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had a really good attitude about it, he didn’t complain about it once. And Ian the whole time when he was the

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backup was preparing as if he was the starter. So they both really had a really good interaction with each other and with the team — that made it a smooth transition and kind of took some of that awkwardness away from what happens

when they bench a guy and put another guy in. Ian … seized the opportunity when it came, and the rest is history.” The following week, the Irish faced No. 7 Stanford, but Book did not have to bear the weight of the offense

ANNA MAson | The Observer

Former Irish running back Dexter Williams breaks a tackle during Notre Dame’s 44-22 win over Navy on Nov. 16. Williams was picked with the 194th overall pick by the Green Bay Packers in the 2019 NFL Draft.

EMMA FARNAN | The Observer

Irish rising graduate student wide reciever Chris Finke evades defenders during Notre Dame’s 45-23 win over Virgina Tech on Oct 6.

alone. Running back Dexter Williams, who had been reportedly suspended for the first four games of the season, returned in emphatic fashion: on his first touch of the game, Williams ran 45 yards for a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, with the Irish up one, Book threw two touchdowns less than 15 seconds apart as Notre Dame put the Cardinal (9-4, 6-3 Pac-12) down 38-17. No. 6 Notre Dame then faced what was expected to be their toughest road test of the year, traveling to Blacksburg, Virginia, to face No. 24 Virginia Tech. Lane Stadium was raucous to start, but a 97-yard touchdown run by Williams — one of three rushing scores on the day for him — and a fumble recovery for a touchdown by cornerback Julian Love helped silence the home crowd as the Irish pulled away to win 4523. Of note in the victory over the Hokies (6-7, 4-4 ACC) was senior kicker Justin Yoon becoming Notre Dame’s all-time leading scorer on a point after

attempt during the game. While the Irish were rolling behind Book, the following week saw the Irish nearly fall to popular upset Pittsburgh, who was leading Notre Dame at home through three quarters. However, the Irish managed to scrape past the Panthers (7-7, 6-2 ACC) by the skin of their teeth as wide receiver Miles Boykin caught a 35-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to give the Irish their first lead of the game and the 19-14 victory. A much-needed bye week to recuperate helped the No. 3 Irish defeat Navy 44-22 in San Diego despite an injury to Yoon. The Notre Dame running game ran over the Midshipmen (3-10, 2-6 A AC), with the first four touchdowns of the game coming on the ground for the Irish. The following week the team prevailed over a scrappy Northwestern team that would go on to face Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship. Book persevered through a rib injury to throw for 343 yards and two TDs. With a threepoint lead late in the fourth quarter, he faked a hand-off and ran the ball into the end zone to seal the 31-21 victory over the Wildcats (9-5, 8-1 Big Ten). The next game would see the Irish make their final homestand of the year. In fitting fashion, senior Brandon Wimbush led the Irish to a 4213 victory over Florida State as Book recovered from his rib injury. In frigid conditions that may have actually helped the Irish against the warm weather-inclined Seminoles (5-7, 3-5 ACC), the seniors showed out as Boykin scored once and Williams and senior tight end Alize Mack each scored twice. Notre Dame wrapped up their season with back-toback trips to the coasts. They first defeated No. 12 Syracuse (10-3, 6-2 ACC) 36-3 in Yankee Stadium in the Shamrock Series game. Notre Dame then found themselves in the same position they were in six years earlier: at 11-0, facing USC in Los Angeles with a chance to compete for a national title. The Trojans’ (5-7, 4-5 Pac12) speed gave the Irish problems to start, but a huge 24-yard touchdown pass from Book to Finke gave the Irish a much-needed spark, and Williams and junior running back Tony Jones Jr. added a rushing and passing touchdown, respectively — both for more than 50 yards — as Notre Dame all but sealed their spot in the College Football Playoff (CFP). “That was a fun game. It was closer than had been expected … we had to come from behind, so that was a little different,” Finke said. “But it felt really good to show some resilience and bounce back and come back to win that game. Just understanding that we

had gone 12-0 in the regular season and we were going to have a chance to compete for a championship [was great].” The No. 3 Irish were scheduled to play No. 2 Clemson in the Cotton Bowl in Notre Dame’s first ever CFP appearance. Finke said the team‘s mindset heading into the game was focused on advancing beyond the semifinal round. “The mentality of the team was obviously that this is not the culmination, that we want to play one more after this,” Finke said. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, its season came to a premature end. Yoon scored the only three Irish points, and a defense known for not surrendering big plays gave up four such ones, each resulting in a touchdown. After Love suffered a head injury and his replacement, junior cornerback Donte Vaughn, was forced to take over despite a shoulder injury, a competitive start turned into a rout. The Irish fell 30-3 to the eventual national champion Tigers (15-0, 8-0 ACC). Finke believes however that, like the Miami loss in 2017, the team can grow from the experience. “We obviously didn’t get the job done, and I think we can take lessons from that and go into this season with it and hopefully do a little better next time around,” Finke said. Despite the disappointing conclusion to Notre Dame’s season, there were several individual accolades for the Irish. Love was a First-Team AP All-American, senior defensive tackle Jerry Tillery was a Second-Team selection and senior linebacker Te’von Coney made the Third Team. Graduate student Drue Tranquill also received the Wuerffel Trophy, given annually to the academically and athletically achieving athlete who also exemplifies community service. Finally, Brian Kelly was honored with the AP Coach of the Year award. While the end result was not ideal for the program, and the team loses many veteran contributors, Finke — who is returning as a graduate student for his fourth year of eligibility — believes the team will be successful again next season. “We got a tough schedule, we got some really good players leaving that we’re going to replace, and we had [all of] spring ball to figure some stuff out, and I think we’re looking pretty good,” Finke said. “We’re just going to have to go one opponent at a time and worry about the task at hand and make sure everyone’s on the same page with what their job is and the commitment level and all that. So, we’ve got a little time, a little growing to do, but I think we’re going to have a good team.” Contact Hayden Adams at hadams3@nd.edu

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ND Baseball | 23-26, 12-15 ACC

Squad hopes to upset at ACC championships By GRANT DelVECCHIO Sports Writer

With less than a week remaining in the regular season, the Irish have earned themselves a spot to compete in the 2019 ACC Championships, a tournament that features a 12team field at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina. Notre Dame’s last season ended on a 21-4 loss to Clemson in the ACC tournament, and in a similar position to last season, the Irish (22-26, 12-15 ACC) are hoping to gain momentum heading into the playoffs. For head coach Mik Aoki, the most disappointing part of the season came at the very beginning. “If I had to say a low point, I would probably say opening weekend against Arizona State,” he said. “But, part of that I think is that Arizona State has proven over the course of the season that they are an exceptionally good offensive team, and we got exposed to that weekend.” While Aoki said he and his coaching staff aren’t quite pleased with their team’s performance as a whole this season, they believe they have had some bright spots in terms of several vital ACC-series wins. “Outside of [Arizona State] I think we’ve performed quite well in our conference play; being able to win three road series in the ACC is a difficult thing to do, and to do it at places like Wake Forest and Clemson as two of those three is really good,” Aoki said. “… I think injuries — to our pitching staff, in particular — affected that a lot, and I think where it specifically affected us was in our depth in order to handle a fourth and fifth game each week.” This past weekend the Irish hosted Canisius in their final home series, winning all three games including an 11th-inning walk-off win in the final game. The team also honored three senior student athletes over the weekend: right fielder and captain Eric Gilgenbach, righthand pitcher Shane Combs, and pinch/designated hitter Jake Singer. While the weekend was bittersweet and the Irish will miss the seniors’ contributions, it is important to note that having only three guys leave to graduation is a great sign in terms of how the team will be able to grow and develop moving forward. “I’ve been really pleased with the way that his group has improved from the beginning to the end, our defense is exponentially better than it was to begin the year, I think a lot of our younger position players are starting to figure it out and get their feet on the ground a little bit.” Aoki said. Having a young and

inexperienced team is especially challenging when taking into consideration the fact that the ACC has remained one of college baseball’s top conferences year after year. “I think ACC baseball speaks for itself, year-in and year-out the conference has been one of the top two or three conferences in the country, and if you look at metrics like the RPI it always sort of spells it out for you,” Aoki said “… Every weekend you are probably playing one of the best teams in America, and so it is a huge challenge without any question, but I do think that our kids have the opportunity to go play and develop against that type of quality, and I think individually it makes them better and it makes us better as a team.” Aoki also said he believes that the competition within the ACC is one thing that has allowed past players in the program to go on to achieve such success in the pros. “I think most notably you see it in the fact that a lot of our guys who go on to play professional baseball do pretty well for themselves after having gone through the fires of the ACC,“ Aoki said. Considering this year‘s Irish team had 25 underclassmen on its roster, several of the older guys certainly had to step up and lead those younger guys, and Gilgenbach and junior left-handed pitcher Cameron Brown rose to the occasion. For Gilgenbach and Brown, this meant more than just helping with baseball. “I think those guys have been really, really good in terms of getting our freshmen and some of these younger guys a little bit acclimated to not only getting accustomed to the grind

of playing baseball in the ACC, but the grind of academics and the pressures that every student on campus here at Notre Dame experiences. I think that every student here, and our baseball guys are no different, were among some of the best students that their particular high school may have had to offer, and these guys come here and they’re challenged not only on the baseball field, but in the classroom and dealing with all of that kind of stuff is hard, and some of that it can effect who they are and the confidence they have in themselves, and I think guys like Eric, Cam, and Jake Singer … have been really instrumental in just telling our younger guys ‘Hey, you’re gonna get your rear-end handed to you a little bit but you’re going to figure it out, you just gotta stay with the process and keep competing whether it’s on the baseball field or in the classroom, and it’ll start to figure out.’“ Aoki said. Moving forward, Aoki is confident that his team has the tools necessary for making a run in the ACC Championships, and would like to take the remainder of the team‘s final regular season games. ”We have … an opportunity to get ourselves to .500, and then go into the ACC tournament, and hopefully you win three games or maybe you make a run at the whole thing. I think we pitch well enough to go and get ourselves potentially to the championship game, and a little of how we are able to perform in that championship game might actually be the luck of the draw from a scheduling standpoint.“ Aoki said. While Aoki was optimistic about the future, he reinforced

the idea that this success would likely stem from this current rotation. ”So, I think we’re there, but I also think that if you look beyond this year, I think a big part honestly is that fact that we will return almost everybody,” Aoki said. “We will return almost everybody on our pitching staff, the one guy that I think will probably have an opportunity to go play pro-ball this year is Cam Junker, so we might lose him which is a big cog, but we’re gonna get a guy like Cole Kmet back and healthy, and we’re gonna get some of these other guys that got banged up this year back and healthy and a year older. … I’m excited about the future, our guys need to obviously continue to work hard and to improve, but I feel like our program has had a track record of developing and improving individual players, so I’m looking forward to that for next year.“ Lastly, when asked about what it means to coach here the Irish, Aoki didn‘t skip a beat in noting that Notre Dame is aligned with his own personal beliefs.

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“I think it’s a tremendous privilege number one, and I think probably most importantly it’s a university whose mission for young people and for student athletes is very much in alignment with what I think the relationship between athletics, and academics and personal growth should be on a university campus,” he said. ”I look at my job here is to help our players become, certainly no question about it, better players. … We’re here to help on the educational path and the developmental path of all of these young men that we have the opportunity to coach, and so I think it’s a privilege, it’s a huge responsibility, and it’s one that is very much in alignment with my own personal belief system in what the relationship and what the goal of athletics at the collegiate level should look like.“ With the regular season coming to a close, the Irish remain hopeful of making a deep playoff run and still have the chance to finish the season at .500. Contact Grant DelVecchio at gdelvecc@nd.edu

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ND Men’s Soccer | 11-7-3, 4-3-1 ACC

Irish make deep playoff run under new coach By CHARLIE ORTEGA GUIFARRO Sports Writer

Chad Riley’s first season as head coach of the Notre Dame men’s soccer team is wrapped up as they recorded one of their strongest finishes in program history. In a transition year for the program that saw the end of Bobby Clark’s coaching era, the Irish made it to the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time since 2013 and held their opponents to less than two goals in 17 of 21 matches. One of the most important aspects of the season for Riley was the support he got from the veteran players of the team, aiding him to a smoother coaching transition. “I think we can always improve,” Riley said. “I think our senior class did a great job in a year with transition. I think [that] no matter how much you try to make transitions smooth, even if it’s someone familiar, it’s always a challenging time. I think the guys really responded to it.“ After holding Indiana to a scoreless first half, Notre Dame (11-7-3, 4-3-1 ACC) conceded a goal in the 64th minute of the NCAA quarterfinals that gave the

home team a ticket to the semifinals. Despite the loss, this was the fourth NCAA quarterfinals appearance for the Irish. “We went to the first NCAA quarterfinal in a few years. We played a good team in Indiana who knocked us out, but we had chances to win the game. That is the level that we want to be at every year,” Riley said. The defense for the Irish was solid this season. For 20 out of the 21 games, Notre Dame held opponents scoreless in the first half. In addition, the Irish held opponents to a 0.098 shot percentage on the year. While Riley expressed concern over the Irish offense, which only averaged 1.43 goals per game, he said he plans to address his offense this offseason to improve on his program’s 2018 campaign. “One thing, we want to score more goals than we did last year. Scoring goals is hard so, we’re working a lot on our attack,” Riley said. “The biggest thing will be, can we be a little more potent in the attack while still being a team that’s very good defensively.” During the spring, junior midfielder Tommy McCabe

ND women’s Soccer | 8-10, 4-6 ACC

Young team shows potential Observer Sports Staff

With the loss of Natalie Jacobs and Sandra Yu, Notre Dame had a rebuilding season under new head coach Nate Norman. The Irish (810, 4-6 ACC) consistently hovered around .500 and struggled to find their momentum throughout the season. Beginning the season with three wins, two of which happened at Alumni Stadium, the team started hot, but eventually leveled out farther along in the season. Individually, the scoring load was shouldered by fifth-year senior forward Karin Muya. Despite starting only six games, Muya played in all 18 games, scoring seven goals and assisting on one more. Equally impressive was Muya’s efficiency. Of her 21 shots during the season, 11 were on target. Also of note were junior forward Jennifer Westendorf and graduate student defender Sabrina Flores, who led the team with five assists each. Westendorf also started 15 of the 17 games she played and scored four goals of her own throughout her junior campaign. Flores scored only once this season, but was a key contributor to the offense thanks to her distributing ability. On the defensive side, freshman goalkeeper Mattie Interian

and junior goalkeeper Brooke Littman shared time throughout the season, starting eight and 10 games, respectively. The two combined for 62 saves on the season, stopping two-thirds of the shots on target they faced. In particular, Interian saved 35, while Littman saved 27. With both returning next season, and Interian a freshman, the team will rely on stability in the net for the foreseeable future. Other performers stood out as well. Sophomore midfielder Sammi Fischer netted four goals and assisted on two more in 17 games. Her fellow sophomore, forward Eva Hurm, also assisted on two goals, scoring just one less. Hurm, like Fischer, played in 17 games, starting 16 of them. Freshman midfielder Brooke VanDyck also scored twice and assisted once throughout the season. After struggling throughout the regular season against non-conference matchups and failing to mount a solid comeback against ACC competition, the Irish didn‘t qualify for postseason play. Their season ultimately ended on Senior Night, losing 2-0 to Duke. While this season fell short of historical expectations for the program, the youthful core of Notre Dame gives Norman plenty of tools to work with going forward.

got drafted by Cincinnati FC in the MLS Draft. Senior forward Thomas Ueland decided against entering the draft to pursue medical school. The team also took a 10-day trip to England to play three friendlies as well as get a better look at professional English soccer. The spring was capped off with a win against the under-18 Mexican national team. Riley noted the importance of the spring as a time for individual player growth and team chemistry building. “The winter and spring training time is so important. The games that you get to play shows you where you are as a team because you’re developing as a team but it’s also a time where we really focus on developing the individual. It’s when guys can really make a big jump in their play,” Riley said. After one full season as head coach, and many other years as a player and assistant, Riley says that the best part of being at Notre Dame is that the team strives to be the best on and off the pitch. “At Notre Dame what I like is that you’re able to do everything at the highest level. It’s not just a

CONNERY McFADDEN | The Observer

Irish junior midfielder Jack Casey dribbles the ball during Notre Dame’s 1-0 loss to North Carolina on Sept. 21 at Alumni Stadium.

great academic experience and an OK athletic experience and a community you’re not involved in. What I love about Notre Dame is we should be fighting for national championships, we should be finding our academic passions and excelling in the classroom, and we should be making a real impact in the community of Notre Dame, the community

of South Bend, wherever everyone focuses their intentions,” Riley said. With Riley at the helm of this program, Irish fans can expect next season’s team to be more polished on offense and to build off their strong season. Contact Charlie Ortega Guifarro at cortegag@nd.edu

ND SOFTBALL | 36-16, 18-6 ACC

Notre Dame looks ahead to NCAA postseason run By JACK CONCANNON Sports Writer

With the NCAA postseason set to begin Friday, the Irish have built an impressive resume this season. Notre Dame (36-16, 18-6 ACC) is currently in second place in the ACC heading into the NCAA tournament after a tough 2-0 loss to Florida State in the second round of the conference tournament. The team has two hitters — senior outfielder Ali Wester and senior pitcher Cait Brooks hitting impressive batting averages of .425 and .422, respectively. Brooks has 20 home runs, the team leader. Irish head coach Deanna Gumpf said she is pleased with the team’s hitting. “This team has a lot of returners that are getting the job done for us this year,” Gumpf said. “They learned a lot from last season because if you would ask each one of them, I feel like they would say they did not perform at the level that they are capable of last year, and I think that they are this year. They’re putting in the time and the work to be able to be confident enough to have those numbers and get it done.” Prior to their loss in the second round of the ACC tournament, the team rode a 10-game win streak,

with seven on the road and all against conference opponents. The momentum pushed the Irish up the standings and gave them confidence in the back half of the season. Gumpf emphasized that the team is not worried about streaks, choosing to focus on each game as an individual challenge. “We don’t look at the streaks — we just look at the next game and what we have to do to win that game. This team realizes that it’s coming down to the crunch time. This is what we have played all year for,” Gumpf said. “Our goal is to play the very best softball we can be playing as a team right now for the entire year, and if we’re not what do we need to do to get there.” While most of the hitting is coming from returners, freshman pitcher Payton Tidd added a trusted arm to the team’s pitching corps. Last season, sophomore pitcher Alexis Holloway threw 228 out of the team’s defensive innings played. While the ace pitcher had a strong performance, she was forced to shoulder more of the load than was ideal. This season Tidd has thrown 168.2 innings and Holloway has thrown 112.1, with sophomore Morgan Ryan and Brooks combining for 50.3 innings pitched as well. This more balanced approach should keep Irish pitchers fresher, and Gumpf

believes Tidd’s breakout gives her more options. “Alexis carried the load all year last year. For Payton to come in and be a massive contributor for us has given us options,” Gumpf said. “It’s let Alexis breathe a little bit. Payton has done a great job flat out competing, because she’s a competitor and that’s why she has had so much success.” As the team approaches the NCAA tournament, it will continue to lean on its seniors as it has all year. The four seniors — Wester, Brooks, infielder MK Bonamy and infielder Melissa Rochford — have all made significant contributions as mainstays in the Irish lineup. Gumpf had high praise for her seniors as the end of their collegiate careers approaches. “The seniors have been incredible all year especially in conference play. I think they have really guided the way on what it takes to be successful in our conference,” Gumpf said. “We’re in a good position right now in our conference to head into the tournament and make some noise.” The Irish will begin their NCAA postseason run against Wisconsin this Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma. The first pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. Contact Jack Concannon at jconcan2@nd.edu

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Outstanding Senior Athletes

Irish seniors leave impressions on programs As softball squad prepares for Regionals, senior Cait Brooks buckles down after breakout season By HAYDEN ADAMS Associate Sports Editor

Irish senior designated player Cait Brooks didn’t think she would ever win ACC Softball Player of the Year. Even after being a standout player at Burbank High School in California — where she recorded over 80 wins and 1,000 strikeouts in her career as a pitcher. Even after being named the final ACC player of the week in her freshman season. Even after being named to the ACC Championship All-Tournament Team her sophomore and junior years, she was still surprised to win the award. “I think it’s really exciting and something I didn’t think would ever happen,” she said. Part of the surprise may be due to the fact the Brooks had never really broken out as a pitcher for the Irish, peaking at 25 appearances on the mound and 61.1 innings pitched in her second year. Despite the lack of production throwing the ball, Brooks contributed to the Irish (36-16, 18-6 ACC) as a hitter from the outset of her collegiate career. Her freshman campaign saw her lead the Irish in home runs with 11 and slugging percentage with a .639. In addition, Brooks posted the most RBIs by a Notre Dame freshman with 55 — 30 of which came while facing the pressure of having two outs. Brooks has also performed well in

her career against high-caliber opponents; she hit a game-tying solo home run to help the Irish defeat eventual national champion Oklahoma her sophomore year, and she scored Notre Dame’s first run in a victory over eventual national champion Florida State last year. During Brooks’ tenure, the Irish have steadily improved their standing not only in the ACC but nationally as well. The 2017 season saw Notre Dame go 34-23 and finish fifth in conference play at 13-11. Since then, the team has continued to post a winning record in the ACC and win more than 30 games overall in the past two years. They tied for fourth place in the conference last year and finished in third this year, boosting the Irish to No. 33 in the NCA A Women’s Softball RPI Poll. Brooks believes that her senior class has achieved what they set out to over the course of their careers and in their final season. “I think our senior class really came in strong, and that was kind of a goal we wanted to accomplish,” Brooks said. “so I think as a whole we really stayed as a unit and really wanted this team to be great, and I think we’ve accomplished that so far.” Despite the team’s improvement over the years, Brooks’ production actually diminished in her second see BROOKS PAGE 40

Tommy McCabe completes his collegiate career, now looking toward professional leagues By HAYDEN ADAMS Associate Sports Editor

Tommy McCabe’s contributions to Notre Dame have never been accurately measured with statistics. The junior center midfielder, who is graduating this weekend thanks to an early enrollment, only took 12 shots this season — failing to convert on any — and recorded two assists on the year. However, he has done far more for the team than can be represented with numbers. “Sophomore and junior years, [the mentality was,] ‘OK, now you’re a starter and what else can you do? What else can you provide for the team on and off the field? What role can you take in the locker room?’” McCabe said. “And for me, it was just providing a good example for other guys of how to have a professional attitude when it comes to soccer and putting in the work and the effort in practice and out of practice and just showing up every day, ’cause I think it’s hard for a lot of guys to be the big leader on the team. But doing those small things, a lot of the younger guys can look up to that and say, ‘I can do that, as well.’” McCabe said coming in early was something he benefited from, as it forced him to adapt and allowed him to develop a greater maturity level. “I came in a semester early … in January, 2016, so [I] kind of came in by myself,” McCabe said. “And that was an interesting kind of growth period,

where you’re the only new kid on the team — it’s not like you’re [with] the whole incoming class. But I think in the long run, that helped me when it came to the full season, because I had already adjusted to the school — adjusted to the team — and was able to kind of take a bigger role on the team from freshman year [onward].” Being thrown into the fire early proved successful for McCabe. Not only was he was named to the ACC AllFreshman Team in his first year, he was named the 10th-best freshman in the country by TopDrawerSoccer at the end of the year. McCabe’s success further manifested itself this year, as he was named to the All-ACC Third Team, and the Irish — despite a coaching change and an early-season losing spell — righted the ship and put together a solid season. “I think with the schedule that we have, we always know that it’s going to be a tough season and there’s going to be some ups and downs,” McCabe said. “We arguably have the best schedule in the country, and playing in the ACC, there’s always going to be tough games and tough stretches in the season when you look at the whole season. … I think even though that was a trying period, we were able to look at it with a positive perspective that, ‘Hey, we’re in these games, we can play with anyone in the country,’ and then later in the season, see McCABE PAGE 38

Track & Field

ND continues tradition of high standards Observer Sports Staff

The 2019 season saw both team and individual success for the men’s and women’s Notre Dame teams. In addition to the numerous personal records set by many members of the team, the Irish also saw strong finishes against ACC competition, as well as some medals brought home by several members of the team at the various meets the team participated in. After a long winter of workouts and multiple meets, three of which — the Blue & Gold Invitational, Notre Dame Invitational and Meyo Invitational — were held at home in Loftus Sports Center, the team competed in the ACC Indoor Championships, held at Virginia Tech on Feb. 21. The women’s team came in eighth place in a field of 15 teams, while the men took sixth out of 15. From the field side, notable performances came from junior Logan Kusky in the weight throw, where his mark of 21.37 meters was good for first place and a school record. Sophomore Rachel Tanczos

also took first place in the same event on the women’s side of the house, as well as a school record, while junior Abbey Kapitan followed her with a second-place finish. The biggest moment of the year for the squad came during the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, where the men took home the gold in the distance medley relay (DMR) on March 8. The team finished the race — composed of a 1,200-meter run, followed by a 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,600-meter run — in 9:31.55. The relay team was composed of freshman Dylan Jacobs, senior Edward Cheatham, sophomore Samuel Voelz and sophomore Yared Nuguse. As the weather warmed up and track transitioned from the indoor to outdoor season, the squad participated in meets across the country, breaking personal bests and collecting medals. Their meets included heading west for the Stanford Invitational, south for the North Florida Invitational, east for the prestigious Penn Relays, as well as staying closer

to home for the Jesse Owens Invitational hosted by Ohio State. The team began the postseason at the ACC Championships, hosted by Virginia. On the team side, the squad’s collective efforts were good to earn a seventh-place finish. The biggest moment of the year for the squad came during the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, where the men took home the gold in the distance medley relay (DMR) on March 8. The team finished the race — composed of a 1,200-meter run, followed by a 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,600-meter run — in 9:31.55. The relay team was composed of freshman Dylan Jacobs, senior Edward Cheatham, sophomore Samuel Voelz and sophomore Yared Nuguse. As the weather warmed up and track transitioned from the indoor to outdoor season, the squad participated in meets across the country, breaking personal bests and collecting medals. Their meets included heading west for the see T&F PAGE 38

ANNA MAson | The Observer

Irish rising sophomore Jackie Gaughan distances herself ahead of the pack during Notre Dame’s Meyo Invitational on Feb. 2 at home.

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McCabe these games will go our way and we’ll get those big wins that you need to have a good season.” The Irish (11-7-3, 4-3-1 ACC) certainly did get the big wins they needed, including a 0-0 second round tournament win over Michigan decided by penalty kicks 11-10 in favor of the Irish. McCabe brought a muchneeded veteran poise to the game once regulation ended. “We watched Michigan and Princeton go to like 14 rounds of PKs that Thursday, and we’re all watching it amazed and shocked like, ‘There’s no way this can happen again,’ and sure enough it happens again,” McCabe said. “But being fifth [in the kicking order], you know at that point, it’s pretty much sudden death the way it laid out. So, you just want to be calm and take the PK the way I’ve always taken one, and we’ve done a lot of practice of it

in the postseason. I wasn’t too worried — I knew where I was going to go, and then [I] just put it there and thankfully the goalie went the other way.” Notre Dame went on to defeat Virginia in overtime in the round of 16 before falling to Indiana 1-0 in the quarterfinals. While the team fell short of its ultimate goal, McCabe said the season was a success. “I think it was a special year,” McCabe said. “It was different than years in the past with the coaching change, and then we had a longer tournament run, and that’s always good to end the tournament in December. Obviously, we would’ve liked to go to the next weekend, but I think when you look back on the season, we were pleased with how it went, and the guys that are there want to build on that and the program wants to build on that for the years to come.” McCabe was drafted with the 29th overall pick (second round) of the MLS Draft

by FC Cincinnati, and he was loaned to North Carolina FC in February. With his Irish career over, McCabe is now fulfilling his lifelong dream of playing soccer professionally, an opportunity he doesn’t take for granted. “Ever since I started playing soccer from an early age, I always dreamed of being a professional soccer player,” McCabe said. “And then later on, playing for youth national teams and then in college, it became more of a reality and more of a goal that I wanted to achieve. So finally achieving that by being drafted and then so far in my first season it’s been great. [It took] a lot of the hard work that I’ve put in and still put in to this day to achieve that, so I’m just grateful for what’s happened so far — the opportunities that Cincinnati and North Carolina FC have given me.”

a seventh-place finish for the women and a ninth-place finish for the men in a field of 15 teams. In addition to the solid team finishes, some members of the squad brought home individual titles. Nuguse took gold in the 1,500-meter

run, and sophomore Andrew Alexander took third place in the 5,000-meter run. Senior Anna Rohrer took gold in the 10,000-meter run, followed closely behind by freshman Madelynn Denner, who won the silver medal. Senior Rachel

DaDamio also medaled for the Irish, taking second place in the 5,000-meter run. The Irish are preparing to compete in the NCAA East Regional meet May 23 to 25, hosted by the North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida.

Continued from page 36

CONNERY MCFADDEN | The Observer

Former Irish midfielder Tommy McCabe looks to pass to a teammate during Notre Dame’s 2-1 overtime loss to Indiana on Sept. 11 at home.

T&F Continued from page 36

Stanford Invitational, south for the North Florida Invitational, east for the prestigious Penn Relays, as well as staying closer

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ND WoMEN’s Golf

ND MEN’s Golf

Delgado successful amid ‘disappointing’ year for ND By GRANT DELVECCHIO Sports Writer

While Notre Dame fell short of their team goal this past season, the Irish were able find a silver lining. In just his second season at the helm for the Irish, head coach John Handrigan sent senior captain Miguel Delgado to the NCAA Championship, the first time an Irish golfer went in five years. The Irish competed in 10 total tournaments between the fall and spring seasons and were able to record six top-five finishes out of the 10. Despite these results, Handrigan believes that his team is capable of much more. “To be honest we’ve got pretty high standards here at Notre Dame and Notre Dame golf, and for our team not to make the national tournament as a team is pretty disappointing and not something that we’re going to accept going forward,” Handrigan said. “It wasn’t a down year, as we’re improving each year. I’ve been here two years now and this team has gotten better every year, but it’s still nowhere near where it needs to be, so the improvement is there on a positive note.” The Irish opened up tournament play for the fall season at the Badger Invitational, where they were able to post a lower score in each day of competition but ultimately finished in eighth place. Three Irish golfers placed in the top 25, including freshmen Taichi Kho and Andrew O’Leary. Handrigan’s squad next took their talents to the Northern Intercollegiate, where they were runner-up by a single stroke to Marquette. Junior Hunter Ostrom turned in a strong performance for the Irish, taking home the individual championship after posting a career low score of 68 (-4) in the final round of play. The victory was Ostrom’s first individual title, and he became the second Irish individual tournament winner since 2014. For the tournament, Ostrom also posted a career-best 54-hole score of 210 (-6). The team then finished in fifth place at the Old Town Club Collegiate Invitational, and for the second time in the team’s first three tournaments, a freshman led the way. O’Leary shot under par in all three rounds and earned himself a 12th-place finish overall at 206 (-4). Then, after a fairly strong showing in each of the first three tournaments, the Irish geared up for the Fighting Irish Classic at home at Warren Golf Course. While Notre Dame finished in fifth place, junior John Felitto broke the 54-hole program record after carding a score of 200 (-13) to finish third overall individually.

“We didn’t play poorly by any means,” Handrigan said. “A fifthplace finish isn’t what we expected, but there’s a lot of great teams in this 15-team field.” Notre Dame then completed the fall season with an eighthplace finish at the Quail Valley Collegiate. At the tournament, Delgado earned his first top-10 finish of the season after finishing in seventh place at 211 (-5). Following a four-month break from tournament play, Notre Dame resumed action in the spring at The Prestige, hosted by Stanford in mid-February. The highlight of the tournament came via strong play from Kho. He finished the final day of competition in 24th place after posting an overall score of 219 (+6), his second top-25 finish of the season. The freshman was able to move up a total of 42 spots in the final two rounds of play. “It was a great last two days for Taichi and impressive for a freshman in that field and difficult of course,” Handrigan said after the tournament. After several weeks off, the Irish got back into tournament action at The Schenkel, placing third with a score of 861 (-3) in their best finish in eight years at the tournament. Delgado and O’Leary sat in the driver seat for the Irish, both earning top-10 finishes. Delgado posted a weekend total of 212 (-4), which earned him fifth place at the tournament — the best individual finish at The Schenkel by a Notre Dame golfer ever. After a final round 73, O’Leary found himself in a tie for seventh place with a score of 213 (-3). Delgado then earned his second top-five finish in a row at the Tar Heel Intercollegiate, finishing in a tie for second place with a 213 (-3). The showing was Delgado’s fifth under-par finish out of the previous six tournaments. As a team, Notre Dame took fifth out of 14 teams, posting a three-round total of 878 (+14), and was able to climb seven spots in the leaderboards in round two. In the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational, Delgado was again the bright spot for Notre Dame. The senior finished in a tie for 16th place with a three-under par finish at 213, which included a sixunder par 66 in the final round. Delgado’s 66 was the squad’s best individual round of the season and the furthest under-par performance of his career. The score also happened to be the 10th round of 66 or better on a par-72 course by a Notre Dame golfer since 1962. Overall, the Irish left Forest Hills Golf Club with a fifthplace finish after posting a threeday team score of 853 (-11). In the last round, the nine-under team score of 279 was the best of the season, and the fifth under-270

round for Notre Dame all season. While Delgado performed at a high level personally over the course of the season, the senior also believes that the program as a whole is headed in the right direction. “I think the program is growing — obviously I know the new coaching staff has been great, they’ve helped me a lot as a golfer,” Delgado said. “I learned a lot of things again about what I need to do to be successful, and I think we set ourselves up for better success by playing better competition, and I think that the new coaching staff has pushed us harder.” The Irish closed out their regular-season schedule with a seventh-place finish at the Boilermaker Invitational. The team finished with an even score of 586, which placed them two strokes out of a top-five finish despite the third round of the event being cancelled due to inclement weather. Delgado collected his fourth-consecutive tournament under-par after finishing threeunder par and in a tie for 12th place. As a captain, Delgado said he hoped to instill in his players valuable lessons in terms of the proper way to act and carry oneself both on and off the course based on his own actions. He said he believes that golf is a sport through which you can take away life lessons such as how to remain calm in tough situations and control one’s emotions and temper. “I’m not positive, but I hope I’ve had an impact on the guys that have been on the team with me,” he said. “I guess what I consider to be my biggest achievement is the sort of impact I’ve had on the younger guys, and hopefully I pushed them to be better players. If I’ve done even a little bit of that then I will have left Notre Dame feeling that I’ve had an impact and that my presence here was worthwhile.” Delgado then went on to shoot his lowest 54-hole score of the season at the ACC Championships with a 209 (-7). Delgado finished in seventh place, also a personal postseason best finish. As a team, the Irish finished with a 869 (+5), landing themselves with an 11thplace finish out of 12 teams. “Miguel led our team all year, he played some excellent golf, especially in the spring,” Handrigan said. “He’s the first player that I can remember at least in 20 years of coaching that his individual score counted for every team round this year. … That’s really rare in college golf, and I’ve never seen it in all the teams I’ve coached.”

Women struggle through season By JACK CONCANNON Sports Writer

It was a challenging season for the Irish. They finished no higher than fifth as a team in any tournament, despite getting impressive individual performances from different players in each match. Irish head coach Susan Holt said the team struggled to find consistency. “We didn’t play as well as we were capable of,” Holt said. “Obviously, it’s disappointing. We had a lot of talent on our team and we just could not get it all together. We got a lot of good individual standout performances, really in every tournament. We just could not get the four scores that we needed to back up those good scores.” The individual performances Holt praised came from across the Irish roster. Senior Emma Albrecht, sophomore Abby Heck and senior Isabella DiLisio all posted top 10 individual finishes during the season, but were unable to consistently finish in the top half of all competitions to give their team an opportunity for high finishes. Holt said she is considering all options to get better results next season. “We need to play better,”

she said. “That’s the bottom line, we have the talent. We need to re-evaluate some things about how we practice. Try to be better prepared for the future and try to be more competitive in practice so that we are more competitive in tournaments. We’re going to try to mix it up a little bit and see if we can get a little more creative and hopefully get some better results.” While the team did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament, Emma Albrecht was able to qualify for regionals in East Lansing as an individual. The all-time Notre Dame leader in scoring average finished at 13 over par in a tie for 56th after the three-day tournament to end her collegiate career. Holt had high praise for the graduating senior. “She’s had a great career. She was the leader of our program,” she said. “ … You have to be an avid golfer to appreciate the four-year consistency that she showed. I have been at this for 29 years, and I have not really seen anything like it. The level of play in our game is so deep and competitive it’s impressive to what she was able to do.” Contact Jack Concannon at jconcan2@nd.edu

ANN Curtis | The Observer

Contact Grant Delvecchio at gdelvecc@nd.edu

Irish freshman Claire Albrecht looks after her putt during an exhibiton match at Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course on Aug 24.

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ND Women’s Tennis

Individual performances highlight ND season Observer Sports Staff

Under the direction of new head coach Alison Silverio, 46thranked Notre Dame saw significant improvements in individual and team performances. The Irish (13-12, 5-9 ACC) kicked off their season with a hot start, going on a three-match

winning streak, claiming 20 matches while only dropping one to ACC-opponent Pittsburgh. Despite dropping the next two matches after that, the Irish went on another win streak, earning five-straight victories, four of which came at home at Eck Tennis Pavilion. Notre Dame also earned

themselves the 10th seed in the ACC championships, where they beat Pittsburgh 4-1 before having their season come to an end against seventh-seeded Virginia, 4-1. The Irish had two players ranked in the ITA national rankings. Junior Zoe Spence earned a ranking in singles as well as in

doubles with her partner, sophomore Cameron Corse. Corse and Spence also earned third team All-ACC honors. Spence finished the year ranked 74th in singles and 43rd in doubles along with Corse. Spence finished the season with a 17-13 overall record in singles and 18-9 in doubles. Head coach Alison Silverio Paid Advertisement

Brooks Continued from page 36

and third years, due in part to the increased attention she received from pitchers as a verified batting threat. Her batting average, slugging percentage and total hits all fell with each passing year. However, Brooks said she put the pieces together by placing more emphasis on her mental preparation. “I think, just for me, I took watching film and preparing myself prior to the game a little bit more in-depth versus in previous years,” Brook said. “So I think using that as an adjustment into this season was definitely a major factor.” This season was the definition of a breakout, as Brooks shattered her previous statistics. She set the school record for home runs with 20 in the regular season, more than her sophomore and junior season totals combined. In addition, she improved all her batting numbers significantly from her junior year while recording the same number of at-bats. Her batting average increased from .272 to .422, her slugging percentage jumped from .469 to .884 and she increased her hits from 40 to 62 and her RBIs from 38 to 56. Her mental preparation was evident as she also decreased the number of times she struck out from 18 to 10, all culminating in a .516 on base percentage and causing pitchers to walk her 33 times. After the regular season, Brooks led the conference in home runs, batting average, slugging percentage, on base percentage and total bases, and she placed second in RBIs. Her achievements were recognized as she was named Player of the Year in the ACC and selected to the All-ACC First Team — even more impressive considering she didn’t make a single All-ACC team prior to this year. She also became only the second Notre Dame player to ever win the award and said that she hopes the honor does not remain an uncommon to Irish players going forward. “I didn’t know [I was only the second], so that’s really awesome,” Brooks said. “I

hope there’s plenty more after me.” Brooks said that the award means a lot to her as a designated player, since most accolades go to players in the field. “I think it’s great especially [because] … hitting and being able to contribute at the plate, I think that being recognized for that is really awesome, and it kind of paves the way for other hitters and people who might not necessarily see the field as much,” she said. Despite her individual success, Brooks acknowledges that she couldn’t have gotten to this point by herself. “I really couldn’t do it without my team,” Brooks said. “They’re always there supporting me.” With the ACC tournament finished, the Irish are preparing for their regional matches, and Brooks is looking forward to the opportunity presented to the team. “I want to win the regional — win some regionals and win the [College] World Series,” Brooks said. “[That’s] the ultimate goal.” With the ACC Player of the Year at the helm, no goal is too far out of reach. Contact Hayden Adams at hadams3@nd.edu Paid Advertisement

also earned honors when she was named into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame. Despite graduating two members from the team in Rachel Chong and Brooke Broda, the Irish will be returning several key starters for next season, in which they hope to improve further.

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ND MEN’S TENNIS | 17-15, 5-7 ACC

Three Irish players qualify for nationals Observer Sports Staff

The Notre Dame men’s tennis team season enjoyed a good season, w ith a solid record and NCA A tournament berth. The squad, which was ranked as high as the 11th team in the countr y for parts of the year, finished the year 17-15 overall, w ith a 5-7 record in ACC play. The teams strength this year allowed them to qualif y for the NC A A tennis tournament as an atlarge team. Unfortunately, the squad was unable to advance as they lost a close match to Vanderbilt 4-3 in the opening round. The men’s tennis season is a year round affair. The squad began play in September in tournaments all around the countr y. In one of these tournaments, the Gopher Challenge at Minnesota, junior Matt

Gamble and senior Grayson Broadus, were named Gopher Inv itational Champions. Freshman A lex Nev fe and sophomore William Howells also enjoyed success in one of these fall tournaments, taking first and second respectively at the Dick Vitale Clay Court Inv itational. As the regular season began play, the Irish had high hopes, as they were ranked 18th in the countr y in the preseason rankings. The squad got off to a hot start, w inning 8 of their first 9 matches, and climbing steadily in the rankings. As the season progressed and the competition stiffened, the Irish dropped more and more close matches. The team qualified for the ACC tournament and went in as the 9th seed. The squad defeated Virginia Tech in their first match, before falling to

the eventual champion Wake Forest in a close match, 4-3. The squad then qualified for the NCA A tournament before falling to Vanderbilt in the first round, ending the teams season. W hile the season for the team at large is over, 3 Irish tennis players qualified for the NCA A indiv idual tournament. Senior A lex Lebedev qualified for the singles tournament, and the doubles duo comprised of sophomore Ryan Ciamarra and sophomore Tristan McCormick qualified as well. Play for the indiv idual tournament begins May 20. Other indiv idual honors for the Irish came when the A ll-ACC honors were announced. Nev fe earned second team A ll-ACC honors, while Lebedev and Ciamarra both earned third-team A llACC honors.

KENDRA OSINSKI | The Observer

Irish senior Grayson Broadus makes a forehand hit during Notre Dame’s 7-0 win over Toledo on March 24 at Courtney Tennis Center.

CROSS COUNTRY

Program raises the bar in distance running By CHARLIE ORTEGA GUIFARRO Sports Writer

Cross-countr y at Notre Dame has raised the bar. The men’s team had gone several years without qualif ying for the national meet but this past season finished in the national top 15. Add in their ACC meet title, and the men’s side has seen a resurgence. On the women’s side, the team finished eighth in the national championships after failing to qualif y last year with star runner senior Anna Rohrer injured. Furthermore, they were just a point away from winning the ACC meet. Assistant coach Sean Carlson — who coaches the men’s side — said his team exceeded expectations this past season in conference and national play. “Coming into the conference meet, we were ranked fourth in preseason coaches’ poll,” Carlson said. “And then going into the national meet in preseason we weren’t even ranked. And we were 14th [in the national meet] and we won [conference].” Carlson attributed the rise in success of the men’s team to the years of work that the coaching staff has put into expanding the program. “This past fall was the result of a couple of years of accumulation,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming, slowly building the program and growing the program. The guys that have bought into the program are getting

older now, and they’ve had a little bit more time to develop in our system, and I think that was a big part of winning the conference meet this past year.” Head coach Matt Sparks named freshman Danny Kilrea and sophomore Yared Nuguse as two big reasons for the team’s success. “They arrived at the national meet by Danny Kilrea,” Sparks said. “And they had a strong one-two punch with Yared Nuguse — who was our top runner of the conference meet — but they kind of pushed them into the winner’s circle with Yared rising up at the conference meet. But Danny rose up at the national meet to earn AllAmerican status as a true freshman.” The men will retain nine of their top 10 runners next year, ensuring there will be plenty of potential for sustained success. The women’s side got Rohrer back this year and was able to meet its goals for the year. Sparks praised the performance of graduate student Jessica Harris, as well as Rohrer, for their top-10 finish in the national meet. “The women’s team culminated with their eighth place in the NCA A Championship,” Sparks said. “One of the goals coming into the year was finishing top-10 at the national meet. Mission accomplished. Anna Rohrer was going to be a mainstay for us up front. But the big performance that carried that eighth-place finish was Jessica Harris. She

stepped up when we needed it the most in the national meet to help us get over the top.” Rohrer — who will run next year for her fourth year of eligibility — missed the entire 2017 season after the coaching staff decided to let her have as much time as possible to recover from injur y. Sparks noted how important Rohrer is to the team. “During Anna’s time here, her first year we finished eighth in the countr y, her second year we finished 11th, the year she didn’t run we didn’t qualif y [for nationals] and then for her third year of eligibility, we’re back at eighth again,” he said. “You can see the impact she makes on the team. W hen she’s running, we’re a consistent top-15 team in the countr y. W hen she’s not, we struggle to qualif y for the meet.” Despite losing to NC State at ACC’s by one point, the women’s team beat the Wolfpack at the national meet two weeks later. Unlike the men’s team, the women’s side will have some rebuilding to do next season, as graduate students Harris and Sydney Foreman and senior Rachel DaDamio will also be ineligible for more running, leaving the team without three veterans and with a tough task ahead as they tr y to stay in the top 10. On the bright side, Rohrer and Jacqueline Gaughan — one of the top freshmen in the nation last year — will return to lead the team.

There’s excitement within the cross-countr y program after this season, and expectations will be higher next year for a program that

seems to be improving ever y year. Contact Charlie Ortega Guifarro at cortegag@nd.edu

CONNERY MCFADDEN | The Observer

Irish rising junior Brian Griffith competes at Notre Dame’s National Catholic Invitational on Sept. 14 at Burke Golf Course.

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Women’s Swimming

Notre Dame sends 12 total athletes to NCAAs By INIGO YTURRALDE Sports Writer

The Irish had a recordbreaking season, competing and performing at a high level across all collegiate competitions, both during the regular season and during the postseason. Notre Dame finished the season undefeated in all dual meets, placing fourth in the ACC Championships and sending 12 swimmers to the NCAA Championships, receiving a record eight individual invitations to the meet. The year’s veteran lineup was spearheaded by eight

seniors. Head swim coach Mike Litzinger attributed much of the team’s success to the guidance and culture of leadership on the team. “The highlight [of the season] was in four years us moving from eighth to fourth place in elite,” Litzinger said. “The senior class is very impactful for us to finish in that elite area of the ACC. The other piece was having 15 women qualifying for the NCAAs. With three being our first year, now we’ve got 15 there.” Litzinger said the team had more of a presence at tournaments this year than in years

past. “Our women learned to race with the elite in the ACC,” Litzinger said. “I feel really good about that. They were undefeated in the dual meets. They learned how to swim and dive as a team and that is huge.” This season, senior Nikki Smith set a school record in the 200-meter fly, senior Alice Treuth set a school record in the 200-meter back and junior Abbie Dolan set a school record in the 100-meter free. All three of swimmers were also named All-American honorable mentions at the NCAA meet. Notre Dame had three

divers qualify for the NCAA Championships — sophomore Kelly Straub, junior Erin Isola and freshman Annie Wiese. All three divers will be returning next year, ready to compete for another spot at the NCAA level. Litzinger said despite the senior departures, he expects returning athletes to contribute greatly. “We’re losing a lot of experience in those senior women, but we have a junior class that is ready to pick the slack up, become leaders and do their jobs,” he said. Looking to next year, Litzinger says the future is

bright for the Irish women’s swimming and diving teams. “We have the No. 4 recruit in the country coming in on the women’s side,” Litzinger said. “She was recruited by absolutely the best teams in the country. Coleen Gillilan is her name. She is signed, sealed and delivered. She’ll be here this summer. Now we are starting to recruit at that elite level on the women’s side.” Setting a new standard this season, the women’s team will look to return stronger than ever. Contact Inigo Yturralde at iyturralde@nd.edu

ROWING

Crew records laboring yet rewarding season By PATRICK GALLAGHER Sports Writer

Notre Dame’s season was filled with travel across the country, as it experienced both defeat and victory. In March, the Irish began their spring season at the Cardinal Invitational in Oakridge, Tennessee. Four out of the five Irish boats finished in first place above the field, and the fastest time was posted by Notre Dame’s first varsity eight at 5:46.098. A month later, the Irish traveled to the Lake Natoma Invitational in California, racing against crews from the USC, Gonzaga, Sacramento State, California, Stanford, Tulsa, Miami and Brown. Notre Dame’s first and second varsity eights came in second place behind USC, posting times of 6:41.03 and 6:46.24 seconds, respectively. Later that month, Notre Dame raced close to home in Bloomington, Indiana, at the Dale England Cup. In races versus Indiana and Michigan State, the Irish were able to win the third varsity four event, with the first varsity

eight grabbing a hard-fought second place finish by edging out the Spartans by about a second. Notre Dame then competed in the Longhorn Invitational in Austin, Texas, where they struggled against a tough field. The first varsity eight posted a time of 6:38.95, about 16 seconds slower than the race’s winner — Texas. Irish head coach Martin Stone commented on the difficulty of Notre Dame’s schedule as he ref lected on the year as a whole. “There has been some very good points and some not so good points,” Stone said. “In terms of racing, we have done well, but we have been a little inconsistent. However, we have raced a really hard racing schedule, so that’s why our win-loss ratio is not so great. The races were tough by design to prepare us as we go into the postseason. We have seen extremely fast teams, so we know the effort required to race at that level going forward.” Stone further explained that the Irish’s schedule was one of the most grueling

challenges that the team had to face, but he also said that they learned a lot from the races. “The biggest challenge is that our race schedule is really tough. By the time we are done with the ACC tournament, we will have raced 10 or 12 of the top 20 crews in the nation and that difficulty has been the toughest aspect of the season,” Stone said. “We’ve had great growth because of this, and we look forward to racing these top teams. Racing against the best crews allows us to know what it takes to go that fast. There are no surprises anymore.” As the season winds down, the Irish are ready to rebound after a slower performance in Texas, preparing for a strong showing at the ACC Championship in Clemson, South Carolina, on Lake Hartwell beginning on Friday. Notre Dame’s first varsity eight is seeded third behind strong crews from Syracuse and Virginia. The Irish’s second and third varsity eight are seeded fourth in their respective races, and

both of Notre Dame’s varsity fours will race seeded third. Stone outlined how the team has been structuring their practice schedule as they prepare for some of the biggest races of the year. “We have a workout schedule … that is based on how many days there are until a major race,” Stone said. “We are racing next Friday night, so we will work backwards from there and determine our workout for the day.” With the length of the season setting in, Stone said he admired the energ y and toughness each rower brings to each and every practice despite inclement weather, weariness and off days. “I am most proud of my team’s daily fortitude in practice,” he said. “They have been training really hard in all kinds of climates. We have rowed in driving rain, freezing cold temperature and boiling hot temperature. Everyone comes to practice each day with an attitude of learning and determination. They want to get better and stronger. Even if they might not be having a great day,

they try their best and contribute all they have to the team.” Stone was also impressed by his team’s effort in practice that he described it as his favorite development of the season. “The highlight for me was how the team responded to some of the toughest workouts that we have done,” Stone explained. “They have attacked these challenges head on even when the team was in the middle of a very heav y training workload. They always got their workouts done, and that was really impressive.” At the end of this season, the Irish will graduate nine rowers in the senior class: Kelly Fischer, Bridget Geyer, Jennifer Groth, Evie McManus, Laura Migliore, Molly Pierce, Elizabeth Schrieber, Katie Wiedenhoft and Ashley Young. The remainder of the team is very young with 18 freshman, 17 sophomores and 12 juniors on the roster. With so many underclassmen to lead, the see ROWING PAGE 46

Men’s Swimming

Young team takes 6th at ACC Championships By INIGO YTURRALDE Sports Writer

This year, the Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving teams really began to hit their stride. The team competed in nine meets over the course of the season, in addition to the ACC and NCA A competitions. The squad was very young, comprised of 10 freshman and six sophomores. With that, the team managed to secure a sixth-place finish at the ACC

Championships and send four swimmers to the NCA A Championships. Head coach Mike Litzinger praised his swimmers’ development as the season progressed. “I almost think that we hit a really great spot coming off last year’s ACCs and we had some success at the NCA A level,” said Litzinger. “[This year,] we almost had to take a step back to reform for our future. Since we were so young this year and

inexperienced, we kind of dropped back a spot at the ACC meet, but we did that in order so that we can get some experience to move forward. Our growth is ahead of us on the men’s side. … We’re going to do some great things as a team in the future.” Many of the underclassmen swimmers on the team saw success this year. Sophomore Zach Yeadon received All-American Honorable Mention honors for his finishes in the 500-meter

free and in the mile at the NCA A Championship. This is the second year in a row that Yeadon has received an All-American honor. Additionally, freshman Josh Bottelberghe represented Notre Dame at the NCA A competition in the 200-meter breaststroke, finishing his race with a time of 1:56.25. Litzinger said there was a change in the team’s culture this season. “It’s growth. It’s a matter of us learning how to be

elite in the pool and living an elite lifestyle away from the pool,” said Litzinger. “We’re certainly heading in that direction. … I think that [the team sees] how great they can be and that adds excitement and that kind of excitement is contagious. … With a big freshman class coming in next year … the attitudes are changing and therefore the goals truly change as well.” Contact Inigo Yturralde at iyturralde@nd.edu

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Hockey Continued from page 32

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ever could. “Frankly, it was the furthest thing from my mind,” Jackson joked. “Those personal accolades are of course far less important than the team. For me, the crowd at Compton that night, the band, the student section, is everything I had dreamt about when I took the job here, and I was always hoping we could have that kind of environment for college hockey here on the Notre Dame campus. It was a great experience and a great environment, and winning back to back conference championships is certainly a positive for our program and bodes well for the future.” After Notre Dame’s recent four-year run of success, Jackson also spoke about how his program has developed into the national powerhouse it is today since he became the head coach 14 years ago. “I think there has really been three phases to our development as a program,” Jackson said. “The first of which was really building a culture of excellence around here in those first three or four years. The second part was establishing an identity for our program, or what people from the outside perceive us to be. That was certainly impacted by the Compton Arena, as well as our recruiting. The third part was our transition of conferences, first from the CCHA to Hockey East and then making the move to the Big Ten. That really gave our program the national exposure to continue to grow.” With all of the youth on this Irish squad, the future looks bright. A number of juniors like Morrison and former AllAmerican goaltender Cale Morris will also be returning next year for their senior seasons. Jackson believes next year’s team will have all the right pieces to be dangerous once again. “I’d like to believe that with the character of our returning group, they’re all going to be highly motivated to help our team take another step forward,” Jackson said. “We’ve definitely got the right ingredients to be successful. We’ve got goaltending, we’ll have a solid defensive core, and I think another year of experience for many of our younger forwards is certainly going to help them. “Guys like Cam Morrison and Cal Burke will hopefully add in career type years, which will certainly bode well for us offensively. Everyone needs to step up in their specific roles, and if they do that we could definitely have a great season. The focus right now is of course on having a great offseason and the guys getting themselves ready to have a great start next fall.” Contact Colin Capece at ccapece@nd.edu

Sports

The observer | FRIDAY, May 17, 2019 | ndsmcobserver.com

nd men’s basketball | 14-19, 3-15 ACC

Injuries, inexperience plague Irish in ACC By GRANT DelVECCHIO Sports Writer

In what was supposed to be a significant rebuild from last season, Notre Dame struggled to find its groove in the ACC, ultimately ending their season in the second round of the conference tournament. Head coach Mike Brey’s squad fell to Louisville and tied for last place in the ACC to record the worst conference winning percentage (.167) in program history. Furthermore, the team shot just 31.5% from 3-point range this past season, which is just the second time in Brey’s 18-year tenure with Notre Dame that one of his teams has shot below 35% from beyond the arc. Notre Dame’s (14-19, 3-15 ACC) season was marred with injuries, which didn’t help a team that was already young and inexperienced being that five out of the Irish’s eleven players were freshmen. The team lost early on to the Radford in a non-conference matchup, and then struggled to close out Coppin State Eagles, who finished 8-25 overall on the season. The Irish also struggled to beat the teams on the bottom of the ACC standings, such as Pittsburgh, Wake Forest and Miami, who finished the ACC season a combined 12-42. After suffering major injuries to two senior leaders last season, Irish fans were faced with more of the same this season. This year, while senior captain Rex Pflueger was putting up career-best numbers in points, assists, rebounds and blocks, the senior went down in a game against Purdue with a torn ACL. Pflueger is set to return to finish his eligibility next season, but this year his absence was noticeable on a team that had six guys who were making their collegiate debut. Freshman Robby Carmody found himself on the bench early on after tearing his labrum. Carmody’s injury came at an unfortunate time as he was entering the rotation and earning solid minutes before going down. Rising senior Juwan Durham, who missed the entire 2017-2018 season after transferring from UConn, also missed significant time after suffering an ankle injury.

Rowing Continued from page 44

nine seniors were very important to the development of the team as a whole and experience rubbed off on their teammates. “[The seniors] have continued in a tradition of growth, maturing and learning the

As the Irish’s best rim protector and an elite defender, the loss of Durham definitely hurt the Irish, who went 1-7 as a team in the month of January. Additionally, senior captain Elijah Burns elected to transfer in November, which meant that freshman Chris Doherty had to suit up for games despite most likely planning on redshirting this season. Newcomers contributed 36% of minutes on this year’s team, and the percentage of total minutes played by seniors and grad-students this year was 13%, which is the lowest of any team under Brey’s leadership. Towards the tail end of the season, the Irish had a home matchup against Zion Williamson and the Duke. While the team did lose, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski was impressed by the effort that Notre Dame showed against his team despite being noticeably undermanned and out-matched. Brey, a former Blue Devils assistant, is the only one of Krzyzewski’s former assistants or players to have ever beaten Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils, having done so five times. After an embarrassing 27-point loss at the hands of then-No. 4 and eventual national champion Virginia inside Purcell Pavilion in late January, Notre Dame traveled to John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Feb. 16 and showed a much better effort on the court the second time around, losing 60-54. Unfortunately, this second loss to Virginia began a lateseason, seven-game losing streak for Notre Dame which the Irish ended by picking up a victory against Georgia Tech in the first-round of the ACC Tournament. In total, Brey continually referred to the offense as the area most in need of improvement, specifically in terms of scoring and rebounding. In a 75-61 loss to Louisville on March 3, the Irish were outrebounded 49-30 and shot only 4-of-14 from the free throw line. Overall, it was the physicality and maturity of Louisville that ended up being too much for Notre Dame in this game specifically, but this was in fact the story line of nearly every Irish loss this past

season. The one major and consistent bright spot for Notre Dame this season came behind the stellar play of rising senior captain John Mooney. Mooney, a 6-foot-9 native of Orlando, Florida, was runnerup for the ACC most improved player award this past season, and was a force on both ends of the floor for the Irish. In the 2017-2018 season, Mooney averaged 5.6 points per game, and 3.9 rebounds per game while shooting 48% from the field. This past season, Mooney’s development skyrocketed, and the Irish big man finished the year leading the ACC in rebounds at 11.2 per game to go along with a 14.1 points per game average, all while shooting 37% from 3-point and 46% overall. Additionally, his 8.3 defensive rebounds per game ranked fourth in the entire country, and he finished as one of just seven major conference players to finish the year averaging a double-double. Mooney logged eight consecutive double-doubles during a stretch from January into February, and his 13 regular season double-doubles in ACC play were the most by any player since Tim Duncan recorded 15 in the 1996-1997 season. Overall, Mooney’s impressive numbers enabled him to be awarded Third Team All-ACC, and he finished the year with 20 double-doubles in 33 games. Mooney attributes much of his personal growth and development on the basketball court to a combination of coaching and family. ”Here at [Notre Dame], one of our assistant coaches, coach [Ryan] Humphrey, is the bigs’ main coach and he’s been phenomenal and very instrumental in helping me grow as a player. He’s great with the little stuff; the little techniques offensively and defensively. … He played here at Notre Dame, he played in the NBA for a little while, he played overseas, so he knows the game and he sees it differently. He’s been able to help me with little grownman type stuff in the post, and he’s been awesome with that. I think my dad and my brother are both very instrumental, they watch all of my games and critique me and give me

pointers and stuff like that so they have been and will continue to be great for me in terms of growing,“ Mooney said. Mooney also commented on the fact that his dad and brother were the ones who inspired his love for basketball in the first place. ”I got into [basketball] at a very young age, my dad and brother got me into it,“ Mooney said. ”… My senior year I took a visit here and right when I stepped foot on campus I knew it was the place for me in terms of faith, and school and basketball it was just an awesome mix of all of those.“ While Mooney attests that he and his teammates weren‘t pleased with the outcome of the season, the blossoming big man is hopeful for the future, and is happy with the fact that some of the younger guys were able to get some much needed experience. ”I think as a whole [this season] was kind of disappointing,“ Mooney said. ”Just talking about the season as a whole, we had a lot of guys hurt … I think it was good to get experience especially for the younger guys; five new freshmen coming in, five guys played a lot of minutes and they got good experience so I think we can really use that going forward. I think personally it was just a good year to kind of develop my leadership, coach Brey challenged T.J. [Gibbs] and I who were kind of the leaders … in terms of how we could lead during crisis situations. I think it was good to get that leadership experience heading into next year.“ Moving forward, Mooney believes that the squad is motivated now more than ever, and they are eager to get back to their winning ways. ”I think as a whole the morale in the locker room is very high, just the fact that we had a disappointing season is very motivating for guys going into the offseason. We’re working very hard right now, and I think the other part of it is that we have everyone coming back. Literally 10 guys that have played major minutes are coming back to play and that’s definitely something that not a lot of other teams have, especially in the conference. … Our expectations are high, the

number one goal is to get back to the NCAA tournament, and then from there make a run.” Mooney said. One player in particular who struggled at points throughout his junior season was Gibbs. The junior had his scoring average drop by nearly two points, his overall shooting percentage dropped by nearly seven percentage points, and his accuracy from beyond the arc was down by eight percentage points. Just a season after averaging 15.3 points per game on 41% shooting, Gibbs struggled to build on his sophomore campaign, and the Irish are going to need him to get back to his old ways if they want to improve going forward. Despite their youth, Mooney said he believes that the freshman exceeded expectations. ”Coming in, they were way ahead of me when I was a freshman and I think the way that they came in and played right away is certainly something that doesn’t really happen here at Notre Dame a lot,” Mooney said. “Given just the situation and given their talent they had to do that, and I think all of them handled it very well.“ Mooney also added that being a captain and senior leader next year is a privilege that he will not be taking for granted. ”In general, in Notre Dame’s program, the leadership is always there and that’s something that I take pride in, so being able to come in everyday and lead is something that is very valuable to me and something that I always try to do. … Upperclassmen included are extremely motivated because we have just one more goaround so continued leadership is something that I expect from myself and something that I challenge myself to do,” Mooney said. Heading into next season, Brey and the Irish are more determined than ever to prove themselves. With the exception of sophomore D. J. Harvey, who just announced his transfer to Vanderbilt, the Irish will be returning nearly their entire lineup. Behind the leadership of Mooney, the team will look to reassert itself as a contender in the ACC.

nuances of the sport while they have been at Notre Dame,” Stone explained. “As seniors, they are role models for the underclassmen and women, and they have all provided solid contributions to the program.” Stone also pointed out that some of the athletes only picked up the sport when they first enrolled at ND and

are now competing on the highest level of collegiate athletics. “There are some people who started rowing in August and are now racing in the ACC,” Stone said. “There are also some people who have rowed at a high level all four years and have made great improvements this year as well. The team has developed

pretty nicely overall.” Following the ACC Tournament the Irish will hope to qualify for the NCA A Tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the end of May. However, the Irish are sure to have their hands full in the race to come. Competing against a field that includes No. 10 Virginia, No. 17 Duke and No. 18 Syracuse, Notre

Dame, who received 10 votes among the ranking, will likely be an underdog to win this race. However, the team’s preparation against eight top-20 teams this season has given them a glimpse of what they can expect to see at the conference championship.

Contact Grant DelVecchio at gdelvecc@nd.edu

Contact Colin Capece at ccapece@nd.edu

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Sports

The observer | FRIDAY, May 17, 2019 | ndsmcobserver.com

Saint Mary’s sports: 2018-2019 in review Belles record success across eight varsity teams, lacrosse earns program-record six conference honors Basketball Observer Sports Staff

After a promising start to the 2018-2019 season, recording wins against Earlham and Illinois Tech in the first week of a season, Saint Mary’s remainder of the season was marked by ups and downs. The Belles (11-16, 7-9 MIAA) showed significant promise as they competed with strong programs, including No. 5 Trine College, No. 10 Hope College, and several other prominent programs. While they played a tough schedule, their signature wins came against conference opponents Olivet, Kalamazoo and Calvin. The Belles season came to an end with a disappointing 75-36 loss to Hope in the MIAA tournament semifinal, which represented a hopeful yet rough ending to their 2018 season. However, the season was highlighted by several notable individual performances. Sophomore forward Giavanna Paradiso finished the season averaging 16.4 points per game, while junior swingman Jade Mosier finished the year averaging 9.8 points per game. Paradiso and Mosier were Saint Mary‘s leading scorers, and as they both return next year, their outlook for the future is promising. Paradiso was named a second team AllMIAA player, representative of how she controlled play for the Belles this season. Mosier was named player of the week for the week of January 14-20, during which she averaged 20.5 points per game and nine rebounds per game, including a career-high 31 points in a road win over Calvin. Head coach Melissa Makielski has definitive reason to remain positive about their outlook for next year with their returning players. They only have two seniors graduating in forward Caroline Macius and guard Erin Maloney, and their roster features six freshman who will look to contribute next season, in addition to four sophomores and three juniors. The Belles will look to improve on their 2018-2019 record next season behind their young team‘s continued development.

Softball Observer Sports Staff

After struggling to begin the season, the Saint Mary’s softball team put the pieces together midseason, especially once the conference games came around. The team ended their season at 15-24, 9-7 in the MIAA. Standout performers for the season were junior center fielder Kelsey Keilman and senior infielder Krystal Harris. Playing 39 and 37 games

respectively, the two led the team at the plate. Keilman batted .383 while Harris batted .343. Keilman also led the way in walks with 12, triples with five and stolen bases with eight, while also raking in 16 RBIs. For pitching, the Belles relied on freshman Mandi Hettinger and senior Zoe Bruni. Hettinger and Bruni both had solid seasons. Hettinger ended with an ERA of 3.24, with Bruni closely behind at 3.34. Bruni, however, pitched almost 30 more innings than her teammate, altering the stats somewhat. Regardless, both carried the load for a team reliant on solid pitching. But softball is a team game and other players stood out throughout the course of the season, putting in strong performances. In particular, junior second baseman Maggie Gillis and sophomore second baseman Madelynne Keller both batted over .300, while the aforementioned Hettinger came agonizingly close, finishing at .299. Hettinger also hit one of the team’s five homers on the season. On the topic of home runs, senior shortstop Megan Knudsen led with two. Sophomore catcher Joanna Keilman also hit a homer, while leading the team in RBIs at 19 and doubles with nine. Overall, the Belles will look to build on this year’s tumultuous season for their next campaign, with many major contributors returning.

managed to claw their way back into the set, eventually tying the score at 22, they were unable to close out the set comeback as Trine then scored three straight. The second set proved too much for the Belles to handle when the Thunder claimed a nine-point victory to set up match-point. Facing elimination, the Belles started out the final set strong, posting a 6-4 lead, before settling in with the score knotted up at 12. Trine managed to separate with six-straight points. While Saint Mary’s tried to mount a comeback, the cushion Trine had built was too large to overcome as they claimed the match with a five-point set win. The Belles’ offense was led by junior outside hitter Nicole Lukens and sophomore middle hitter Lindsey Pelletier, who each recorded 408 and 260 kills, respectively. Lukens and Pelletier also led Saint Mary’s in points per set. Sophomore setter Morgan VanderWey also filled the stat sheet, recording 1,069 assists throughout the season. With only two seniors graduating from this year’s team, the Belles are in a good position to improve their record going forward. Meanwhile, the emergence of six sophomores — all of whom have earned significant minutes this past season — into upperclassmen leadership should provide them an added advantage in the early parts of next season.

Soccer Volleyball

By MARTHA ZAYTOUN

Observer Sports Staff

Sports Writer

After a slow start to the season, losing four of their first five games, Saint Mary’s 2018 campaign picked up momentum, gaining valuable non-conference wins. However, they ultimately fell short of claiming a victory in the final regular season game, eliminating themselves from postseason play. After winning their season opener against Manchester 3-0, the Belles (12-18, 2-6 MIAA) dropped four straight games to conference opponents. However, they managed to follow that dip with another four-game streak, this time coming out on the winning side. A three-game losing streak followed before the Belles stabilized to split the remaining six games of the season of September. While October started strong for the Belles — winning their first two matchups — they struggled to maintain momentum, losing seven of nine games. This breakdown in conference play put the Belles in a must-win situation heading into their final regular season matchup against Trine to advance to the conference tournament. The Thunder (11-12, 3-5 MIAA) opened the game strong, taking a 10-3 lead. While the Belles

With no seniors leading the team this season, Saint Mary’s completed a rebuilding year this past October. Each game the Belles (6-12, 1-7 MIAA) started seven or eight freshman players, allowing them to gain valuable experience for seasons to come. Head coach Jesse Urquhart explained how the youth of the team bodes well for coming seasons. “This season was a step in the right direction,“ Urquhart said. ”We brought in a large class of freshman who played significant minutes this past season. … It certainly gave the coaching staff a good look at who is ready for a larger role next season.” Rather than allow the lack of senior leadership to hamper the unity and strength of the team, countless players stepped up to fill those voids. In fact, it provided the perfect opportunity for captains Kellen Hinchey and Megan Saunders to step up to the plate. Similarly, Thallia Robles, a junior, and Kelsey Matyi, a sophomore, took on greater leadership roles. “They have the most experience of anyone on the team and understand what my expectations are for the team. I will

continue to empower and challenge them as they continue to grow and develop their leadership skills,” Urquhart said of these athlete’s leadership. “Our returning players, along with our incoming Class of 2019, will be challenged as we develop them into the best version of themselves.” He will likely look to these players in the coming seasons for support as he trains new crops of incoming freshman. The Belles experienced significant growth this past season and hope to carry their strengths onto the pitch next season. “We are certainly developing a new culture and attitude but we still have a long way to go,” Urquhart said of the season. “We improved our record, scored more goals, cut down on our goals against, and we’ve developed our style of play.” He has appropriately high expectations of his players on and off the pitch. The Belles await the coming season with high hopes, anticipating a level of competition the team has never experienced. “It will be the most intense and competitive preseason to date thanks to the quality of players the staff has recruited and the quality players we return from last season,” Urquhart said.

Tennis By MARTHA ZAYTOUN Sports Writer

Saint Mary’s finished the postseason with a MIAA Tournament semifinal loss to Kalamazoo. Led by seniors Monica Davy and Elizabeth Preister, the Belles finished in 3rd place in the MIAA conference. “It was one of our best seasons, all things considered,” head coach Dale Campbell said. The Belles (14-10, 6-2 MIAA) won six of their eight MIAA regular season matchups, losing only to conference champion Hope College and runner-up Kalamazoo. “Being 6-2 in conference play is a great year with the strength of some of our top teams,” Campbell said. They lost again to Kalamazoo in the conference tournament semifinals, ending their tournament run in the first round. The final matchup was a three-plushour battle, a hard-fought competition that ended in a 5-2 defeat. Campbell said the leadership of captains Davy and Preister was integral to the Belles’ success this season. “[They] were great role models in the classroom and also always had the team prepared to practice,” he said. “They were passionate about the competition and kept all of the individuals focused to give 100%.” Davy, winner of the Sue Little

Sportsmanship Award this year, and her sister, sophomore Megan Davy, were named Second Team All-MIAA for the season. Moreover, the team MVP for the season was awarded to freshman Alyssa Gulli, who led the team in points with 41 for the season. The Belles will miss their departing seniors, Davy and Priester, but Campbell pointed to the returning talent for next year. “We will have senior Lily Brandt returning, along with juniors next year Megan Davy, Lilly Chamberlin and Nicole Becker, who all contributed to our success,” he said. Despite having suffered several injuries throughout the season, Campbell reinforced the team’s resilience throughout this season. “We recovered well and finished the season strong,” he said.

Golf By MARTHA ZAYTOUN Sports Writer

Saint Mary’s is wrapping up their season, posting nine firstplace finishes thus far. Belles‘ head coach Kim Moore described this season as ”one of the most accomplished seasons in Saint Mary‘s golf history.” The Belles started their season off well, shooting a team score of 293 to break the College and MIAA Conference 18-hole record in late September. They are approaching the end of the season on a similarly high note, with five players earning First Team All-MIAA Conference honors, filling almost all of the six available spots for the honor. The Belles have benefited greatly from the leadership of senior Taylor Kehoe this season. “Kehoe has brought consistency to this team this year,” Moore said. “She is constantly in a scoring role for this team and her leadership was evident throughout the season. Losing a senior like Taylor is always a hard thing for a program, but we’ve had some great underclassmen leadership this year and I have no doubt those ladies will step up and fill that void.” One of those underclassmen leader is Taylor Kehoe’s younger sister, Hunter, who won the MIAA Women’s Golfer of the Week title seven times this season, breaking a record for the team. “Hunter’s record breaking … has been such a great boost for our team,” Moore said. “Hunter has been a huge leader on the course for this team and her weekly play is something that all of our players try to emulate. She has shown that she is a dominant force in our conference and only being a sophomore her room for growth is exciting. Hunter is the type of player that steps up to the first team in every tournament she plays in, expecting to win.

Sports

ndsmcobserver.com | FRIDAY, May 17, 2019 | The Observer

Regardless of the accolades she earns, she will always have this mentality and that is why she is such a great player for this team.” While the Belles have built an impressive campaign this spring, they are not finished yet — they headed to Bay Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas, to compete in the NCAA Division III championship, which began Tuesday and wraps up Friday. “We plan to go to the NCAA Division III Championships and represent Saint Mary‘s College, the MIAA Conference and our Belles Golf Program to the best of our abilities,” Moore said. ”It is such an honor to get the chance to play in a championship like this and we are so excited.” Contact Martha Zaytoun at mzaytoun@nd.edu

Cross Country By Jimmy Ward Sports Writer

Saint Mary’s finished up the program’s 14th year under the leadership of Saint Mary’s alumna and head coach Jackie Bauters. The team was able to mount a sixth-place finish at the MIAA Championships on October 27, with senior Adele Edmonds leading the pack for the Belles at the championship meet placing 23rd with a time of 24:03.4. Junior Katie Glenn followed close behind finishing 28th, crossing the finish line in 24:22.8. Senior Sarah Allen was the next Belle to cross the line in 24:47.2. Freshman classmates Brigid Conmy, Emily Blank and Gabby Russell rounded out the pack of Belles crossing the line within mere seconds of each other, at 25:56.9, 25:57.8 and 25:58.0, respectively. On top of the strong performance in conference, the Belles were able to record a 26th-place performance at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional race on Nov. 10. All the while, the Belles were honored beyond the course, earning the Division III AllAcademic Team award from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for their devotions to their studies at the end of the season. Bauters spoke on how proud she was of her team for earning the honor for the ninth consecutive season. “Achieving academic success as a team is always a goal for us,” Bauters said. “The ladies work really hard in the classroom and I’m so proud of them being recognized by the USTFCCCA.” Heading into her 15th year at the helm of the Saint Mary’s cross country program, Bauters is no stranger to endurance activities in South Bend. She ran for the program in three of her years at the college and in the 2001 season, earned herself a spot on the MIAA SecondTeam All-Conference squad. Additionally, she helped to start a legacy in academics after

Observer File Photo

Saint Mary’s senior forward Kate Kelly looks to pass during the Belles’ 10-4 victory over Trine University on April 12, 2016, at Holy Cross College South Field. Kelly tallied 53 goals and 41 assists this season.

being named to the MIAA academic honor roll all three of her seasons on the squad. She also served as the team‘s captain her senior year. Bauters spoke on what she is looking for her team to improve upon during the offseason. “I mean we were pretty young this year so that’s part of it. But we had a lot of talent and it wasn’t always capitalized on in races and I think some of it is just confidence to go out there and compete with some of the women that are out there,” Bauters said. ”We compete against pretty high-level teams every week regardless of which race we’re in. So I think it’s just a matter of realizing they belong out there and seeing all their work come to fruition when they’re on the course.” With some of the restrictions in regards to rules set by the NCAA, the Belles have a tight window to operate and get in their practices for the year. Bauters talked about how the Belles manage this narrow amount of time. “With the NCAA’s rules what we are allowed to do is a very limited five-week spring season. So it is kind of hard to compete with people that have full track seasons obviously so we get a limited amount of time to train together. It’s not nearly enough, but we try to maximize what we can and try to get them ready for summer. It’s just hard because you’ve got people who are competing for 18 other weeks and we just don’t,” Bauters said. Bauters said these scheduling obstacles require her team to do a lot of independent training. ”They do run together outside of season it’s just not guided, structured from me and everything else because of the rules that we have,” she said. With a relatively young roster, the Belles will be looking toward some incoming recruits to pick up the pace. “We have about eight kids

coming in right now, so it’s bigger which is good. The depth isn’t across the whole group but we’ve got two really strong athletes coming in that are going to be frontrunners for us right away,” Bauters said. “I think with them with a couple other girls that are coming in that are kind of adding to the bulk of our pack it‘s going to be good. From all my interactions with them individually, from a fit prospective it works with our team culture and everything which is something we look for. So I’m excited about this class coming in it should be a great year.” The Belles have high hopes for the 2019 season and will be looking forward to developing their recruits, as well as further training their veteran runners like Glenn. “If our first years transition well, I’m hoping we’re fighting for third place in the MIAA or a strong fourth. I would love to see someone make first or second team All-MIAA. I can’t wait. I’m really excited about the group we have and I’m excited to see how … Katie Glenn helps lead this team — on and off the course,” Bauters said. “Those are some of the bigger goals I think … but I think once we see what we are capable of in the first couple of weeks, I‘d like to see us in the top 12 to 15 in the region, I think that’s possible.”

The Belles (12-6, 8-0 MIAA) offense got off to a hot start, averaging over 16 goals throughout the first seven games. Despite this potent scoring, Saint Mary’s struggled to close these matchups out, losing four of those games. Sophomore midfielder Erin Doyle said integrating the team’s nine freshmen to the game on a collegiate level likely contributed to the initial obstacles the team faced. “Going into the year, we were kind of unsure of how things would go, being such a young team,” Doyle said. “ … We played a pretty tough nonconference schedule, and we had kind of a lot of losses nonconference, but I think those games really helped us, and we really started to gel going into our conference schedule.” Doyle said once conference play began everything “just kind of clicked” for the Belles.

In April, Saint Mary’s won seven games, with their lone loss coming against the University of Chicago. They clinched the regular season conference title with a 14-12 win over Albion College and earned the No. 1 seed for the postseason tournament. Doyle credited the team’s collective efforts in the offseason for the program’s improvements this season. “A lot of it was fall ball. We kind of came together as a team and decided that everyone was going to work hard in the offseason, which wasn’t so much like it had been in years before,” she said. “I think the work that everyone put in in the offseason really helped us when we got to the spring.” In the first round of the MIAA Conference Tournament, facing Hope College, the Belles were trailing by four goals at halftime. Senior midfielder Kate Kelly led an offensive attack to open the half, and the Belles scored six unanswered goals; however, the Flying Dutch (11-6, 5-3 MIAA) mounted a strong comeback effort in the last 10 minutes and ultimately sealed a 13-12 victory, effectively ending the Belles’ season. Six athletes were named to postseason awards, with Doyle and sophomore goalie Emily Kraker headlining as MIAA Offensive and Defensive Most Valuable Players, respectively. Despite the disappointing end to the season, Doyle said she feels good about the state of the program going forward. “The culture we created this year should help us next year,” she said. “We return most of our starting lineup, so now that we’ve won the conference before hopefully that’ll be the expectation for us going forward.” Contact Charlotte Edmonds at cedmond3@nd.edu

Contact Jimmy Ward at wward@hcc-nd.edu

Lacrosse By CHARLOTTE EDMONDS Managing Editor

Despite being upset in the opening round of the conference tournament, Saint Mary’s recorded a season of program bests. After a shaky start, the Belles won their regular season conference schedule and were the favorite to win the postseason before falling to Hope College.

Observer File Photo

Saint Mary’s senior Monica Davy watches the ball during the Belles’ 9-0 win over Albion College at home April 23, 2016.

Sports

The observer | FRIDAY, May 17, 2019 | ndsmcobserver.com

Holy Cross sports: 2018-2019 in review Saints establish varsity programs, men’s golf heads to national championship for sixth time Women’s Soccer

Women’s Golf

By MATTHEW TIGHE

By JIMMY WARD

Sports Writer

The Saints did not quite have the season they wanted to this year, finishing 3-12-1 overall and 0-10 in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletics Conference. This year, their highlights included a pair of early wins against Rochester College on Aug. 28 and a monster win against Andrews University on Sept. 5, winning 8-0. Despite starting the season 3-21 in non-conference play, the end of their year was not what they expected. They lost all of their games in the CCAC, getting shut out in eight of those losses and only scoring one goal in the other two. They finished the year on a 10-game losing streak, although the games became more competitive as the year went on. However, after head coach Omar Gallo’s first season, there is room for improvement but reason to believe the team will improve this year’s record. The Saints’ roster featured only four seniors — Sydney Bright, Brianna Gonzalez, Carley Klott and Kailee Zimmerman will all graduate this spring. The roster also includes a host of younger players: two freshmen, five sophomores and two juniors. The team will return a significant amount of experience in these players and will undoubtedly count on them in order to improve to a winning record in the seasons to come. Four players this season also were recognized as DaktronicsNAIA Scholar-Athletes: Zimmerman, Sydney Toth, Klott and Bright all maintained above a 3.5 GPA to achieve the honor. Gallo said the team made a number of strides in their performance this year. “Overall I was very proud of our girls this past season,” he said. “We had a goal to put Holy Cross women’s soccer on the map in many different ways. On the field, we wanted to be competitive. During non-conference, we wanted to finish with a winning record, which we accomplished. During conference play it was our goal to compete and play for 90 minutes.” However, Gallo said his team needed more depth in order to really compete in conference. On the outlook for next year, he said he remains positive. “Our incoming class is going to be very special,” Gallo said. “We’ve recruited some big names in the Midwest, which is exciting. Our goal was to recruit studentathletes who have a winning mentality, who are technically strong and have plenty of knowledge of the game, and we feel we’ve been able to accomplish this.” With a strong incoming class and returning experience, the Saints are set for a winning trend in the 2019 season.

The Holy Cross team capped off its season with a solid conference run, finishing fourth at the CCAC Tournament at Cog Hill Golf Club in Lemont, Illinois, on April 26 with a team total score of 718. The tournament saw the Saints shoot a 355 in the first round and a 363 in the second. The Saints were led by junior Abby Clark who tied for sixth overall and shot an 85 in the first round and an 86 in the second. Fellow juniors Macenzie Lane and Maisie Nugent also took care of business; Lane shot a 91 in the first round and an 89 in the second, while Nugent shot 89 then 93. Freshman Madison Pool rounded up the conference performance, shooting a 90 in the first round and a 95 in the second. The team kicked off their season by finishing fourth at the Crosstown Clash on August 25, and they followed it up with a strong performance at the CCAC Cup two days later, taking third at the tournament. Clark led the way in both tournaments, shooting a 174 at the Crosstown Clash and a 162 in the CCAC Cup. The latter was the best score in the field, giving her the individual medalist honor. Nugent followed behind her at the CCAC Cup with a 179, good for an 11th-place finish. Lane and Pool rounded off the tournament with scores of 186 and 202, respectively. Head coach T.J. Mannen has been at the helm of both the men’s and women’s golf teams for the past six years, serving as the assistant coach for two years prior. In this time span, he has coached three women who have gone on to receive First Team All-CCAC recognition, as well as eight men. He has also coached 20 golfers who have been named to the CCAC AllAcademic Team. The women’s team is made up of many young members; with just one returning starter, the Saints will be looking at an almost entirely clean slate heading into next season. “We’ve got only one returning starter, so for the fall season we have four incoming recruits coming in right now, and we might have a fifth one coming, so we’re going to have a very, very young team next year,” Mannen said. In terms of improvements to be made for the team, Mannen said the game of golf is more technical at the collegiate level, meaning that fine-tuning imperfections can sometimes be less difficult. “Anybody who has a great short game is really going to play well at this level,” he said. “I look for the kind of player with an all-around game, checking what their scoring average is and even [getting] video on their swings. Since I’m a PGA professional, I like looking at golf swings to see the things that are good and bad, things that need to be fixed, if anything, but at this level, it is mostly managing their

Contact Matthew Tighe at mtighe2@nd.edu

mistakes.” He said the biggest difference in the women’s game compared to the high school level is the sheer length of the courses. “The biggest jump or the biggest hurdle I see is their length,” he said. “Playing golf courses that are shorter in high school, and then when they go to college they play longer golf courses, so that always adds a stress to their game.” Mannen said he believes the future is bright for the women’s team. “I think we have some really solid players coming in for the girls, so we’re looking forward to making a run at nationals for the girl’s team, and for the guy’s team just kind of maintaining,” he said. Contact Jimmy Ward at wward@hcc-nd.edu

Women’s Basketball By MIKE EVERETT Sports Writer

Holy Cross rounded out its season in February, ending on a semifinal loss in the conference tournament. While the Saints (1616, 12-8 CCAC) started their season with a win over Goshen College in October, they proceeded to lose six straight games, five of which were against non-conference foes. However, head coach Adam Dobrzykowski said the team remained positive and determined despite the bad start. “This group showed a lot of heart this year and bought into the team philosophy,” he said. “We didn’t have the best start, but these ladies worked hard to get over the hump and became a force that made us tough to beat in the final stretch.” The Saints captured their first conference win against Judson University in November. The win against Judson marked a turning point for the team, as they continued the momentum and won six straight games, improving their conference record to 5-1 and emerging above .500 overall. “The best moments were when we were the underdog against nationally ranked teams, beating them on their home gyms and getting hyped up after an intense battle,” Dobrzykowski said. “That’s what the game is all about.” The team struggled to find consistency throughout stretches of the season, but garnered an strong conference record and a berth in the CCAC Tournament, reserved for the top-eight teams in the conference. The Saints won their firstround matchup 65-60 against a top-25 ranked Saint Xavier squad, but they were defeated by No. 17 Cardinal Stritch University 80-63 in the semifinals. The team has four seniors graduating: forward Keysha Streater and guards Jessica Norris, Madison Tomblin and Alex Foster. In her time at Holy Cross, Streater became the all-time leader in games started with 114. She capitalized on those games to become the program leader in a number of

offensive categories: career points scored (1,803), field goals made (733), points per game (14.8) and offensive rebounds (402). Norris also garnered records of her own, leaving as the all-time leader in 3-point field goals made with 302 and three-point percentage at 37%. Streater and Norris were both represented Holy Cross as CCAC AllConference Second Team athletes this year. The women’s basketball season was filled with significant accomplishments on an individual and a team basis, setting the program standard for future seasons, as six of the ten players will return for next year. “It was a special year, and I was very proud of this group” Dobrzykowski said. Contact Mike Everett at meverett@nd.edu

Men’s and Women’s Tennis By HAYDEN ADAMS Associate Sports Editor

In the second season of the Holy Cross programs, both the men’s and women’s teams missed out on their respective CCAC conference tournaments. The men (5-10, 2-6) finished sixth, while the women (0-10, 0-7) finished eighth. Neither team was aided by the addition of a new head coach and the level of inexperience each possessed. Though both teams gained a new head coach, the inexperience of the men and women seemed to be reflected in their performances. The women’s squad consisted solely of six freshmen, and the Saints men featured six underclassmen, one junior and one senior. However, first-year head coach Eric Mahone said he is very optimistic about his team’s youth and the development they will make for next year. “We are returning a very young core in rising sophomore Dominic Gibson and rising junior Dylan Euzarraga,” Mahone said. “They have been solid players for us all season along with the rest of the team.” After going 4-4 to start the year, the men’s team finished with a 1-6 record, failing to win a match in three of the final six competitions. However, as Mahone mentioned, the young players have performed well to date, as Gibson won the CCAC Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for the period from March 17 to 23. For the women, freshmen Julie Wappell and Mina Fabiano combined to account for five of the team’s seven points on the year. Despite their tumultuous year, Mahone sees a bright side in the fact that the players have gotten a lot of experience in their first year and the team will have three more years to develop further. “The girls really enjoyed themselves out there this season,” Mahone said. “We are hoping to

build off of this year and go into next season with some success.” Contact Hayden Adams at hadams3@nd.edu

Men’s Basketball By PATRICK GALLAGHER Sports Writer

The 2018-2019 season was arguably the most successful season in Holy Cross history as the Saints broke the school’s record for most wins in a single season while advancing to the semifinals in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference’s postseason tournament for the second-straight year. Head coach Mike McBride attributed the Saints’ (21-11, 14-6 CCAC) achievements to the quality of the whole team, especially the team’s two seniors: forward Bryce Crosen and guard Nate Miller. “[The seniors] were the backbone of the team,” McBride said. “Obviously, we had a number of other key contributors and [had] some underclassmen who played really well. We went through a tough stretch in the middle of the year, and it was the character and competitive nature of our seniors that carried us through. To have a successful season, you have to have contributions from a lot of guys, and we had that.” Crosen and Miller leave Holy Cross as two of the most decorated players in the program’s history. At forward, Crosen is the Saints’ all-time leading scorer, amassing 1,110 total points in his collegiate career and leading his team in rebounds this season. With an impressive 454, he also leads the school in career field goals made, averaging 13.4 points per game this season. Miller dished out 370 assists in his career, the most of a Holy Cross player. He is also tied for first in most games played at the school with 125. Coach McBride praised was the profound impact he said these two seniors had on the program. “Well, they’re both four-year guys, and they have carried themselves in an exemplary manner,” McBride said. ”They impressed everyone with their success on the court but more importantly with their achievements academically and by how they carried themselves around campus. You wouldn’t find two better representatives of Holy Cross and … what college athletics should look like.” The underclassmen were also key contributors to the Saints’ postseason run. Sophomore guard Storm Cook led Holy Cross in scoring with 17 points per game. His accomplishments this season included scoring 100 three-point shots, which puts him in the company of some of the best long-range scorers in the country. Junior guard Robby Jimenez added 13 points per game while shooting a scorching 45% from three.

Sports McBride was excited about the play of his younger players. “We had a number of them,” McBride said. “Robby Jimenez is … following in the footsteps of Bryce and Nate … and was outstanding this year. He’ll be a fourth-year guy next year, and we’ve kind of built the program around him. Storm Cook was first team all-conference, and one of his classmates, [guard] Jordan Gaines, was one of the most versatile players in the league.” When asked about the most improved player on the team, McBride stated junior forward Parker Sims had the most dramatic increase in skill over the season. He averaged six points per game and is a defensive-minded player. “The most improved [player] was Parker Sims, who was a transfer from … California,” McBride said. “He came in and was able to help out right away, but he was really inconsistent. Over the course of the season, he became one of the best defensive players in the league and became a lot more of a consistent offensive threat. Throughout the year, his attitude and competitive character were always at a high level. If you get those things right, you’re going to improve and play at a high level.” The Saints’ defense was ranked second in the nation, as they only allowed 65 points per game to be scored against them and secured just under 30 defensive rebounds per game. When asked about the focus of his team, McBride said Holy Cross specializes in defense while still developing their offensive weapons. “We are a defense-first team, so that is always at the forefront of our practice sessions, walkthroughs, game plans and ingame execution,” he said. “We place particular attention to that end of the floor, but you can’t focus exclusively on that and let other parts of the game go to detriment. Our defensive character was seen in a number of guys: Jordan Gaines, Parker Sims, Nate Miller and Bryce Crosen. They were all some of the best defensive players in the league. Storm and Robby, who were our two best scorers, improved dramatically at the defensive end, and that led to the consequent improvement of our team.” The Saints went 14-6 in conference play while losing only three total games at home. They ended up finishing second in the CCAC, and they lost a hard-fought battle against Governors State University 70-64 in the semifinals of the CCAC Tournament. The team overcame three and two-game losing streaks early in the season, and McBride said he admired how his team endured this frustrating period and how they became a better team because of these struggles. “We were really inconsistent for about the first third … of the year,” McBride said. “We would get off to a good start and then stumble a little bit. … Early in conference, we had a really tough spell where we struggled for about three or four weeks. The season really could have turned for the worse, but, led by Bryce and Nate, we were able to steady things and get a couple

ndsmcobserver.com | FRIDAY, May 17, 2019 | The Observer

wins. It just took off from there, and we put together a couple of really good winning streaks. We worked towards being around the top of the conference and towards putting ourselves in position nationally. We ended up not making the national tournament, but we put ourselves in contention. To our guys’ credit, they stayed true to each other … and worked their way through the rough stretches.” McBride said he was also very proud of his team’s grit and of his seniors’ success. “Our guys showed a lot of toughness and resiliency to … not just recover from a bad streak but to build off it and excel,” he said. “I was proud of our two seniors and all the time, effort and commitment that they displayed in these last four years. They were able to see it pay off, and they ended on a peak and on their most successful moment.” Looking toward the future, Holy Cross has eight returning players and a strong recruiting class of prospects from around the greater area of Northern Indiana. They also only lost two players — both graduating seniors. The Saints may also end up signing some talented transfers in this offseason. McBride said he is optimistic about his team going forward due to his strong, young core of underclassmen. “Robbie Jimenez was our second leading scorer, while Storm Cook was our leading scorer as a sophomore,” he said. “Jordan Gaines, one of the best and most versatile players in the league, will be a junior. We take two huge hits in losing Bryce and Nate, but the guys who are returning are proven and hungry for not getting quite as far as we wanted to this year. We have a couple of key recruits coming in. We’ve got a local kid, Bo Ludwig, from Penn, Joe Andershock from Marquette Catholic and Ian Kindig. We’ve also got some transfers that we are still trying to get finalized. As always, we want to build around the returning core and add to that. The best recruits we can have are the improved returners coming back this fall.” The conference recognized the outstanding play of many of the Saints’ players at the end of the season. Cook was named to the All-Conference First Team while Crosen earned All-Conference Second Team honors. Jimenez was given an All-Conference Team honorable mention. Next year, Holy Cross is looking to build off of the momentum they have built with their past two seasons, which both included exciting conference tournament runs. They hope to have the chance to compete for a national championship. McBride demonstrated the difference between his short-term goals and longer-term destinations. The chemistry and practice-based short-term goals are meant to guide the team to new heights like playing in the national tournament or winning the conference. “We want to get to the national tournament, which means that we have to compete for and win a conference championship. If we do that, we are in the national

tournament. The most important goals are — as cliche as it sounds — that we are working every day in the offseason, preseason and season to get a little bit better, stronger, more skilled and tighter as a group. … We already achieved some of those destination goals this year by breaking the school record for wins and by advancing in the conference tournament.” Contact Patrick Gallagher at pgallag4@nd.edu

Men’s Golf By JIMMY WARD Sports Writer

Coming off a three-win season and continuing their newfound success under head coach T.J. Mannen and assistant coach Brian Matthews, the Saints have secured another national championship title run. Holy Cross sealed its spot at the NAIA National Championships in late May after winning the CCAC Tournament at Cog Hill Golf Club in Lemont, Illinois, with a team total score of 581. The team finished the first round of the tournament sitting atop the leaderboard with a score of 292 and improved in the second half with a score of 289, finishing with a 15-stroke advantage over runner-up Olivet Nazarene. Senior Alex Meagher and junior Blake Vise led the way for the Saints, finishing first and second overall, respectively. Meagher shot a 69 in the first round and a 71 in the second, while Vise shot for 71 on both days of the tournament. Freshmen Camden Dal Corobbo, Ben Szklarek and Carter Silva polished off the field. Dal Corobbo shot 71 on the first day and a 73 on the second. Szklarek finished with a score of 76 on the first day of competition but improved the second day with a score of 74. Silva shot a 77 on the first day and an 83 on the second. With this dominating conference performance, the Saints secured a place in the NAIA National Championship, which will take place Tuesday to Friday. In addition to their championship-qualifying victory at the conference level, the Saints also came home with a pair of wins on the road this season. The team won its first match of the year at the Crosstown Clash in Plymouth, Indiana, where, again, Vise led the way, shooting a 68 in both rounds and winning the tournament. Ben Szklarek made his colligate debut and finished right behind Vise in second place, shooting a 76 in the first round and finishing with a 70 on the second. The Saints also found success later in the season at the CCAC Cup, where they placed first for the second consecutive year. Paving the way for Holy Cross at the CCAC Cup were Vise and Meagher, shooting 70 and 76 in the first round and 69 and 68 in the second, respectively. After spending his first two years as an assistant coach, Mannen was named CCAC

Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach of the Year in 2018. On top of this, Mannen has coached eight men and three women who have gone on to receive FirstTeam All-CCAC recognition. Mannen commented on how his team is looking to prepare for the championship tournament in Arizona. “We’ve tried to research a little bit,” he said. “It’s out in Mesa, but two of our girl golfers on the team are from there, so they kind of gave us a little bit of insight and whatnot. We’ll get out there the day before, play a practice round and kind of get prepared for it, but I’ve lived in Arizona before, and I’ve told them what the golf courses are like and what to look out for. But we’re still just practicing here at Warren or Blackthorn and keeping everything sharp by playing pretty much every day.” The four-round NAIA National Championship will conclude May 24, with the first two days serving as qualifying rounds. “It is supposed to be a fourround tournament and there is a two day cut, so we’ll play the first two days, which is going to be Tuesday and Wednesday, and then if we are in the low 17 teams that tie, then we continue on to the next two days,” Mannen said. With four graduating seniors, the Saints have solidified their golf recruiting, thanks in no small part to their successful beginning of an era. “We have seven new players coming in the fall, which is a huge recruiting class,” Mannen said. “This coming year, we’ve got one Gateway student with six incoming freshmen, one being Carter [Silva] — who we actually played [this season] — is actually still considered a freshman because he came in after graduating early from high school. We are going to have at least 10 to 11 players, so we are going to have a very strong squad going into fall.” Leading their team to championship tournaments is something Mannen and Matthews have almost become accustomed to. Last year, the coaching staff led the team to a 17th-place finish at the NAIA Nationals at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois. “We’ve gone to the national championship five out of the last seven years. This will make sixth out of eight, and we’ve only been around for about nine years,” Mannen said. “This is our third time as a team, and the other three times have been with individuals, but to go as an individual you have to win medalist in conference championship. We’ve had to recruit and develop some very strong players the entire duration of our golf program. Every year, I try to do the same thing — recruit to build a solid team and keep going to nationals, so that’s always been my goal. … We’re ranked number one in our conference right now for the guys, and I think next year

in the preseason we’ll still be ranked number one. So yeah, we’ll see how it goes. We’re just going to continue that same tradition — look down the road towards the stretch and just keep playing.” With postseason competition just around the corner, the Saints hope to maintain their consistency down the stretch. Contact Jimmy Ward at wward@hcc-nd.edu

Men’s Soccer By MIKE EVERETT Sports Writer

The Holy Cross men’s soccer team faced a difficult 2018 season filled with ups and downs. The team never reached .500 over the course of the season and finished with an overall record of 6-13. While the team struggled against non-conference opponents, finishing 1-6, they were competitive in conference play, going 5-7 in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC). The Saints opened the season with a 4-0 loss to Lawrence Technological University and proceeded to lose the next four to begin their season 0-5 against nonconference opponents. “We obviously didn’t get off to the start we wanted to … and faced a lot of good competition … but we were able to respond and keep putting in the work in practice and stick together as a team,” head coach Omar Gallo said. The Saints gained their first win in a 3-0 victory over St. Mary-of-theWoods College. The victory began a 10-game stretch of alternating wins and losses as the team began conference play, leading to a 4-4 conference record filled with three one-point losses, two of which were in overtime. While the Saints were unable to win on their Senior Day — falling to University of St. Francis 2-1 — they won their last regular season game 4-1 against Calumet College of St. Joseph in a crucial victory. The team finished 5-6 in the regular season of the conference, giving them a spot in the CCAC tournament as the seventh seed. They faced the No. 2 seed, Olivet Nazarene University, in the first round, eventually losing to them 2-0. “We were competitive with them, but we made some mistakes,” Gallo said. “It was a tough way to go out.” Six Saints are seniors who will be graduating this year: Callum Beaver, Peter Fonseca, Leon Gopal, Noah Kemp, Bruno Souza and Alex Yanes. Gopal represented the team as a member of the CCAC All-Conference Second Team this season. Kemp had eight saves on the season and Beaver scored four goals. While the team will be losing key contributors, there is plenty of young talent on the team, and seven starters will be returning for the 2019 season. “We’re really excited for next year and think there is a lot of potential for a great season,” Gallo said. Contact Mike Everett at meverett@nd.edu

Sports

The observer | FRIDAY, May 17, 2019 | ndsmcobserver.com

ND MEN’s Lacrosse | 9-6, 2-2 ACC

Men look to next season, prepare for NCAAs By COLIN CAPECE Sports Writer

With a number of key contributors returning from 2018, the Irish entered this season looking like they could compete for not only an ACC championship, but also a national title this season. Last season, the team made another ACC Tournament championship appearance but ultimately fell to Virginia and clinched another NCA A tournament berth. The team entered 2019 primed to make another deep postseason run. However, head coach Kev in Corrigan made sure to keep his players from looking in the rear v iew mirror. “We didn’t want to approach this season as a continuation of last year, because it’s a whole new year,” Corrigan said in an interview on May 8. “W hen they came in this year, we told our guys that we were starting from scratch. A quarter of our guys from last year aren’t here anymore, and a quarter of our guys have never been here before. We wanted to start over and build ever ything from the ground up once again.” W hile the Irish (9-6, 2-2 ACC) made sure to keep their focus on 2019, one of the things that did remain constant from 2018 was the team’s challenging schedule. Week in and week out, the Irish faced off against the nation’s best competition, as the team played eight squads that finished in the top 20 of the NCA A, five of them in the top 10. Throughout the season, the Irish continually displayed resilience following a defeat, as the team never lost consecutive games. “I think it definitely shows a lot of character the way our guys fought and didn’t give in even though we were struggling at times,” Corrigan said. “The fact that we never lost two in a row clearly shows that our guys never quit on themselves.

We definitely play a difficult schedule, and it wasn’t always a smooth ride this year, but I am really pleased with where our team is at now as we enter the postseason.” The Irish played some of their best lacrosse of the season early on, starting the year w ith a dominant 19-6 v ictor y against Detroit Mercy at Loftus Sports Center. After losing a nail-biter on the road against Richmond the follow ing week, the Irish responded w ith a thrilling 14-13 overtime v ictor y against then-No. 2 Mar yland in Loftus, followed by a 10-7 v ictor y against Denver in Costa Mesa, California. As the regular season continued, the Irish alternated w ins and losses each week, struggling to find the consistency they had displayed early on. In the regular season finale, likely in need of a w in to reach the NCA A tournament, the Irish faced off against North Carolina at Arlotta Stadium. In front of their home crowd on senior day, the Irish held on late for a 12-10 v ictor y to end their regular season w ith a 7-5 record and clinch a third-place finish in the ACC. “We were at that point in the year where we needed to w in to play in the NCA A tournament,” Corrigan said. “That was the moment in our season where our backs were really against the wall, and I thought it was great the way our guys responded.” In the ACC tournament semifinals, the Irish faced the Duke Blue Dev ils for the second time in 2019. After suffering a 14-8 defeat in Durham during the regular season, Notre Dame bested their ACC rival 12-10 to reach their third-straight ACC title game. “You have to make good decisions with the ball against a team like them, and I think our guys just had more experience to draw on after we played them the first time,” Corrigan said. “I think our guys learned a lot from that

EMMA FARNAN | The Observer

Irish sophomore attacker Wheaton Jackoboice looks to pass during Notre Dame’s 12-10 conference victory over North Carolina on April 20 at Arlotta Stadium. Jackoboice has 14 goals and 13 assists on the year.

first game, and our decision making was much better in the second game.” W hile the Irish were defeated by the No. 4 Virginia Cavaliers for the second time in 2019 in the ACC Championship game, Notre Dame continued on to face Johns Hopkins in first round of the NCA A tournament. A head of last Sunday’s game, Corrigan prov ided some insight into how the Irish could extend their season. “We just have to take care of the ball, and we need to put pressure on the other team by making all of our possessions count. W hen we do that we tend to be at our best as a team,” Corrigan said. Corrigan’s strateg y seemed

to work as the Irish defeated the Blue Jays (8-8, 3-2 Centennial) 16-9 to advance to their ninth NC A A tournament quarterfinal in the last 10 seasons. The team’s 16 goals set a program record for most goals in an NCA A tournament game. Corrigan also reached a personal milestone this season when the Irish defeated Marquette at Arlotta Stadium on April 10, as the longest tenured coach in program histor y earned his 300th career v ictor y. W hen asked about what the milestone meant to him, Corrigan chose to give praise to those who have helped him reach the summit of college lacrosse. “Honestly, the biggest

thing is it makes me think more about all of the great people I’ve had a chance to coach w ith here, as well as all of the players that I’ve coached over the last 30 years,” Corrigan said. “I’m really fortunate to have been able to coach over a 30-year period, but to do it in one place is certainly gratif y ing.” With their w in over Johns Hopkins, the Irish are set to meet the Blue Dev ils for the third time this season in the NCA A quarterfinals. The game, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, w ill be played in Hempstead, New York. Contact Colin Capece at ccapece@nd.edu

ND WoMEN’s Lacrosse | 14-5, 5-2 ACC

ND falls short after strong regular season Observer Sports Staff

The 2019 season was one of the most successful seasons for the team in recent histor y. The squad earned a 14-5 record — going 5-2 in the ACC — made it to the second round of the NCA A tournament and was ranked as high as No. 4 in the countr y. The Irish’s success rested

on the their staunch defense. The squad had the fifth-best scoring defense in the nation, giv ing up 153 goals on the year — only 8.05 per game. This success was due in large part to senior goalie Samantha Giacolone. The two-time First Team A ll-ACC selection sported a .498 save percentage, good for eighthbest in the nation. The defense, which ranked 12th

in the countr y w ith 11.26 caused turnovers per game, was led by senior defender Hannah Proctor, who also earned First Team A ll-ACC honors this season. The staunch defense for the Irish was balanced w ith a high powered offense, which outpaced the squad’s opponents, outscoring them 285 to 153 on the season. The offense was lead by sophomore

attacker Maddie Howe, senior attacker Samantha Ly nch and sophomore midfielder Andie A ldave, who lead the team in scoring w ith 59, 53 and 47 goals, respectively. Both Howe and A ldave additionally earned First Team A ll-ACC honors for the Irish. The team opened the season w ith a hot start, w inning 9 of their first 10 games, w ith

their only loss coming by one goal to ACC foe Sy racuse. Memorable w ins include a 27-0 v ictor y over Kent State, big w ins over Vanderbilt and Ohio State and a nail-biter v ictor y over No. 5 Virginia in Charlottesv ille. The squad, which started the season off unranked, climbed the polls as the team continued see ND W LAX PAGE 30