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Notre Dame roundup: Women's lacrosse topples No. 1 Northwestern

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•02/19/24•

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notre dame women's lacrosse wolak
Notre Dame women's lacrosse attacker Jackie Wolak. (Photo courtesy of Notre Dame athletics)

Northwestern women’s lacrosse hadn’t lost in 22 games. Notre Dame women’s lacrosse hadn’t knocked off No. 1 in the program’s 27-year history. Both streaks ended Friday night.

The Irish beat the Wildcats 14-10 in South Bend, improving to 3-0. They reached 4-0 on Sunday with a 25-3 demolition of Butler at home, and they’re now the No. 2 team in the nation behind only Boston College, according to Inside Lacrosse.

Graduate attacker Jackie Wolak led the way with 4 goals and 2 assists. Fellow graduate attacker Madison Ahern and senior attacker Abby Maichin scored 3 goals of their own, with Maichin doing it off the bench. Perhaps the most impressive part of the win was the way the Irish took control in the fourth quarter.

After two Northwestern goals to take a 10-9 lead, Notre Dame rattled off five unanswered from senior defender Keelin Schlageter, Wolak, Ahern, Wolak again and Maichin, respectively. Wolak scored the eventual game-winner by sneaking in from behind the net and firing it past the Wildcats’ goalie with 6:58 to go, and the Irish didn’t look back.

Notre Dame is back in action Saturday in South Bend, where the Irish will take on No. 7 Syracuse in another top-10 matchup.

Faison shines as Notre Dame men’s lacrosse begins title defense

No. 1 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse scored 46 goals in its two games, the most in any two-game stretch in program history. The defending national champions easily dispatched Cleveland State 25-3 on Wednesday in South Bend and Marquette 21-8 on Sunday in Milwaukee.

The big story, though, was the emergence of freshman midfielder Jordan Faison.

Faison — a wide receiver on the football team who was named Sun Bowl MVP less than two months ago — started on the top-ranked team in the country as a freshman. That raised some eyebrows, which would have shot to the top of even Peyton Manning’s forehead when Faison scored 38 seconds into his college lacrosse career.

By the end of the week, Faison scored five goals and tallied an assist. That the two-sport athlete is a great lacrosse player is not a shock — he was a top-50 recruit as a midfielder — but he was not necessarily expected to make this kind of impact on a team this good and experienced right away.

Notre Dame’s returning stars played like stars, too. Junior attacker Chris Kavanagh and graduate attacker Pat Kavanagh totaled 12 points each, while fellow graduate attacker Jake Taylor led the Irish with 9 goals.

Fighting Irish softball takes care of business in Florida

Notre Dame softball took down Samford twice and Jacksonville once at the University of North Florida Invitational in Jacksonville, Fla. this weekend. The Irish are 6-2, with losses to South Alabama and No. 16/13 Utah.

The Irish only gave up 7 runs across three games in Jacksonville, winning with strong pitching. Aces Micaela Kastor (So.) and Alexis Laudenslager (Gr.) hold earned run averages of 2.37 and 2.67, respectively. Kastor pitched 7.0 innings this weekend, allowing 2 earned runs and picking up 2 wins.

The team flashed rare power Friday against Samford, as senior first baseman Karina Gaskins and freshman second baseman Addison Amaral each homered in an 11-2 run-rule win. Notre Dame has only 1 other home run in its seven other games combined, mostly scoring with contact.

Notre Dame hockey splits crucial weekend vs. Minnesota

No. 8 Minnesota came to South Bend this weekend and presented a golden opportunity for the Irish to boost their resume. Notre Dame won 6-1 on Friday but lost 3-2 in overtime Saturday, remaining at .500 (15-15-2, 9-11-2 Big Ten).

Freshman forward Cole Knuble led the way with two goals in the blowout win, both in the second period. Freshman forward Carter Slaggert, senior forward Landon Slaggert, freshman forward Danny Nelson and senior defenseman Drew Bavaro tallied one goal each.

Notre Dame still has an outside shot to make the 16-team NCAA Tournament field, with a massive road weekend against Michigan on Friday and Saturday and the Big Ten tournament still to come.

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