The Week in Notre Dame Athletics: Lax Advances, Softball Falls

The season ended for softball, baseball, men's tennis, women's tennis, and men's golf this past week. Without further ado, we bring you the results of the last week's Irish match-ups.

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After defeating Harvard in the opening round of the NCAA tournament a week earlier, no. 5 men's lacrosse (11-5) rallied to down Albany in overtime, 14-13, in a wild quarterfinals match. Paul Rigney has the full game recap for you right here.

Here are highlights from the match:

And more highlights:

This Saturday, the Irish face Maryland in the NCAA tournament semifinals in Baltimore (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). If they win, Notre Dame will face either Denver or Duke in the final on Monday (1:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2). Best of luck to the Irish as they play for the championship.

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No. 19/20 Irish softball (41-13) made a great showing at the NCAA tournament this past weekend, dominating Long Beach State, 8-0 and 10-1, but falling to no. 2 UCLA, 7-0 and 1-0 in the Los Angeles regional final. In the final, the Irish loaded the bases twice, but couldn't bring anyone home.

This was a great season for the Irish, who built and then held their high ranking through consistently strong performances and outstanding pitching, especially from program leader Larua Winter (29-7).

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Baseball (22-31) won 5 of their 6 final games to finish the season, sweeping Pittsburgh, 3-0, at home this past weekend. After a road contest with Eastern Michigan was cancelled last week, Notre Dame earned 3-0, 1-0, and 5-4 wins - the last, on a walk-off home run - over the Panthers, bringing their newly-FieldTurfed Eck Stadium record for the season to 5-1.

Here's that walk-off home run:

And here are highlights from the last game in the series on Saturday:

It was a tough season for the Irish, but the last stretch showed them to be undaunted competitors with promising seasons ahead of them.

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Notre Dame's track & field team earned 6 top-5 finishes at the Georgia Tech Invitational this past weekend. The regular-season-ending tournament saw the Irish nab first-place finishes in the women's 4x400 relay and 5000m run, plus top-5 finishes in the women's triple jump and 400m hurdles, as well as the men's 1500m run and discus.

The Irish are idle this next week as they prepare for the NCAA preliminary round meet in Jacksonville, FL, beginning next Thursday (May 29^th).

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The no. 13 men's tennis squad (21-10) played into the sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament before meeting the end of its season this past weekend against Virginia with a 4-1 loss. This was the 1^st trip to the sweet sixteen for the Irish since 2007.

Women's tennis (19-9) also fell in the sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament this past week. The Irish lost to no. 2 Alabama, 4-2, to bring a very strong season to its end.

Beginning this Wednesday, members of both Irish squads compete in the NCAA singles and doubles championship in Athens, GA.

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The men's golf squad finished for the year this past week as tri-captain Niall Platt tied for 34th at the NCAA tournament regional in Sugar Grove, IL. Platt, only the 2^nd in ND history to be invited to the tournament as an individual, earned a 14-over 230 (80-77-73) and now begins a career in professional golf as Notre Dame's scoring average record-holder.

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No. 10 Irish rowing earned a strong runner-up finish at their 1^st ACC championship this past weekend, coming in behind only no. 5 Virginia, which won a 5^th consecutive title.

The Irish are idle this week as they hope to receive an at-large berth to the NCAA championship in Indianapolis next weekend (beginning May 30^th).

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