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The Week in Notre Dame Athletics: Men’s Soccer Advances in Tournament

The Fighting Irish earned wins this past week in men’s soccer, fencing, and men’s and women’s basketball.

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Without further ado, we bring you the results of the last week's Irish match-ups.

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No. 1 men's soccer (12-4-4, 7-1-3) bested Ohio State, 2-1, in a rainy home match on Sunday evening, advancing beyond the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. Irish goals came from central defender Brandon Aubrey in the 30th minute on a penalty kick (OSU equalized on a corner 4 minutes later) and from forward Jon Gallagher in the 69th minute, assisted by forward Jeffrey Farina. Ohio State led in shots, 12-10, and corners, 9-4.

The Irish will face Virginia at home in the NCAA tournament round of 16 this Sunday (7:00 p.m. ET, WatchND).

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No. 12/11 women's soccer (14-6-2, 7-3-1) fell in a 2-1 heartbreaker to no. 5 Texas A&M in the 3rd round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday after controlling much of the game. The Irish allowed an early 7th-minute corner kick goal to the Aggies, then the game-winner slipped through in the 82nd minute, sending the team home from the tournament. Notre Dame led in shots, 19-12, and corners, 8-5. The lone Irish goal came in the 72nd minute from Karin Muya off of a re-directed corner kick.

So ends a very strong Irish season, and the 1st under new head coach Theresa Romagnolo.

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Irish hockey (6-6-2, 2-2-2) earned a loss and a tie against UMass Lowell last week. The Irish dropped their Thursday night match, 3-1, then battled to a controversial 2-2 finish on Friday, in which ND suffered some very questionable officiating at a few turns, including on a clear game-winning goal with 13 minutes to play. The disallowed goal is analyzed here.

Thursday night, Chad Katunar was in goal for the Irish, whose lone goal came from Sam Herr late in the opening period. UMass Lowell led in shots on goal, 35-27, and both teams were unsuccessful on power plays (ND went 0 for 4, UML, 0 for 7).

Katunar was in goal again on Friday night, and the Irish netted goals from Mario Lucia in the 1st and Sam Herr in the 2nd. UML again led in shots on goal, 34-23, and ND went 0 for 2 on power plays, while UML went 0 for 3.

We've got a great break down of what Friday's game means for the Irish and where they stand so far this season from NDistops right here.

The Irish next welcome Union NY this Friday (7:35 p.m. ET, NBCSports.com) as they host the Shillelagh Tournament. Their Saturday opponent will be determined by the tournament's other match (7:35 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network).

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Volleyball (6-22) dropped another two weekend matches, this time at home. After pushing games to 4 and 5 sets the past few weeks, the team was swept by both no. 7 North Carolina (25-23, 25-20, 25-16) and North Carolina State (25-23, 25-22, 25-23).

The Irish face Pittsburgh at home this Friday (4:00 p.m. ET, WatchND).

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Fencing enjoyed a strong weekend of performances at the Penn State Open. Five ND fencers medaled, including sabreuse Allison Barry (3rd), epeeist Catherine Lee (2nd), foilist Nicole McKee (2nd), foilist Virgile Collineau (2nd), and foilist Ariel De Smet (3rd). Another 7 earned top ten finishes. With many of the team's starters away at World Cup competitions, the results show the great depth of the fencing squad.

In addition to fencing's weekend victories on the mat, they also nabbed a big academic win: 2014 ND graduate and fencer Alex Coccia (who also served as the student body president last year) was awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, the university's 1st recipient since 2002 and 1st student athlete recipient since 1957. The current Truman-Albright Fellow in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is off to Oxford to study comparative social policy. You can read more on Coccia here.

No fencing highlights for you, but here's a great clip from a SAAC forum ND fencing hosted in which other student athletes (including NDFB's Matthias Farley and Corey Robinson) got to try their hand at the sport:

Next up for the Irish is the North American Cup in Dallas, TX, the first weekend of December.

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Notre Dame cross country's women's squad earned an at-large bid to the NCAA championship after coming in 6th at regionals a few weeks back. At the chilly championship in Terre Haute this past weekend, the women came in 29th overall in a field of 31, with the best Irish performance going to Molly Seidel. Seidel came in 19th place (1st in the ACC) in a field of 253 and earned All-American honors. One member of the men's squad, Michael Clevenger, competed in the championship as an at-large individual qualifier, and he finished 92nd overall, again in a field of hundreds.

With that the Irish finish for the fall. Indoor track and field picks up the 1st weekend of December.

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Men's swimming and diving was idle this past week. The Irish next compete in the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa City the 1st weekend of December.

The women's squad was also idle this past week. They next head to Austin in the 1st weekend of December for the Texas Invitational and, that same weekend, to Iowa City for the Hawkeye Invitational.

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Over the past week, men's basketball (4-1) downed Coppin State, 104-67, and UMass, 81-68, before falling in a thriller to Providence, 75-74. Check out our game reviews (with video highlights) of the Coppin State victory here, the UMass win here, and the Providence match here.

The team hosts Grambling State this Wednesday (7:00 p.m. ET, WatchND, ESPN3), then Chicago State on Saturday (2:00 p.m. ET, WatchND, ESPN3).

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No. 3/2 women's basketball (4-0) bested no. 15/17 Michigan State, 71-63, last Wednesday. Friday, Notre Dame won out over Chattanooga, 88-53, and Sunday, they ran over Holy Cross, 104-29. Monday evening, they outplayed Harvard to the tune of 97-43.

Vs. Michigan State:

Vs. Chattanooga:

And vs. Holy Cross:

Quinnipiac faces the Irish at ND this Tuesday evening (6:00 p.m. ET, WatchND, Tourney Central). Sunday, Notre Dame faces Kansas in Connecticut (1:00 p.m. ET, WatchND, ESPN3).

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We'll bring you updates next week on Notre Dame's Olympic sports. For now, go Irish. Beat USC and everybody else.