Notre Dame's club field hockey squad hosted Missouri Sunday at LaBar field. The Irish split their squad into two teams and played a pair of games with the Tigers.
In the first game, the Notre Dame Gold Team posted a 2-0 victory for the Irish. Sophomore Jay Williams scored first for the Irish, assisted by seinor Danielle Straccia, in the first half. The second goal came in midway through the second half on a cross from sophomore Will Thwaites to sophomore Jenn O'Neill.
In the second game, played by the Notre Dame Blue Team, the Tigers came out on top 5-3. The first Irish goal was scored in the first half, from senior Kate Sheedy to junior Susie Carlsen. The other two goals came in the second half, one by Saint Mary's senior Claire Kenney and the other by Sheedy.
The Irish will next travel to a tournament in early November.
Men's Water Polo
This weekend the Irish traveled to Grand Rapids, Mich., for the Grand Valley State Invitational. The Irish finished the weekend 3-1, securing a fourth place finish.
Notre Dame's first opponent was the Michigan State B team. Michigan State was able to keep the game close, but the Irish held on for a 10-8 victory. Sophomore captain Dan Geisman played a great game in set, while the Irish were able to hold off the Michigan State side's large number of reserves and kept the lead for most the whole game.
After finishing second in their bracket, Notre Dame was set to play the second place teams in the other two brackets. Notre Dame won the first game in the morning by forfeit, and then finished the tournament against Illinois-Chicago, the same team that the Irish lost to in overtime two weeks at the first conference qualifiers. However, this time the result would be different.
The game started out close, with a score of 3-3 after the first quarter. The Irish played a strong second quarter, taking scoring on every opportunity on 6-5's. Senior captain Matt Fordonski put away a few goals, while Sebastian Testero made the difference, shutting down the opposition in set and scoring multiple goals in the third quarter. Notre Dame was able to keep the lead in the fourth quarter, winning the game with a final score of 10-7.
The Irish will next play in the conference championships on Oct. 24-25 in Dayton, Ohio. If the Irish are able to win that tournament, they will qualify for the national collegiate club championships.
Bowling
Notre Dame opened its bowling season at the Brickyard Classic in Indianapolis this weekend. The Irish, returning just three starters from 2008, were looking to see how the rookies handled the competitive environment.
Led by senior anchor Chris Kieser, the club got off to a decent start as the Irish registered their first 800 game of the season. Game two showed flashes of potential, as freshman Armani Sutton rolled a high 180's game to give the Irish their first 900 game on the young season.
Games three, four and five were very similar with different members of the team stepping up. In the sixth game, the club started out with 13 opens in their first 15 frames. The Irish tried to fight back, and got a momentum boost when sophomore Richard Skelton made a tough 6-7-10 spare, only to have the momentum immediately crushed when Kieser left the 7-10 split two frames later.
The Irish bowled a respectable 5173 for the six game series after a disappointing 727 in Game six. This put the Irish on the bubble for making the afternoon squad.
Unfortunately for the Irish, a strike by the Missouri Baptist anchor sent the Irish to
the morning squad by only two pins.
Heading into the Sunday morning squad, the Irish were the No. 1 seed and showed why they were so close to the afternoon squad, posting a 757 4-game baker series. However, the Irish struggled with their shot the rest of the day with only Sutton and Kieser having any sort of consistency. The Irish finished the day with a 2-1-1 record in the match-play bakers.
While final results were not available, it appears the Irish only slipped one spot despite their struggles.
The women's team had a rough weekend. Day two provided some bright spots with the Irish bowling two bakers over 165. This tournament was a learning experience and the squad will certainly improve as the season progresses.
The Irish will next bowl Oct. 31 at the Boilermaker Classic.
Ultimate Frisbee
In their second tournament of the season, Notre Dame traveled to Edinboro, Penn., for the Skylander IX Annual Tournament, taking on some of the best in the east. The Irish decided to enter two even teams as opposed to A and B teams. This allowed the freshmen to get much needed playing time.
Freshman Zac Woodruff showed special potential on Saturday when he led his team to a victory late in the day. On the last point of the game, senior Bill Carson put up a deep throw up to Woodruff, who was guarded by experienced players from Syracuse. In the end zone, both Woodruff and two defenders jumped up, with Woodruff coming down with the final point.
Saturday was characterized by mixed results and both teams were excited to move on to Sunday. Notre Dame Y put in a run on Sunday and made it all the way to the championship of the consolation bracket against Buffalo.
Sophomore Jack Dobemier was excited to play against his hometown school as he knew many players on the opposing team. Dobemier's enthusiasm showed on the field when he shut down his assignment on defense and put up pretty throws all over the field. Unfortunately Dobemier's play wasn't enough and Notre Dame Y came up short 15-12.
For the first time in women's club history, the Irish broke into two women's teams (X and Y). Notre Dame Y went 2-5 with tough losses to the Edinboro Alumni and Team U.S.A., a compilation of club team players based out of Pittsburgh. Notre Dame X went 7-1, with notable victories over Carnegie Mellon and Maryland, and made it to the championship game Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately the club lost 15-2, but played excellent defense, despite X's lack of experienced players and an injury to a key player on the first day.
Sailing
The Irish competed in the Buckeye Invitational at Ohio State University this past weekend.
Sophomore Nathaniel Walden and senior Tim O'Brien split time in the A division with sophomore Natalie Fang as crew and finished third. Sophomore Jeff Miller and freshman crew Kelly Sullivan finished third in B division.
Third in each division was good enough for the team to finish second overall in the regatta.
Men's Rowing
The Irish opened their fall season at the Head of the Rock Regatta in Rockford, Ill., on Sunday. The regatta brought other major collegiate competitors such as the Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Minnesota and 46 other schools to the Rock River to race down the 4.4-kilometer course.
Sophomore Zach Stackhouse and junior Charles Talley took the gold medal in the Men's Open Pairs with a time of 17:27. Juniors Michael Maggart and Greg Flood followed, taking third place with a time of 17:35.
Just an hour later, the Irish had three boats in the Men's Collegiate 4+ race, where their top boat of sophomore Garrett Campbell, sophomore Timothy Parks, junior Sean Gibbons and sophomore Brent Shawcross grabbed second place with a time a 15:48, only seven seconds behind University of Michigan.
The other two fours, stroked by sophomore James Baffa and junior Kevin Quigley, finished at 8th and 10th place out of 19 boats total. The morning was wrapped up with the men's open doubles race, where the Notre Dame showed true domination as junior Phil Brunner, sophomore Charles Janini and sophomore Wes Horton and their pair partners swept the competition with a 1-2-3 finish, and sophomore Patrick Alvarado's No. 4 double finished ninth.
The afternoon marked the first race for novice Coach Dave Savoie and his novice crew. They certainly did not disappoint as the first novice boat, stroked by freshman John Fisher, surged to a second place finish at 15:58, only fifteen seconds behind the Wolverines.
The No. 2 novice boat raced to a sixth place finish, beating out the No. 1 novice boats of Iowa and Michigan State.
The afternoon concluded with the biggest race of the day, the Men's Collegiate 8+, pitting each school's top athletes against each other in the fastest racing of the day. The Irish had a total of five boats entered, three varsity and two novice teams.
The Irish's top Varsity 8, stroked by Campbell and Parks and led by senior coxswain Michael Lehmann, was locked in a heated battle against Purdue for the final 1000 meters of the race. With 250 meters of the finish, a big surge from the Irish brought them out on top, extending their lead to twelve seconds and giving them a second place finish with a time of 14:18, three seconds short of Michigan.
The Irish's other two Varsity 8's finished fourth and 11th, both crushing Michigan State's top Varsity. The two novice crews experienced their first race against varsity crews, finishing 18th and 21st.
Men's Rugby
This weekend Notre Dame faced off against Indiana University on McGlinn Fields.
The Irish, led in part by sophomore Daniel Scheper and junior Chris White, started the match off with high intensity. By utilizing their superior kicking skills, the Irish quickly pushed the Mudsharks back deep into their own zone.
A key tackle and poach by Patrick Toole, followed by quick passing in the backline led to a Notre Dame score, which put the Irish to a quick 7-0 lead. The Irish would score twice more, including a thirty-meter penalty kick by Sean Peterson to give them a 15-3 lead going into the half.
The Mudsharks entered the second half with strength and power in the scrums. Their hard work paid off with two tries that put the score at 15-12 with 20 minutes left. Notre Dame then called John Lalor off the bench to inject some passion back into the scrums. His entrance into the game tipped the scale in favor of the Irish, who were able to use their kicking to keep the Mudsharks out of Notre Dame's side of the field for the rest of the game, with a final score of 15-12 in favor of the Irish.
The B-side game was just as exciting as the A-side, with strong leadership by Davey Johnson and sophomore Chris Chung. The Irish dominated the majority of the first half, scoring two times within the first ten minutes. With time winding down in the first half, the Irish made a line-break led by freshman Dan Burke, which eventually led to a try to put Notre Dame up 17-3 going into halftime.
In the second half, the Mudsharks made an attempt at a comeback with two tries and a penalty kick, compared to one try from the Irish. With the score set at 24-20, the Irish made multiple goal-line stands. With time expired on their own five meter-line, junior Michael Doran rocketed the ball out of bounds with a thunderous kick to end the game.
"I knew time was expired and all I had to do was get it out of bounds" Doran said. "So, I took a chance and sent one flying. It ended up paying off, but could have been devastating if the ball wouldn't have made it past the try line."
