eight top-25 teams, four in the top 10 and the nation’s two best, the Irish have struggled out of the gate in conference play, posting a 1-3 record.
With that said, their three losses include two heartbreakers against No. 15 Clemson and No. 13 Duke, games they lost by one and two goals respectively, and a 15-9 defeat to undefeated No. 1 Boston College in a game where the Irish tied or won three of the four quarters. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, their trip to New York was more of the same story: a battle down to the wire with an elite ACC team ending in a close Irish loss.
Capitalizing on an early woman-up opportunity, Caroline Trinkaus would
tallied her 29th goal of the season on another setup from Morrissey, her third of the day. After junior attacker Emma Murphy got on the board for Notre Dame, the Orange answered with a goal from Emma Muchnick followed by Trinkaus’ third of the game. The MorrisseyShanahan combo struck again to even the score at 8-8 heading into the final frame, as Morrissey logged her fourth assist for Shanahan’s fourth goal.
open the scoring for the Orange a little over two minutes into the first quarter for her 18th goal of the season. Set up by sophomore midfielder Kathryn Morrissey, graduate midfielder Kristen Shanahan provided a quick answer for the Irish to knot the score at 1-1. A few scoreless minutes passed before Ashlee Volpe, who set up the first goal, got on the scoresheet herself. Trinkaus scored her second of the day on the following possession from a free-position shot. The Orange ended with a 4-1 lead into the second.
Notre Dame would respond, however, with a 4-0 run of its own to take its first lead of the game. Sophomore midfielder Meghan O’Hare’s first goal of the season started the run. Goals from Shanahan and sophomore attacker Kate Timarky tied the game before Shanahan gave the Irish a 5-4 lead, completing her first-half hat trick. The Orange would come right back, ending the half with a free-position goal from Gracie Britton and a goal in the final seconds from Emma Ward to retake a 6-5 lead.
The two teams went back and forth to start the third quarter. Leading scorer and point-getter freshman midfielder Madison Rassas
Penalties continued to plague the Irish, as Syracuse took advantage of two straight woman-up opportunities for a pair of early goals in the fourth. Ward’s fourth assist of the game set up Alexa Vogelman to extend a 3-0 run for the Orange, giving them a commanding 11-8 lead entering the final 10 minutes. The Irish would not go away, though, as freshman attacker Katie Mallaber and Shanahan cut the deficit to one with five minutes remaining. But as she did all game, Trinkaus stepped up in front of goal, delivering the would-be dagger with 2:33 left in the fourth. Morrissey would score with 30 seconds left to make things interesting, but the Irish were unable to win the ensuing draw, allowing Syracuse to take an important 12-11 ACC victory.
Across the board, shots, shots on goal, saves and turnovers were nearly even on both sides, with Syracuse taking a 15-9 advantage on draw controls but losing 19-13 in the battle for ground balls. Ultimately, in a hard-fought game decided by the finest of margins, it was penalties that were the deciding factor in Notre Dame’s loss. The Irish committed 30 to Syracuse’s 19, with the Orange scoring four woman-up goals including a decisive two to begin a 3-0 fourth-quarter run that would define the game. The duo of Morrissey and Shanahan led the way on offense for the Irish, with five and six points respectively. Shanahan’s five goals and Morrissey’s four assists were both career highs. Senior goalie Isabel Pithie put in another strong performance, making 12 saves with a .500 save percentage.
Now falling to 6-5 on the year and 1-4 in conference play, Notre Dame will set their sights on another tough ACC test in No. 2 North Carolina in South Bend on Sunday, March 30.
Contact Noah Cahill at ncahill2@nd.edu
JONATHAN KARR | The Observer
Senior Julia Carr moves out with the ball during Notre Dame’s 15-9 loss to Boston College on March 8, 2025. Now 6-5 on the season, the Irish snapped a three-game win streak with Sunday’s loss at Syracuse.
Irish swept by Georgia Tech in first home series
By TYLER REIDY Associate Sports Editor
The final five innings of Notre Dame baseball’s Tuesday home opener was a thrilling display of dominance. Freshman infielder Bino Watters mashed two home runs, junior shortstop Estevan Moreno hit for the program’s first cycle in nine years and Irish pitching shut down the Butler Bulldogs for an 18-4 win.
Unfortunately for Irish fans, Notre Dame followed with a weekend dud.
Georgia Tech, a team likely bound for the NCAA Tournament that will almost certainly be ranked this coming week, swept the Irish in three games and improved to 20-4 (7-2 ACC). Notre Dame never led in its first conference series at home, falling to 12-9 (1-8 ACC) by suffering its second sweep since ACC play began.
Friday: Georgia Tech 18, Notre Dame 7
Always a high-level program at the plate, Georgia Tech entered the weekend with an offense at or near the top of the ACC in nearly every category. And despite playing all three games in South Bend without everyday first baseman and three-hole hitter Kent Schmidt, the Yellow Jackets still put up 37 total runs.
The production began only two pitches into Friday’s game, which featured a stiff wind blowing straight out to left field. Georgia Tech leadoff man and shortstop Kyle Lodise used it for a solo shot off Irish sophomore starting pitcher Jack Radel. Freshman Caleb Daniel, occupying the third spot in place of Schmidt, followed a Notre Dame error with a two-run blast to right, giving the Yellow Jackets an instant 3-0 lead.
The opening inning was just the first of seven instances in which
Georgia Tech would tally multiple runs in a single frame. It happened again in the second, when Lodise slammed a two-run long ball over the fence in left. Then again in the third, when Georgia Tech brought all nine starters to the plate, scored three runs to take an 8-0 lead and chased Radel from the game. Notre Dame’s offense finally issued a retort with Moreno’s two-run triple in the bottom of the third, but still had a long, long way to go.
The gap grew wider as Georgia Tech began to tee off on Notre Dame’s bullpen, starting with freshman right-hander Kellan Klosterman. Daniel’s leadoff double in the fourth, which put him a triple shy of the cycle, set up back-to-back RBI singles from Vahn Lackey and Carson Kerce. Sophomore lefty Justin Mayes Jr. entered the game and finally had a bit of success against the Yellow Jacket offense, striking out three before Georgia Tech figured him out in the fifth. During that threerun inning, which put the visitors ahead 13-3, Lodise clobbered his third home run of the day and Daniel collected his fourth base hit.
Though the Irish hitters struggled to put the ball in play, punching out seven times against Yellow Jacket starter Tate McKee, they found more success on the long ball in the middle innings.
Freshman second baseman Noah Coy went to dead center field for his first collegiate home run in the fourth, sophomore catcher Carson Tinney walloped a three-run shot in the sixth and Watters rocketed his third home run of the week in the seventh.
However, those efforts only briefly kept the Irish out of runrule territory, as Georgia Tech’s offense went back to work after a scoreless sixth. The Yellow Jackets plated three runs in the seventh and two in the eighth, allowing
reliever Brett Barfield to strike out four in two innings to seal an 18-7 victory in eight innings.
Lodise finished the game with 15 total bases, adding a triple to his three-homer, five-RBI day in the sixth. Daniel got on base five times in his three-hole debut, coming around to score on all five occasions. Lackey drove in a run in each of his final four trips to the dish, while freshman pitcher Alex Hernandez walked four times and scored four runs. In total, Georgia Tech took 12 walks while striking out just six times.
Watters and fellow freshman infielder Parker Brzustewicz were Notre Dame’s only players with multiple hits.
Saturday: Georgia Tech 9, Notre Dame 5
Georgia Tech again raced out of the gate in game two, putting five runs on graduate starting pitcher Jackson Dennies in the second inning. The Yellow Jackets once more batted around, as Kerce opened the scoring with a double before freshman Will Baker launched his first collegiate home run, a tworun shot. Daniel and Hernandez would complete the active halfinning by each driving in a run on an extra-base hit, placing Notre Dame in another deep hole early.
The Irish initially battled back, though. They rallied back from four consecutive strikeouts against Georgia Tech starter Brady Jones to bat around and register three runs in the third. Six consecutive Notre Dame hitters reached at one point, with Brzustewicz and Moreno driving in the runs on singles.
Once within a 5-3 deficit, Notre Dame loaded the bases with one out, needing only a single from freshman outfielder Jayce Lee or graduate infielder Connor Hincks to tie the game. However, 32ndyear Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall made the wise call to
deploy Mason Patel, the ace of his bullpen and one of college baseball’s best relievers. Not only did Patel kill Notre Dame’s momentum by retiring Lee and Hincks without a run scoring, but he also pitched the final 6.2 innings of the game.
Dennies settled down for the Irish after his second-inning struggle, zipping through 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth. However, Georgia Tech got to him in the fifth, scoring two runs to send him packing and take a 7-3 lead. Senior reliever Ricky Reeth allowed another pair of runs in the sixth, both on Lodise’s fourth home run of the weekend. All told, Georgia Tech produced 13 hits while striking out one time in Saturday’s first seven innings, dropping another offensive masterclass on the Irish.
With Patel and his microscopic earned run average on the mound, the game was practically over from its midway point onward. Moreno scorched his fifth home run of the season in the eighth and a fifth Irish run scored during the finalout sequence, but Georgia Tech still won handily The series win was Georgia Tech’s first as a program in South Bend and moved it to 19-4 for the first time in more than decade.
Lodise added to his ACC Player of the Week case in game two, going 3-for-5 with two singles and the sixth-inning home run. Kerce also provided three hits for the Yellow Jackets, driving in two runs.
On the Notre Dame side, graduate outfielder Jared Zimbardo singled twice from the leadoff spot, while Moreno brought in two runs for the fourth consecutive game.
Sunday: Georgia Tech 10, Notre Dame 2
At long last, Notre Dame was finally in a game with the Yellow Jackets on Sunday. However, neither that fact nor the finale’s
weather-related rescheduling from 1 p.m. to 11 a.m. stopped Georgia Tech from jumping ahead early. This time, Lackey went the other way for a two-run, two-out single off junior starting pitcher Rory Fox in the first, putting the Irish behind before they could pick up a bat.
Unlike the two starters before, Fox kept the Georgia Tech lead from ballooning, settling in to throw four consecutive scoreless and hitless innings to finish his outing. Notre Dame’s offense capitalized on his work to get the game tied, first manufacturing a run in the third without recording a base hit. Sophomore catcher Davis Johnson then led off the fourth and found the left-center field batter’s eye with a titanic home run, leveling the score at 2-2.
That again forced Georgia Tech’s starter, Riley Stanford, out of the game early. The Yellow Jacket bullpen, tasked with holding down the Irish across six innings for a second consecutive day, delivered one more time. The Irish were a pitiful 1-for-20 with at least one runner on base, with the only hit occurring with the game well in hand in the ninth inning and punched out 14 times at the plate. Caden Gaudette (two strikeouts in a scoreless fourth), winning pitcher Jaylen Paden (five strikeouts in three innings) and former Notre Dame hurler Caden Spivey (four strikeouts in two innings) took care of things on the Georgia Tech mound.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s bullpen completely unraveled with the score still 2-2 entering the seventh inning. After a couple of well-placed singles on the infield led to Baker’s go-ahead RBI in the seventh, the Irish began to pitch erratically. Freshman Chase Van Ameyde and graduate student Tobey McDonough combined to walk three in a row during the seventh – one of those walks ending a 16-pitch Daniel at-bat. In the end, Georgia Tech plated four runs in the seventh, one in the eighth and three of the ninth. Four of those eight late runs crossed the plate on Notre Dame wild pitches.
Kerce and Baker each had twohit games near the bottom of the order for Georgia Tech, while Lodise was finally held without a hit or RBI. Only Brzustewicz provided multiple hits for the Irish.
The upcoming week won’t make things any easier for Notre Dame. Their midweek matchup is a far cry from a pushover, as Big Ten foe Michigan State will come to Frank Eck Stadium on Wednesday. Two days later, former Irish skipper Link Jarrett and 2024 College World Series qualifier Florida State will come to town for three games. If the Irish can’t turn the page in a hurry, there’s a very real chance they enter April with a losing record overall and 10 games below .500 within ACC play. They’ll host the Spartans at 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening.
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu
FENCING
Irish avenge second-place finish, win 14th title
By CHRIS DAILEY Sports Writer
The Notre Dame fencing program won its sixth championship in eight years this past weekend at the NCAA Championships in University Park, Pennsylvania. The momentous victory is further vindication that the program is one of the greatest dynasties in intercollegiate athletics history.
The Championship tournament took place from Thursday through Sunday, with the men competing on Thursday and Friday and the women competing over the weekend.
Chase Emmer kicked off the Irish’s triumphant weekend with an individual title in foil. Emmer went 17-6 in the round-robin round on Thursday, earning him the second seed in the knockout round on Friday. The sophomore from Morristown, New Jersey, soared past teammate James Chen in the semifinals by a score of 15-11 before taking down Andrew Chen of Harvard in the final in a tightly contested 15-10 battle. Once the match hit 7-7, Emmer’s stamina propelled him to an 8-3 run. Emmer’s victory was met with a roar from the rest of his Notre Dame teammates cheering him on in the stands. The Fighting Irish’s energy did not waver throughout the tournament, with teammates cheering relentlessly from the stands and waving Notre Dame-themed flags all weekend long.
Emmer’s victory was complemented by the success of saber duo freshman Ahmed Hesham and sophomore Radu Nitu. The pair went 18-4 and 16-6 in the roundrobin stage en route to earning the No. 1 seed and No. 3 seed for knockouts, respectively. Hesham fell to St. John’s Darri Lukashenko in the semifinals 15-11, while Nitu also lost to Lukashenko in the semifinals 15-7. Complemented by the 11th-place finish of junior Jonathan HamiltonMeikle and 20th-place finish of junior Maruan OsmanTouson in epee, Notre Dame found itself in first place in team standings by the end of Friday with 87 points. Columbia University, the 2019 national champion, was in second place with 77 points.
The women’s team expanded upon the men’s
rampant success over the weekend. Junior epee specialist Eszter Muhari and freshman saber specialist Magda Skarbonkiewicz both won individual titles. Skarbonkiewicz was joined on the podium alongside classmate Siobhan Sullivan.
Muhari’s performance ranks among the greatest individual feats in NCAA fencing history. The 2023 individual national champion was forced to miss last season due to training for the Olympics — in which she won a bronze medal. Muhari went a perfect 23-0 in the round-robin on Saturday with a +68 indicator (difference between hits scored and received). She then confidently breezed by the semifinals on Saturday, taking down Leehi Machulsky 15-2.
Muhari then defeated Columbia’s Tierna Oxenreider in the finals, 1513. The match took a while to heat up, with the first 3-minute bout only resulting
in a 2-1 lead for Oxenreider. Although down, Muhari did not fret. Her methodical defensive approach slowly wore down Oxenreider’s attack. Towards the end, Muhari was able to dodge Oxenreider’s attacks with ease en route to her second national title and the firstever perfect record for a women’s epee competitor in NCAA Championships history. Penn State’s Stephanie Eim came close in 2002 but lost in the final, falling just short of the perfect record.
Similarly to Emmer, Muhari received thunderous support from her teammates, who watched on with immense Irish pride. Senior Kaylin Sin Yan Hsieh also represented the Irish, finishing fifth in the event.
To cap off the day, Skarbonkiewicz and Sullivan battled in the saber championship. The moment was bittersweet for the freshman duo as they both hail from the same fencing club in
Oregon and have been teammates since they were seven years old.
Skarbonkiewicz got out to an early lead on Sullivan thanks to her high-tempo attacking style. Although Sullivan was able to chip her way back into the bout, Skarbonkiewicz saw out a 15-8 win over her longtime teammate. The duo embraced after the bout concluded. Skarbonkiewicz told ESPN in a post-match interview, “She’s the most supportive person.”
Having already competed for Team USA at the Olympics and won an ACC Championship, the national championship is yet another milestone in Skarbonkiewicz’s young yet illustrious career.
Foil specialists junior Ariadna Tucker and senior Rebeca Candescu rounded out the women’s results, placing 13th and 16th, respectively. These combined results
gave Notre Dame 183 points, 11 ahead of runners-up Columbia. The title is the Irish’s 14th in program history, tying Penn State for second all-time and closing in on Columbia’s record 16 championships. Head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia has been the leader of the pack for six of those 14 titles. As a whole, Fighting Irish athletic programs have won a combined total of 36 consensus national titles, meaning the fencing program has accounted for nearly 40% of Notre Dame’s collective national glory. With Emmer, Muhari and Skarbonkiewicz all returning next year amongst many other talented fencers within the Irish’s program, Notre Dame firmly sets itself up to be the team to beat in 2026. For now, the team will make it way back to South Bend and enjoy celebrating its national crown.
Contact Chris Dailey at cdailey2@nd.edu
DECLAN HUGGINS | The Observer
Two fencers compete at the Decicco Duals in South Bend on Jan. 26, 2025. Notre Dame fencing won its 14th national championship as a program this past weekend, besting Columbia/Barnard by 11 points with a total of 183 points. The Irish have now claimed four of the last five team titles.
