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Without further ado, we give you the results of the last week's Irish match-ups and look ahead at what's on the schedule this week.
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Irish track & field finished up their indoor season at the NCAA Indoor Championships this past weekend, and they went out in style. Molly Seidel earned another TWO individual championships for Notre Dame (she had 2 already), this time in the 5000m and the 3000m.
Here's Seidel's 5000m victory:
And the 3000m:
Nine ND track and field athletes qualified for the championships and all earned first team All-American honors. The women's squad finished 5th in team standings, which is their best finish in school history. Jade Barber finished 6th in the 6-mH. Margaret Bamgbose earned 5th in the women's 400m. Anna Rohrer came in 4th in the 5000m. The women's DMR squad finished 6th overall and Nate Richartz came in 8th in the men's pole vault. Very well done, indeed.
The outdoor season starts up in 2 weeks for the Irish at the Raleigh Relays in NC and the Yellow Jacket Invitational in GA.
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The no. 1 Irish women and no. 3 men of the fencing team earned 6 medals at the NCAA Midwest Regional this past Saturday in Columbus, OH, and is on track to qualify the maximum of 12 fencers for the upcoming NCAA Championships. The Irish earned regional championships in women's epee and foil and in men's foil. The women finished second in sabre and the men earned second in epee, second in sabre, and third in foil. In brief, they cleaned up.
The NCAA Championships are next for the Irish in Waltham, MA, at the end of the month.
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No. 10 Irish hockey (19-10-7, 15-7-2) fell in two games to Northeastern in the quarterfinal round of the Hockey East tournament. Friday night, ND was bested, 3-1, and Saturday, 6-4. In the series opener, Northeastern pulled ahead, 2-0, with early first-period goals. ND's Jordan Gross made it 2-1 midway through the opening period, but the team was unable to knot things up. NU scored in an empty net with half a minute remaining in the game. Cal Petersen made 19 saves in net for the Irish and NU edged ND in shots, 22-21. NU was 0-for-1 on power plays and ND was 0-for-2 in the 3-1 loss.
Saturday night, ND's Luke Ripley opened scoring late in the opening period after a nearly 15-minute stalemate. NU responded with a power play goal a few minutes later. They then scored 3 unanswered early in the middle stanza (one PP), making in 4-1. Mario Lucia got the Irish back in the game with a goal in the final seconds of the period. NU scored another 2 early and midway through the final period, making it 6-2, before ND's Thomas DiPauli and Lucia netted the final 2 scores (the latter on a power play in the closing seconds). Petersen had 28 saves to NU's goalie's 25 in the 6-4 loss.
Next up are the NCAA tournament regionals at the end of March. We await word of who Notre Dame will face and when.
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No. 2 men's lacrosse (4-1) earned a thrilling 9-8 OT loss to no. 2/1 Denver on Sunday. This was the fifth time in the last six Denver-ND matches that the foes have had to go to overtime to reach a decision. Denver owned the opening half, pulling ahead 7-2 before the Irish turned things around in the second. ND put together an offensive show late in the game, including netting 4 goals in 43 seconds with a little over 5 minutes to play to make it 8-7, Irish. It didn't stand there, though: Denver tied it up (after a nearly 30-minute scoring drought) and then scored the game-winner in OT.
You can find a fuller recap of the heartbreaker from one of our community members here.
Notre Dame next hosts Virginia on Saturday evening (6:00 p.m. ET, ESPNU).
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No. 6 women's lacrosse (7-1, 3-1) won a great pair of games this past week, first overcoming to Virginia Tech on the road, 19-10, then besting no. 7 Princeton at home, 16-11. Grace Muller and Rachel Sexton led the team vs. the Hokies with four goals each; Cortney Fortunato had two goals and four assists.
Against no. 7 Princeton, goalie Barbara Sullivan caused 7 turnovers and Sexton had another four goals; Fortunato added 3 goals and 2 assists in the victory.
Next up for the Irish is a visit from Virginia on Saturday afternoon.
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No. 20/23 softball (21-3, 3-0) dominated Virginia over the weekend in Charlottesville, VA, going 3-0 by impressive margins against their ACC foe. The Irish won, 9-2, in the series opener, took the second game, 7-3, then won the final, 16-3.
The Irish hold their home opener on Thursday evening against Bowling Green. Next Tuesday, they host Eastern Michigan.
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Baseball (6-8, 0-3) opened conference play with a bit of a struggle, going 0-3 against no. 4 Louisville on the road. Two of the games were very close, though: the Irish dropped the series opener, 4-3, in 11 innings; lost in the second, 8-2; then just let the final game slip away from them, 1-0.
The Irish have their home opener this Wednesday evening against Toledo (6:05 p.m. ET, WatchND). Friday, they play NC State on the road in Raleigh, ND (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN3). The teams square off again on Saturday (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN3) and Sunday (1:00 p.m. ET, ESPN3). Next Tuesday, they host UIC (6:05 p.m. ET, WatchND).
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No. 38 men's tennis (8-8, 2-2) dropped their last week's matches, first falling to Clemson in a close one, 4-3, then getting swept by no. 9 Wake Forest, 7-0.
No. 40 women's tennis (9-5, 3-2) had their first matches of last week's road trip to Puerto Rico rained out, but they swept LIU Brooklyn on Friday, 7-0. They next host Wake Forest this Friday.
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Men's golf came in 10th in a field of 18 in Laredo, TX, at the Border Olympics. Matt Rushton and Ben Albin tied for 14th overall. Next up for the Irish is the Clemson Invitational in Salem, SC, in early April.
The no. 20 women's golf finished an impressive 4th in a field of 17 at the Clover Cup in Mesa, AZ, this past weekend. Talia Campbell finished in 9th place overall and Emma Albrecht tied for 12th. Next, the Irish travel to Baton Rouge, LA, for the LSU Tiger Classic this Sunday through Tuesday.
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The no. 17 Irish rowing team opened their spring season this past weekend at the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational in Tennessee. The team earned 4 wins and 10 runner-up finishes at the 17-race event in a 4-team field. Next up is the Longhorn Invitational in Town Lake, TX, at the end of the month.
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Men's basketball (22-11, 12-8) earned an ACC tournament quarterfinals win over no. 19 Duke, 84-79, in a come-from-behind OT thriller, before falling to no. 7 UNC in the semis, 78-47. You can find our review of the former here [http://www.onefootdown.com/2016/3/10/11196362/irish-stun-duke-in-ot-advance-to-acc-semis] and of the latter here. [http://www.onefootdown.com/2016/3/11/11210260/instant-recap-notre-dame-47-unc-78]
The Irish, a six seed in the NCAA tournament, will play the winner of Michigan/Tulsa on Friday night (9:40 p.m. ET, CBS) in their first round game.
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No. 2 women's basketball (31-1, 19-0) was idle this past week after claiming the ACC tournament championship. They now await their first round NCAA tournament game this Friday. The second round of games take place on Sunday and Monday.
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The women's swimming & diving squad was idle this past week, but heads to the NCAA Championships this Thursday through Saturday in Atlanta, GA.
The men's swimming & diving squad is currently idle, awaiting the NCAA Championships in late March.
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We'll bring you updates again next week on the whole range of Notre Dame sports. For now, go Irish. Beat everybody.