The Week in Notre Dame Athletics: Let the Games Begin

Welcome back to The Week in Notre Dame Athletics! Now that the Irish are back in action, we'll bring you updates on how all of Notre Dame's Olympic and otherwise non-football sports fare each week: who's ranked, what is each sport's season-long and weekly record, which Irish athletes are making headlines, which games you can watch on TV or online, and if anything crazy or particularly excellent happened that you'll want to see. Like this:

See you on Saturday, Michigan.

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

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After a strong string of preseason exhibition matches, reigning national champions and top-ranked men's soccer (1-0-1) bested no. 12 Marquette, 2-1, in their season opener. They then earned a 0-0 draw with no. 9 Georgetown, earning a share in the IU Classic Title for the third straight year.

Next up for the Irish are Dartmouth (Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET, WatchND) and Kentucky (Sunday, 2:00 p.m. ET, WatchND) at home.

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No. 11/10 women's soccer (2-2-0) evenly split their first four games of the season, claiming a 3-1 comeback victory over Illinois and a 3-0 win over Oakland in their home opener before falling 2-1 to both no. 16/12 Texas Tech and to USC.

This weekend, the Irish travel to California to play Santa Clara (Friday night) and Stanford (Sunday, 4:00 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Networks).

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The Irish volleyball team drew the short straw with their scheduled season-opening games, facing two ranked opponents to begin the year. Notre Dame fell 3-0 to both no. 6 Wisconsin and no. 12 Minnesota this past week, but things will undoubtedly pick up for the veteran Irish squad as their schedule eases a bit and they find their rhythm.

The Irish face Washington State this Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, WatchND), then IUPUI on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, WatchND) and Western Michigan on Sunday (2:00 p.m. ET, WatchND).

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Men's golf began their fall season with an outstanding team victory over IUPUI and Ball State at the Notre Dame Kickoff Challenge. They won the team competition by nineteen strokes, with team rounds of 281-280-561 (-7) at the Warren Golf Course on Notre Dame's campus. Can't imagine a better way to start the season.

The team heads to the Gopher Invitational this Sunday and Monday in MN.

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This weekend, cross country begins the season with the Crusader Open in Valparaiso, IN. Women's golf and men's and women's tennis will begin play later this month, followed by hockey and swimming in early October.

For more coverage of ND athletics beyond football, check out WatchND and their weekly Fix:

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