Sports

Hockey: Squad dominates in exhibition

The Irish dominated wire-to-wire in their return to Compton Family Ice Arena against visiting Guelph, winning 5-2 in the opening exhibition of the 2013-14 season.

SMC Cross Country: Saint Mary's finishes 12th in 'competitive field'

The Belles took 12th place at the Pre-National race hosted by Hanover College on Saturday in Hanover, Ind. After a solid fourth-place finish last week at the MIAA Jamboree, the Belles claimed 12th place in a field of 18 teams Saturday with a team score of 306. Trinity University (Texas) won the race and Lewis University took second place with team scores of 44 and 73, respectively. Saint Mary's coach Jackie Bauters said it was a very competitive environment for the Belles. "It was a very competitive field this weekend full of highly-ranked regional and national teams," Bauters said. "We worked the team hard this week and I was happy to see how well they ran despite it." Belles senior Jessica Biek led the squad this weekend. Biek finished 28th overall with a time of 23:38.79. Freshman Brittany Beeler was the second Saint Mary's runner to finish. Beeler took 53rd overall with a time of 24:13.65. Bauters said she thought the team did very well overall despite a few runners who did not run their best. "A few ladies had off days which impacted our overall performance but nothing that won't be remedied for our next race," Bauters said. One member of the Belles squad who did not have an off-day performance was sophomore Katelyn Dunn. Dunn finished the race with a personal-best time of 25:02.37 and claimed 88th place for 77 points. Bauters said Dunn's strong performance was a crucial contribution to the team's overall score. "Katelyn really helped finish out our scoring," Bauters said. Sophomore Allie Danhof finished ahead of Dunn with a time of 24:40.78 to earn 69th place and 62 points. Junior Samee Chittenden ran a 25:21.03 right behind Dunn to finish 107th overall. Freshman Kathryn Marshall finished after Chittenden with a time of 25:34.23 to finish 116th and fellow freshman Kaitlyn Alessi crossed the finish line a little less than 30 seconds later with a time of 26:00.73 to finish 128th. Junior Emily Getz, senior Colette Curtis, and freshman Colleen Ogren finished close to each other in a pack. Getz ran a 26:37.55 for 159th place, Curtis ran a 26:38.20 for 160tth place, and Ogren took 163rd with a time of 26:40.85. Freshman Maggie Pacana, senior Sarah Thompson, and sophomore Holly Higdon wrapped up the race for the Belles. Pacana finished 185th with a time of 27:26.39, and Thompson finished 191st with a 27:42.47. Higdon ran a 28:10.92 to claim 199th. After performing well and finishing ahead of 14th-place Manchester, Bauters said the team is looking forward to competing next at the Manchester Invitational on Oct. 19. "We are excited for Manchester in two weeks," Bauters said. "We just came off beating Manchester this weekend and will look forward to some fast times." Contact Kit Loughran at kloughr1@nd.edu  

Men's Soccer: Saved by Shipp

The No. 2 Irish pulled out a 2-1 overtime victory at No. 13 Clemson on Saturday, on the back of senior captain and forward Harrison Shipp's two goal effort.

Men's Soccer: Saved by Shipp

The No. 2 Irish pulled out a 2-1 overtime victory at No. 13 Clemson on Saturday, on the back of senior captain and forward Harrison Shipp's two goal effort.

TJ Jones shines as 'big-play guy' for Rees and Irish

On Sundays at what was formerly known as Cowboys Stadium, a star aligns right at midfield for all to see. On this particular Saturday night, he lined up outside the numbers. 

Women's Interhall: Season continues with four weekday contests

Lewis vs. Farley

Gastelum: Jerry World lived up to the hype, impressed fans (Oct. 7)

Irish top No. 22 Arizona State 37-34

Notre Dame's defense sealed the game when its offense could not as the Irish slipped by No. 22 Arizona State 37-34 on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Cross Country: Irish finish "disappointed" after ND Invitational

The No. 19 Irish women's squad and No. 22 men's team grabbed sixth- and seventh-place finishes, respectively, Friday in the 58th annual Notre Dame Invitational on the Notre Dame Golf Course. Although each side finished in the top third of large fields, the Irish said they were not satisfied with the results. "Generally, we're pretty disappointed with how the meet went," Irish junior Jake Kildoo said. "A couple runners had pretty decent performances, guys like [graduate student] Jeremy Rae, but all around I think we gave a really poor indication of our actual fitness and potential as a team." On the men's side, Rae had the only top-30 finish for the Irish in the 8k blue race, finishing fifth in the 209-runner field with a time of 24:33.9. Senior Martin Grady finished 32nd (25:02.3), while graduate student J.P. Malette rounded out the top three for the Irish with a 59th-place finish (25:24.9). Kildoo finished 81st with a time of 25:38.0. No. 30 Columbia ran away with the team title for the men with a score of 113, while no. 7 Tulsa and no. 9 Princeton finishing behind them with scores of 124 and 147, respectively. The Irish finished with 236 points in their seventh-place finish. Unranked Minnesota provided the surprise for the meet, finishing fourth and beating out five ranked teams, including No. 16 Colorado State and No. 21 New Mexico, as well as the Irish. Only two ranked teams finished behind the Irish, No. 24 Virginia and No. 26 Florida State. "It's fortunate that we were able to beat two good teams in Virginia and Florida State, but that doesn't mean nearly as much considering we lost to teams we know we can keep up with," Kildoo said. "We're going to use this as motivation, keep training hard, and we will look to tack up a much better performance at Wisconsin in two weeks." For the women, senior Kelly Curran led the way for the Irish, notching a ninth-place finish with a time of 17:18.3 in the 5k blue race, while fellow senior Alexa Aragon also recorded a top-20 finish, placing 16th with a time of 17:29.5. Junior Emily Frydrych also turned in a strong performance, finishing 47th (17:56.0) in the 166-runner field. While Aragon agreed with Kildoo that the meet was certainly a disappointment, she said the Irish will use it as a learning experience. "We didn't do as well as we hoped for," Aragon said. "With the bigger field we have to learn to do a better job of getting out in the beginning of the race and running together. We'll definitely be working on that for our next meet." No. 2 Florida State took the women's title with a final tally of 77 points. No. 15 New Mexico finished just behind the Seminoles with 82 points, while No. 24 San Francisco took third with 96 points. The No. 19 Irish women tallied 205 points in their sixth-place effort. "Despite the result, I was proud of everyone," Aragon said. "It's important to see things we did well this weekend. The humidity and heat made for some tough conditions. But there are a lot of things we need to improve on as well." The Irish race next at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational, held on Oct. 19 in Madison, Wisc.

SMC Golf: Belles fire a season-low score, finish second

Saint Mary's closed out the last of its four MIAA one-day jamborees with a second-place finish Saturday at Zollner Golf Course in Angola, Ind. The Belles shot a season-low 329 for the round to finish close behind Olivet's 320. The Tigers and the Belles took first and second place respectively in all four fall jamborees. Saint Mary's coach Kim Moore said her team was happy to finish out the jamboree schedule but will hold off on any celebration until after the season is over. "It feels pretty good," Moore said. "We have two more [conference rounds] coming up, the last of the fall season, so I'm looking forward to those last two events. Hopefully we can keep the momentum of how we did [Saturday] going for this coming weekend." Freshman Ali Mahoney led the way for Saint Mary's with a 76, her tournament-low score as a Belle, and took third place individually. Senior captain Paige Pollak shot a 77 to finish fourth. Moore said her two leading scorers impressed her with their play Saturday. "I think we played pretty good," she said. "I was pretty impressed with the two scores in the 70s, so that always helps." Mahoney tied the tournament lead with three birdies, including one on a par three, to lower her score. Pollak also had a birdie and tied three other golfers in par-four scoring. "Ali made a lot of one-putts and had her best putting performance of the year so far," Moore said. "Paige was hitting the ball pretty decent [Saturday]. It seems to be clicking a little bit better so hopefully that momentum will continue this next week in practice and into next weekend." Sophomore Sammie Averill shot an 86 for Saint Mary's to take 18th place. Senior captain Alexi Bown rounded out the Belles' team score with a 90 for 21st place, and junior Janice Heffernan turned in a 92 for 26th place individually. Moore said the team took Sunday as a day of rest after a long two weeks of conference action, but the Belles will hit the links again Monday to prepare for the two-day End of Season Weekend Jamboree. "[Sunday] was a day off, so hopefully they utilized it to kind of rest up and get caught up on some studies," she said. "But next week, we'll continue practice just like we used to and get that same routine going." The Belles have one last week of practice before they tee off in their final tournament of the fall season Saturday at the End of Season Weekend Jamboree at Bedford Valley Golf Course in Augusta, Mich. Contact Mary Green at mgreen8@nd.edu  

ND Women's Soccer: 'Canes upset No. 4 Irish

After a seven-match unbeaten streak, the Irish fell 2-0 in disappointing fashion to Miami on Sunday afternoon in Coral Gables, Fla. Junior forward Ashley Flinn scored two second-half goals for the Hurricanes (7-4, 2-4 ACC) as Miami pulled off the upset of No. 3 Notre Dame (9-2-1, 5-1-1). "The game today was just poor. We were not good from the opening whistle," Irish coach Randy Waldrum said. "You can blame it on a lot of different things, but we just came out very unprepared to go in and battle." The loss comes just three days after the Irish tied No. 11 Wake Forest - the first time Notre Dame left the pitch without a victory in its inaugural conference schedule in the ACC. For Waldrum, the defeat to the Hurricanes proved to be much more disappointing. "This is a game that we expected to win and we didn't," Waldrum said. "Getting a tie against a top team like Wake Forest doesn't hurt you, but this hurts you. They're not a better team or better players than us. They just outworked us." While Notre Dame held the slight advantage in shots, the team struggled to string together passes in the attacking third and put together scoring chances. Hurricanes junior goaltender Emily Lillard came off her line numerous times to grab passes and shots before the Irish could put them in the net. Lillard made a number of stops in the second half to earn the clean sheet. "It's one thing to get a lot of shots, and it's another thing to create quality chances," Waldrum said. "We really had only one or two bona fide chances in the game. We had forwards with chances to create and took a bad touch, we never strung passes together. We couldn't seem to do anything right." Although the Irish did not score a goal in the game for just the second time all year, Waldrum did not lay all the blame at the feet of his offensive players. He also cited the uncharacteristically poor play from Notre Dame's veteran defensive corps. "We were as bad defensively as we've been all season," Waldrum said. After winning their first five games in the ACC, the recent stumble from the Irish has Waldrum worried that his team will lack confidence heading into the remaining six games on the team's conference schedule, especially Thursday's date at No. 1 Virginia, he said. The Irish are still tied with Virginia Tech for the third spot in the ACC standings, but first-place Virginia has played one fewer conference games than the Irish, Hokies and second-place Florida State. "We know we played poorly and that we have to turn around and play Virginia on Thursday," Waldrum said. "If we dwell on the loss too long, it could affect us. We've got to go with the approach that these are the things we did wrong and we need to fix them. We can still come out [of the ACC] in really good shape, there's just more pressure now." The Irish will resume action when they next play at Virginia on Thursday. Contact Conor Kelly at ckelly17@nd.edu  

Volleyball: Wake Forest battles back to down struggling ND

Heading into Friday's match against Wake Forest at Purcell Pavilion, Notre Dame's transition to the ACC had not gone smoothly. Unfortunately for the Irish, their fortunes did not improve against the Demon Deacons. Despite winning the first two sets, the Irish fell victim to a comeback from Wake Forest, falling in five sets. The loss is the sixth in a row for Notre Dame (6-9, 0-4 ACC). "It's very rough, and you can't really avoid frustration and disappointment," Irish coach Debbie Brown said. "We're just not in a good rhythm right now." The Irish jumped out to a lead by relying on strong team defense in the match's first two sets, registering 47 digs and 9.5 blocks in the opening two frames. In a defensive struggle, however, the Irish failed to convert efficiently on offense, hitting just .154 on the evening. Wake Forest (12-4, 1-3 ACC) recovered and seized control of the third set early, winning 25-19 before taking the final two by scores of 25-20 and 15-11. For Brown, the outcome was due both to a letdown by her squad and impressive play by the Demon Deacons. "I think it was a combination of the two," Brown said. "The first two games really weren't great volleyball. Statistically, it was high-error on both sides. We knew going into the third set that we had to pay better, and we just didn't." Junior outside hitter Toni Alugbue led the Irish offensively with 21 kills while senior middle blocker Andie Olsen chipped in 12. Senior setter Maggie Brindock contributed a career-high 21 digs. Brown said her team's troubles came from an inability to convert on offense. "Our biggest thing is that we're not generating kills," Brown said. "We're getting dug a lot, the frustration of which leads us to taking swings that we probably shouldn't take which leads to errors. It's a reflection of both the passing and the hitting. It's been a little bit of everything. We have to be a little smarter." While the offense struggled on Friday against Wake Forest, there has not been one specific aspect of play that has consistently thwarted the Irish during their recent run of poor form, Brown said. "There's not one area from game to game that we feel is hindering us," Brown said. "We played much better defense today but didn't get the kills to go with it. Sometimes it goes the other way around." Notre Dame's victory over Auburn on Sept. 14 in similar fashion, with the Irish taking the match's final three sets to overcome a 2-0 deficit. To be on the other side of the result, however, is trying for both the coaching staff and the players. "As a team, things haven't gone real well recently," Brown said. "We just have to believe that it's all going to turn around soon." The Irish next hit the court on Friday when they seek their first conference win at Clemson. Contact Conor Kelly at ckelly17@nd.edu 

Irish lose Grace, Smith

Week 6: Arizona State

Armed with an opportunistic defense and an explosive offense, Notre Dame won a Texas shootout over No. 22 Arizona State, 37-34, on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas in front of 66,690 people.

Notre Dame leads Arizona State at halftime, 14-13

Notre Dame led No. 22 Arizona State 14-13 going into halftime Saturday night during the Shamrock Series game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

ND Cross Country: Irish host competitive Notre Dame Invitational

After coming out of the gate with two strong performances at the Crusader Invitational and the National Catholic Championships, Notre Dame faces its third test of the season in this weekend's Notre Dame Invitational.

Men's Soccer: Irish travel to Clemson

The No. 2 Irish hit the road to take on Clemson in Clemson, S.C., on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Women's Interhall: Weasels seek to stay undefeated

By RENEE GRIFFIN

Karnes: The 'real' fantasy team (Oct. 4)

Watching fictional athletes in sports movies or on TV always gets me thinking: How would these athletes fare in the real world? In honor of that thought, I've complied a list of the top eight fictional athletes from TV or movies. No athletes based on real people will be included, just original characters. Without further ado ...

Men's Interhall: O'Neill, Dillon set to clash

By MARY GREEN