The Observer for Monday, March 22, 2021.

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Volume 55, Issue 51 | Monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

SMC keeps enrollment steady Saint Mary’s adapts to COVID-19 pandemic, maintains enrollment numbers

By GENEVIEVE COLEMAN SMC News Editor

In a recent article by the South Bend Tribune, admissions and enrollment trends of smaller St. Joseph County colleges were analyzed in the face of the pandemic, revealing no significant decreases in class size for Saint Mary’s College.

For the fall 2020 semester, Saint Mary’s only enrolled 20 fewer students than in the fall 2019 semester.

In an interview with The

Observer, director of admission Sarah Gallagher Dvorak spoke on her experience working with the classes of 2024 and 2025 during such unusual times.

“The students entering into the class of 2024 and 2025 have had their lives upended over this last year at such a pivotal time, which has certainly had an impact on their college decision process,” Dvorak said. “Many are facing the unknown, financial uncertainties, see ADMISSIONS PAGE 4

Hostin speaks on identity

By EMILY DeFAZIO News Writer

The Notre Dame Klau Center’s “Building an Antiracist Vocabulary” series hosted threetime Emmy award winner Sunny Hostin — ‘94 Notre Dame Law alumna and co-host of The View — as their guest speaker of the week. In addition to her role as a daytime program host, Hostin is

also senior legal correspondent and analyst for ABC News and a member of the advisory board at the Klau Center.

Friday’s segment examined the term “identity” as it operates in the context of society. Hostin explores this concept in her newly-released narrative I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice, and see LECTURE PAGE 4

By SPENCER KELLY News Writer

GENEVIEVE COLEMAN | The Observer

Despite COVID-19 admission limitations, such as tour cancellations, Saint Mary’s class of 2024 maintained its normal size.

Easter Mass schedule posted Observer Staff Report This year’s Triduum services during Holy Week will be held in the Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center instead of the Basilica, director of Campus Ministry Fr. Pete McCormick said in an email to the student body Sunday.

McCormick said the services — celebrating the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the Lord’s Passion

on Good Friday and the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday — are being held in the Purcell Pavilion in order to safely accommodate as many people as possible.

Students, faculty and staff are able to request tickets for the services until 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

All tickets are single seat and assigned. All three of the Triduum see MASS PAGE 3

Drive raises awareness for farmers

By MIA MORAN News Writer

After hearing about a longsleeved t-shirt drive in her class on migrant workers, junior Elizabeth Maxwell took it upon herself to campaign for the long-sleeved shirt drive within her dorm, BreenPhillips Hall.

Marisel Moreno, professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and fellow in the Institute for Latino Studies teaches “Migrant Voices,” a community-based learning course. Recently, she encouraged her students and the Notre Dame campus to become more aware of the living conditions of migrant workers in light of National Farmworker Awareness Week (NFAW) from March 25th to the 31st.

NEWS PAGE 3

Moreno said we should care about migrant farmworkers, “Because we depend 100 percent on migrant farmworkers for all of the food that we consume.”

Moreno said the public does not always see the farmworkers that cultivate the food people take for granted. “[Migrant farmworkers] are essential, we depend on them, but at the same time we don’t see them, society doesn’t care for them, they are expendable, they are exploitable,” Moreno said. “This is not an issue of the 60s or the 40s, this is something that farmworkers still [face].”

NFAW intends to bring awareness to the adversities farmworkers face while honoring them for their essential work. In light of NFAW, Association of Farmers Opportunity Program (AFOP)

SCENE PAGE 5

Biden signs recovery act

sponsors a national long-sleeved shirt drive for migrant workers.

Moreno and Maxwell both said the community needs to be more aware of migrant farm workers.

“There are definitely migrant farm workers in your community,” Maxwell said. “We need to be aware of the injustice that they are undergoing.”

Moreno added, “We are surrounded by farmland … we are very much in the midst of it and we don’t see them, we don’t think about it and it’s such an important part of what this region is about.”

Maxwell extends her longsleeved t-shirt drive to the rest of the Notre Dame community March 22 to March 31 by asking for light-colored, cotton long-sleeved t-shirts to be dropped off at BreenPhillips Hall or through drop-off centers held by La Casa de Amistad

VIEWPOINT PAGE 7

in South Bend.

Maxwell said long-sleeved and light-colored t-shirts are important because farmworkers are often exposed to dangerous pesticides, sun exposure and heat on the job.

Maxwell encourages donations to the AFOP through their Facebook page or PayPal link.

Every $1 donation will be used to give brand new long-sleeve shirts to farmworkers.

Maxwell said even students at Notre Dame who might not come into contact with migrant workers can still find ways to help.

“There are ways, you can, as a student right now, contribute to bettering the situation even though we’re in South Bend on university campus.”

Contact Mia Moran at mmoran23@nd.edu

ND BASEBALL PAGE 12

Editor’s Note: A version of this story was published online March 19.

On March 11, 2021, exactly one year after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law.

Director of undergraduate studies in the department of political science Josh Kaplan noted in an email that unlike previous legislation the CARES Act aims more at social relief than economic stimulus.

“The economy overall is doing better and the unemployment figures have improved since last spring and summer,” Kaplan said.

“But the recovery has been uneven, and this bill is intended to help those hit hardest.”

According to a White House fact sheet, the bill’s tax cuts and direct payments target families making less than $90,000 per year. A Columbia University study estimated that the plan would lift over 5 million children out of poverty this year, cutting the poverty rate by 50 percent.

“It’s an ambitious plan that deliberately tries to address economic disparities, at least in the short term, for people not reached by a general economic recovery,” Kaplan said.

The White House lists three main priority areas for funding — containing COVID-19, vaccinating the public and reopening schools.

Local governments will receive $160 billion to continue virus containment and accelerate vaccine rollout. K-12 schools will receive $130 billion towards Biden’s goal of opening the majority of K-8 schools

by April 30.

The second priority, “immediate relief” for families, includes the much-anticipated stimulus checks. The income qualifications see RECOVERY PAGE 3

ND M TENNIS PAGE 12

2

TODAY

The observer | Monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

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What is the worst movie you have ever seen?

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“‘Justice League.’”

“‘Happy Feet.’”

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graduate student Walsh Hall

“‘The Kissing Booth 2.’”

“‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail.’”

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“‘The Perfect Date.’”

“‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’”

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Saint Mary’s student involvement gave out free t-shirts to celebrate the first day of spring Saturday. The group also gave away funnel cakes and crafts for students to make while they take a break from their studies and enjoy the warm weather on campus.

The next Five days:

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Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Basilica Mass Basilica of the Sacred Heart 11:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m.

All are welcome to celebrate Mass.

Lecture: “The Implicated Subject” virtual 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

With guest speaker Michael Rothberg.

YLND Blood Drive Library Circle 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Open to all Notre Dame faculty and staff.

Please register online.

“Neuroscience and (Your) Behavior” virtual 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Part of a series. Please register online.

Lecture: “Misuse of Civil Rights History” virtual 12:45 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

With guest speaker Jeanne Theoharis.

Reconciliation Sacred Heart Crypt 11 a.m., 4:45 p.m. and 7 p.m.

All are welcome to practice.

Research Uncorked virtual 6 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.

Come listen to a reading by poet Francisco Aragón.

Lecture: “The World Friendship Made” virtual 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Featuring speaker Elsa Barkley Brown.

Justice in the World: 2021 Catholic Social Tradition Conference campus-wide 7 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.

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Vaccination Clinic Compton Family Ice Arena 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.

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News

ndsmcobserver.com | Monday, March 22, 2021| The ObserveR

3

Pasquerilla West hosts sale, donates profits

By CLAIRE REID News Writer

The women of Pasquerilla West Hall will host their signature event, PDub’s Closet, virtually on the Instagram page @pdubs.closet from March 22 to April 2.

Clothing will be sold on a firstcome, first-served basis, and students can direct message the Instagram account to purchase an item.

“It’s a crossover between a Plato’s Closet type scheme and just a clothing drive,” junior and PDub’s Closet commissioner Maggie Roop said of the event.

This is the third year that the Purple Weasels will be hosting this event, where the dorm collects clothing donations from members of each dorm and resells them to students thrift-store style for one to five dollars each. The unsold clothing and the proceeds from the event are donated to the South Bend Center for the Homeless.

For the past two years, the thriftstore event has taken place in-person during the warm fall months.

As with nearly every other event on campus this year, extensive

Recovery Continued from page 1

— which are determined by 2019 or 2020 tax returns — are more restrictive than in previous bills.

However, the maximum value of the checks has increased to $1,400.

Adults who earned $75,000 or less in their most recent tax year get the full $1,400, as will heads of household who earned $112,500 or less. Jointly filing married couples who earned less than $150,000 receive $2,800.

Adults who earned less than $80,000, heads of household who earned less than $120,000 and couples who earned less than

changes have been made to PDub’s Closet in order to comply with COVID-19 safety restrictions. Most notably, the thrift-store event is taking place virtually on Instagram.

Selling online allowed the PDub’s Closet team to have a presale week that helped them manage the record amount of clothing donated.

Event commissioner and junior Maria Teel has been working on PDub’s Closet for two years now. She feels that hosting the event online has allowed PDub’s Closet to reach more people and provide an enhanced customer experience.

Teel explained that because each item being sold must be individually photographed and posted on Instagram, PDub’s Closet is able to offer a more curated selection of desirable items than in previous years.

She said that this process has given her and the rest of the PDub’s Closet team the opportunity to really look at each item they are selling and confidently say, “Yes, a college student would buy this.”

The Pdub’s Closet team also

$160,000 are eligible for a reduced value check.

Director of the Hesburgh Program in Public Policy and associate professor of political science Ricardo Ramirez encouraged middle class families get some relief from the plan.

“Even though upper middle income families get excluded ... I still think it’s good that it’s more targeted,” he said. “That’s likely the segment of the population that most needs the direct payments.”

Parents will also receive an additional $1,400 for each dependent claimed on their taxes. For the first time since the pandemic began, the definition of “dependent” was expanded to include children under age 19 and full-time students

capitalized on the online sale format to lengthen the sale.

“We actually just extended our sale period,” Teel added. “It used to be only one week, but we’ve actually bumped it up to two weeks because we have so many great things we want to sell.”

COVID-19 restrictions also required the PDub’s Closet team to adjust the way they gathered donations for this year’s event.

Roop explained that, in years past, “PDub girls sit in the lobbies of different dorms and collect clothes for a couple of hours during the week [of the event].”

This year, they placed donation boxes in every dorm at the beginning of the semester where students could leave clothing they wanted to donate. The donation boxes were collected on March 1.

“We’ve actually managed to collect far more clothes … than we have in years prior … which is really, really exciting because it fuels the mission of PDub’s Closet,” Roop said.

Not all of the clothing collected will be resold to students though. Anything deemed more

under 24. Previously, the definition was limited to children under 17. This means adult dependents and college students are technically eligible for stimulus checks, although their parents will receive the funds.

The official posting date for direct deposits was March 17, although the money may still appear as “pending” in bank accounts.

The first physical checks were already sent out and Economic Impact Payment (EIP) cards, essentially prepaid debit cards, will be sent out starting next week.

While they are the most coveted aspect of the relief bill, Ramirez said we shouldn’t only focus on the direct payment checks.

“I think there are other

appropriate to be donated to charity — such as hats, gloves and winter coats — is placed straight into a donation pile to be given to the South Bend Center for the Homeless along with any for-sale items that do not end up being sold.

“We have … over 30 bags of clothing that are going straight to donations,” Pasquerilla West Hall president and sophomore Maura Hogaboom said.

Hogaboom worried that so many donations could be overwhelming to the South Bend Center for the Homeless, so this year, PDub’s Closet is planning to donate clothing to additional organizations as well.

Finding the right organizations to donate to has not been easy.

Hogaboom, Roop and Teel want to be certain that the organizations they choose will responsibly recycle any unneeded items.

Roop explained that every donation-based charity organization has a sorting process and probably accepts around half of the donations it receives. At many organizations, the other half of these donations are simply thrown out.

components that will be even more consequential for children or for families who have children,” Ramirez said.

For instance, the child tax credit increased to $3,000 per child and $3,600 for each child under six.

A final pertinent aspect for the Notre Dame community is the clause on student loans, stating that forgiven student loans discharged through 2025 are now tax-free.

The third bucket of funding will go to local communities, with $360 billion in emergency aid going to local governments, $50 billion to small businesses, $25 billion to small to mediumsized restaurants, $21 billion as emergency rental assistance to

“[We] have to be really careful to find a group that can take [the items] … and actually recycles them,” Roop said.

Teel agrees that it has been difficult to ensure that excess donations are dealt with as sustainably as possible.

“This has been an unprecedented challenge for us, receiving so many pieces of clothing,” Teel said. “It definitely weighs on us to have the responsibility to deal with these textiles … in a mindful way.”

Hogaboom hopes that PDub’s Closet will encourage Notre Dame students to be more aware of their role in the textile industry and that it will encourage them to explore similar sustainable and secondhand ways of purchasing clothing.

“I’m really happy that we can be sort of the intermediary to provide sustainably sourced clothing to other students,” Teel said, echoing Hogaboom’s sentiment. “I think that’s really special and really valuable for our community.” ted and found new ways to work out.”

Contact Claire Reid at creid6@nd.edu

local governments and a $10 billion Homeowner Assistance Fund to prevent homeowner mortgage defaults and foreclosures.

Over the past year, there have been nearly 30 million COVID-19 cases in the United States and over 538,000 American deaths.

At Notre Dame, there have been 2,949 cases this year. However, as President Biden said in a primetime address last Thursday, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and the American Rescue Plan aims to facilitate the end of this pandemic.

“Finding light in the darkness is a very American thing to do,” Biden said.

Contact Spencer Kelly at skelly25@nd.edu

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Mass Continued from page 1

services will also be live streamed.

Easter Sunday Masses will only be celebrated in the Basilica and residence halls. In the email, McCormick encouraged students to attend Mass in their residence halls on Easter. Campus community members who wish to attend Easter Mass in the Basilica must request a seat reservation between 8 a.m. Monday and noon Wednesday.

The Easter Masses in the Basilica will be offered at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m., and a Mass in Spanish will be offered at 4 p.m.

The email said it is not guaranteed that every seat request for Easter masses will be accommodated.

“While we can’t guarantee that a seat will be available for every request given the reduced capacity of the Basilica and the volume of requests, please know that every effort will be made to accommodate as many requests as possible,” the email said.

4

NEWS

The observer | Monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

Lecture explores “deepfakes,” manipulation

By CLAIRE REID News Writer

Matthew Turek, program manager of the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Innovation Office, discussed media manipulation and developing strategies for detecting falsified media in a lecture Friday as part of the Ten Years Hence speaker series, sponsored by the O’Brien-Smith Leadership Program.

Turek holds a doctorate in computer science from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has contributed to many DARPA and Air Force Research Lab efforts. His primary interests include computer vision, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“We’ve seen really rapid growth over the years in automated techniques for creating and for manipulating media,” Turek said.

In a slideshow, he illustrated this point by showing how technology to create entirely synthetic computergenerated images of human faces — indiscernible from the real thing — has improved dramatically over the past seven years.

Turek also highlighted a media manipulation technique called

Admissions Continued from page 1

family illness and other factors which have influenced these decisions.”

Dvorak also addressed admissions trends she is seeing in the class of 2025 as the class makes college decisions.

“Last fall at Saint Mary’s, we enrolled a new class that was even bigger than the year before, but we went well into the summer before many of those final decisions were made,” she said. “One trend we’re seeing nationally is that the class of 2025 is delaying each step of the college search and decision process.”

While there are no immediate

Lecture Continued from page 1

Living Between Worlds. She describes identity as being a complex topic that has been “demonized” in society, specifically in the political sphere.

“I think, at its core, the question is ‘Who am I and how is that informed?’” Hostin said. “Many sociologists and psychologists will tell you that it is informed by the mirror in which others see us.”

According to Hostin, this mirror is often influenced by others — friends, parents, employers and the media — instead of individually.

“My hope is that people will know that they get to determine their identity and get to determine their worth and get to determine their value, and in so doing, they get to tell others how they will be treated,” Hostin said.

Hostin said her identity has

“deepfaking.” This is a process where the media manipulator trains two computer programs, called neural networks, using footage of a desired person, often a celebrity or politician, who they want to “fake” and footage of an actor whose facial expressions and movements will then be mapped onto the desired person’s face. In simple terms, deepfaking can make it look as if the desired person did or said something that they, in reality, did not.

To illustrate the danger deepfakes pose, Turek presented an example where computer scientists at Stanford were able to edit the mouth movements of the speaker in a video of a financial report to make it seem as if Apple’s stock price dropped from $191.45 to $182.25.

“If that had been a real attack, that would reflect a $40 billion hit to Apple’s market cap,” Turek said.

Deepfakes are one of the more sophisticated forms of media manipulation Turek discussed. He said even everyday tools like Photoshop and Gimp can be used to manipulate photos and videos in an extremely convincing way.

Turek said popularity is the primary motivation for individuals or organizations to implement media manipulation techniques.

“It creates media that’s more likely to go viral … and to get spread,” he said.

He gave an example of a verified Chinese government social media account that shared a digitally created image manipulated to show an Australian soldier putting a knife to the throat of a young Afghan girl.

“That’s created media,” Turek said.

“And a Chinese government account is using it to amplify their message.”

It is now easier than ever for everyday people to create manipulated media. Creating something as sophisticated as a deepfake video, Turek said, requires nothing more than a high-end gaming computer with a graphics processing unit.

“Things like deepfakes … are really making it easier for low-skilled individuals to potentially create compelling manipulation,” Turek said.

He added that billions of pieces of content are being uploaded to social media every day. This sheer amount of content combined with the everincreasing ease of media manipulation techniques poses an immense challenge to media authentication, Turek said. “[There are] thousands of software tools that in some way can create or manipulate media versus handfuls

of tools that were available to help authenticate media,” Turek said.

In response to the rise in media manipulation, DARPA has taken on many technologically complex projects to identify manipulated media.

Most notably, DARPA’s Media Forensics program invested in developing a quantitative integrity score for the authenticity of images and videos.

“We framed our approaches in the Media Forensics program … around three levels of integrity,” Turek said, “Digital, physical and semantic integrity.”

He said digital integrity measures can identify irregularities in an image such as replicated pixels and blurred edges that indicate a portion of pixels have been copied and pasted using a media manipulation tool like Photoshop. However, Turek said that skilled media manipulators use various techniques to make digital irregularities much more difficult to detect.

“So, you need other approaches like physical integrity,” Turek said.

“For physical integrity, we’re really looking for indications that the laws of physics have been violated.”

Such physical clues include objects that do not interact with their environment in a normal way, Turek

said, such as a boat not leaving a wake in the water.

Turek said another way to test semantic integrity is to use an image’s timestamp to identify inconsistencies.

“For an image that’s taken outside,” Turek explained, “If you know approximately where and when that image was taken, you can estimate the sun angle and see if it’s consistent with that image, or you can look to see if the weather is consistent with what you know about that location and time.”

Turek concluded by emphasizing DARPA’s main objective.

In the recent past, he explained, only those with access to Hollywoodgrade equipment could manipulate media, but with so many ever-improving technologies, the bar to entry in the realm of convincing media manipulation has been lowered to include anyone with a computer and access to the Internet.

“What we’re hoping to do with these defensive technologies is essentially raise that bar back up,” Turek said. “We want to take those sort of easy capabilities off the table again.”

trends the office is seeing in regard to transfer students, Dvorak believes more students are changing schools for pandemic-related reasons.

“When it comes to transfer students, we haven’t seen any clear trends yet, but nationally, there is an expectation that we may see more students transferring to schools that may be less expensive or are closer to home and family,” Dvorak said.

Dvorak said the office of admission had to change how they reached out to prospective students at the beginning of the pandemic when travel was restricted.

“When COVID hit, we had to completely overhaul our recruitment efforts,” she said.

The Office prides itself on

holding events throughout the country to create a personal experience; however, many of these opportunities could no longer occur.

To continue promoting their recruitment efforts, the Office adopted many virtual events, Dvorak said.

“As a result, we developed a robust virtual program that included on-demand and live student-led campus tours, admission presentations, one-on-one meetings with counselors, academic and co-curricular webinars and video chats, game nights for prospective students and large virtual admission events,” Dvorak said.

While Dvorak knows these events are not as comparable to in-person gatherings, she does see their benefits.

“It [virtual opportunities] really helped us continue to cultivate those relationships and help them learn more about the benefits of a Saint Mary’s education,” she said. “I believe all of these efforts positively impacted our enrollment for last fall and have helped us to remain steady when it comes to applications and enrollments for the coming year.”

Dvorak noted that virtual events continue to be held for admitted students, so they can get to know other members of their incoming class.

In addition, Dvorak explained virtual events will continue to be implemented in the future because they are helpful to students who cannot easily attend in-person events.

“We realize the benefit of providing these opportunities — particularly to students who can’t easily get to campus — either because they live too far away or it’s not financially feasible,” Dvorak said. “I fully plan to continue use of these virtual opportunities combined with the more traditional recruitment efforts.”

Dvorak concluded by emphasizing the College is always looking into new admissions practices and will reconsider their work at the end of this admissions cycle.

“The admission process is always evolving and I’m sure there will be new initiatives in the coming year,” she said.

consistently been questioned throughout her life because of her mixed racial and ethnic background, as she belongs to both the Black and Latina communities. She names several instances when this issue has impacted her life, such as when The View almost did not hire her because they did not think she was “Latina enough.”

She said that the issue was that she did not fit the “rubric,” or the way America believes Latinas should look. Though she is on The View currently, she continued to question her identity.

This same experience happened again when Hostin’s executive producer did not consult her about guests for MLK Day because he said people did not consider her Black.

Instances like these ushered in the questions of belonging. Hostin said that she does not have a definitive answer for these questions, but that people should not have to choose

between communities.

Hostin said that injustice associated with the communities she is a part of led her to pursue a career path in the legal field. She specifically recalled seeing a lot of violence while growing up, even within her own family.

When Hostin was seven, she said she saw her uncle stabbed in front of her and recalled the conversation of the police who excused the case on the basis of a rough neighborhood.

Hostin’s family tried to prosecute the case but met with no success.

Experiences like these led Hostin to her interest in prosecution, especially for under-served communities.

“What I say is that if we are going to have true equity in our system — and our system is flawed in many ways — as people of color, we have to be in the room where it happens,” Hostin said.

Hostin demonstrated this philosophy by highlighting a specific

case in her career. After hearing from a friend about Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who was fatally shot in Florida, Hostin pitched coverage of the case to CNN. They responded by saying that it was not a “national story,” but Hostin eventually went to Anderson Cooper of CNN, who gave her the story.

Hostin said she wanted people to learn the personal details about Martin . After writing the piece, which included pictures of Martin doing the activities he enjoyed, Hostin asked to review the final product. Her producer initially declined her request.

When she viewed the final version, none of the pictures Hostin had asked to be included were there.

“It was really important that I was in the room, as had I not been in that room, that victim-blaming, victimshaming narrative, would have been perpetuated on my story that had been entrusted to me by my friend,

Contact Claire Reid at creid6@nd.edu

Contact Geneviece Coleman at gcoleman01@saintmarys.edu

and I would have left him down,” Hostin said.

Hostin expanded on the topic of racial stereotypes in America, specifically mentioning “the talk” that Black families have with their children coming of age in a racially prejudiced society, which she said she had to have with her own son.

Hostin said that discussion should also be shared in white families.

“This is a discussion; we talk about what Blackness means. Whiteness means something too,” Hostin said.

Hostin related these concepts to her career choice and the broader impact.

“I think that the moral of the story is, we have to be in the room where it happens,” she said. “Once we get into that room, we have to expend whatever political power that we have on these kinds of things.”

Contact Emily DeFazio at edefazio@nd.edu

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The observer | Monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

By ALEJANDRO MUJICA Scene Writer

What do church organs and whiteboard erasers have in common? Each is the intro to one of Imagine Dragons’ new twin singles “Follow You” and “Cutthroat.” After two years of waiting for the follow-up to 2018’s “Origins,” Imagine Dragons fans have gotten the double-single treatment as a teaser of the band’s upcoming album.

“Follow You,” the first of the two singles, was described by lead singer Dan Reynolds as a song about “loyalty” and “sticking it out with whoever it is that you love.” Inspired by his reconnection and remarriage to singer Aja Volkman after the two had not spoken for over half a year, Reynolds sings “I’ll always be around wherever life takes you,” describing a love without expectations or demands. With its accompanying church organ and airy production, this song is the closest the Imagine Dragons will ever get to belonging on a wedding playlist.

“Cutthroat” is the polar opposite of “Follow You.” According to Reynolds, the song is “an exorcism of

By LEXI KILCOIN Scene Writer

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to grow up in the ‘70s. I pictured listening to the Beatles while riding the “high” of fighting for peace. But what if the fight for peace caused childhood trauma, leaving a mother so impaired that she couldn’t even function?

World-famous journalist Tully Hart has first hand experience with abandonment and trauma as she navigates her life in “Firefly Lane.”

“Firef ly Lane” takes place over a span of 30 years.

Jumping from Tully’s childhood— more specifically, when she moves across the street from Kate Mularkey in the ‘70s— to their early careers in the ‘80s, and then to the pair’s messy adult lives in the early 2000s.

Each episode begins with a sequence we have never seen before, and the cinematography is fantastic as the show jumps between each of these time periods, filling in missing pieces of the story as it progresses. Each episode ends with a cliff hanger, all of which are literally so surprising that my boyfriend and I both end up screaming in distress and frantically pressing “Next Episode” to find out more.

“Firef ly Lane” also explores a lot of topical societal issues such as rape, homophobia and patriarchy, doing so in a creative way that demonstrates

self-pity” in which he challenges his inner demons to a fight, saying “only one of us gon’ make it out alive and it’s not you.” The stomping beat, chaotic production and Reynolds’ vocal delivery take Imagine Dragons’ signature “underdog fights his way to the top” musical narrative to the next level.

Instrumentally, the two singles sound very similar to songs on the band’s 2015 album, “Smoke + Mirrors,” which fans generally agree was the band at its most experimental. In “Follow You,” the combination of the church organ with looming percussion slaps and an urgent tapping carves out a space for larger-than-life feelings of sincere connection. It harkens back to “Hopeless Opus,” an alt-rock ballad from “Smoke + Mirrors” that definitely should have been a single. In “Cutthroat,” the stomping percussion reminiscent of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” mixes with a cacophony of buzzing and scratching noises. Somehow, the end result manages to sound minimalistic, pushing Reynolds’ vocals into the spotlight.

Dan Reynolds has always been effective at catapulting his bandmates’ work to new heights with his

vocal range and versatile delivery; once again, he delivers. In “Follow You,” he opts for relaxed vocals to let the production speak louder than his words.

The song’s verses convey the love of someone who is comfortable with sharing every part of their being with another person; in the chorus, Reynold’s previously-airy vocals descend into a lower register, fully committing to the idea of honest love.

The transition to “Cutthroat” is a jarring experience. When the organ signals the end of “Follow You” and “Cutthroat” begins, the atmosphere undergoes an enormous shift. In contrast to the relaxed vocals of the first song, in the latter single, Reynolds really goes for what can only be described as choked whisper singing during the verses, which together with the production furnishes an anxious buildup that by the chorus gives way to bestial screams. The vocal delivery is simply phenomenal in immersing the listener in this final showdown of a song, and it is a fantastic soundbite for upcoming material.

continuity between our current culture and that of the ‘80s. In doing so, the show not only calls attention to issues that were ignored in their own time, but calls us to continue to fight for long-overdue change in 2021, some 40 years later.

If this is all sounding a bit too serious, don’t worry: “Firef ly Lane” contains many moments of comic relief that made me chuckle. For example, hearing the characters talk about their technology is hilarious. As someone who has apparently just missed the cutoff for being a millennial, I still feel old when I remember old Nintendos or f lip phones, and how I thought that they were the coolest things ever. Not to mention Kate’s boss, Kimber, and her criticisms of online dating. At one point, she complains that “no one can have a face-to-face conversation anymore.” Oh Kimber ... if only you knew what was to come.

Kate Mularkey’s character, played by Sarah Chalke, is also something of a masterpiece. Even the character’s name is a play on words. Any time she says something crazy or has done something that deviates from her “goodie-two-shoes” personality, other characters will shout “Mularkey!” as if her idea or what she’s done is truly a bunch of malarkey. Kate’s life is also something of a drama as she navigates the divorce of her insanely attractive husband, Johnny— played by Ben Lawson—and

raising a teenage daughter. While Tully is technically the protagonist, Kate is the method behind Tully’s madness. Without Kate, we can only assume Tully would’ve gone down the same path as her mother.

“Firef ly Lane” is a must watch. With only 10 episodes in the first season, it’s easy to binge. Despite the fact that I am not the biggest fan of Katherine Heigl, I will say that she portrays Tully’s dramatic life exceptionally well. The hurt Tully experiences in her childhood, especially from her relationship with her mother, follows her into her adulthood, and the viewer cannot help but feel emotionally attached as she appears to travel down her own path of self-destruction.

Contact Alejandro Mujica at @amujicav@nd.edu

Contact Lexi at akilcoin01@saintmarys.edu

“Firefly Lane” Starring: Katherine Heigl, Sarah Chalke, Ben Lawson Favorite episodes: “Hello Yellow Brick Road” and “Love is a Battlefield” If you like: “Dead to Me;” “Grey’s Anatomy” Where to watch: Netflix

MAGGIE KLAERS | The Observer

6

The observer | monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

Inside Column

How to survive the single life

Guest Column

With gratitude, a farewell from #MeToo

Veronica Navarro

Gary Caruso

Social Media Editor

Capital Comments

On Jan. 28, 2021, Notre Dame students received an email from the Division of Student Affairs outlining many campus updates prior to move-in. This email discussed residence hall updates including a then-expanded guest policy. In that same paragraph, just lines below, the Division of Student Affairs encouraged students interested in living with fewer roommates to contact the Office of Residential Life.

Hours after I received this email and read it through, my roommate texted me to let me know that she had been approved to move to a single and would no longer be my roommate throughout the spring semester. After a semester of getting to know each other and living in our (small) Pangborn room together, I learned that our double would now become a room I lived in alone. My story wasn’t unique to me.

In fact, in Pangborn Hall where I live, there are very few double rooms remaining.

Since I live in a hall that mainly houses transfer and cancelled study abroad students, there were many rooms that students took advantage of to live alone in, back in fall 2020.

Throughout my first year at Saint Mary’s before I transferred to Notre Dame, I lived in a single. Being a freshman and enduring the natural struggles that come with getting accustomed to college meant that living alone probably wasn’t the best for me. I found myself falling behind in my classes at times, staying up too late and not keeping up with my responsibilities. When I found out that I would be living in a room all by myself for a semester, I was worried.

Luckily, I’ve found ways to keep up with my mental and physical health, despite being entirely alone most of the time.

Editor’s note: This story includes descriptions of sexual abuse. A list of sexual assault reporting options and on-campus resources can be found on the Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross websites.

1. Waking up early.

When I moved in before spring semester officially began, I got myself in the habit of waking up at 6 a.m. each day. Making this choice allowed me to ensure that I was ready to tackle the day by 9 a.m. when I had to complete most of my responsibilities like attending class or posting on the Observer’s social media. I have to admit, waking up this early every morning was difficult, but I developed a foolproof way to get myself awake at any time, no matter how early. Since my bed is lofted, I placed an alarm clock on the other side of the room. When it goes off in the morning, I have to climb all the way down my ladder, walk across the room and turn it off.

2. Getting at least 30-45 minutes of exercise.

Now, I don’t go to the gym each day. Honestly, I’d be lucky to make it once every few weeks. However, I still like to make time for exercise. Each day, I like to go for a walk around campus or do around 30 minutes of yoga. Working out in some way helps me to remain motivated and to still feel accomplished even on days when I don’t get much done.

3. Eating meals with a friend.

Recently I’ve found myself heading over to Saint Mary’s nearly every day to eat dinner with my friend Hannah. Eating with someone else and making sure that I have the opportunity to have a conversation with someone throughout my day is really important to me, since most of my daily tasks are done alone.

4. Doing homework outside of my room.

When I spend multiple consecutive hours inside of my room, I often find myself distracted or overwhelmed by other things I have to get done like laundry, dishes, etc. Finding somewhere around campus to complete my schoolwork allows me to complete my work more efficiently and I stay attentive for much longer than I would inside of my room. Furthermore, when I spend so much time inside of my dorm, I’m dying to get out and find somewhere to go!

5. Participating in clubs and activities.

Although I’ve participated in mock trial and worked for the Observer for much longer than just this semester, I’ve been able to throw myself into my activities throughout the time I’ve lived alone. I’ve found myself appreciating my teammates and colleagues much more than I did before, likely because my social-meter runs out much more slowly than it did when I was living with someone else. I’ve found how much I truly enjoy the things I participate in around campus and how much I look forward to the time I get to spend with other students who are passionate about the same things I am.

6. Keeping a clean room.

This one seems obvious, but it can definitely be hard when you spend so much time confined to a small room. When you live alone, your dorm serves as your sanctuary. It’s the quiet place that only you get to see, and where you consider “home.”

That’s why it’s especially important to make sure that you keep your room clean for yourself!

Even though I’m now growing to love it, getting used to living in a single is hard, and I’ve had to put in the work to ensure that I was both physically and mentally healthy, while also completing my schoolwork, maintaining a social life, and still keeping up with my responsibilities. If you live in a single and you’re finding yourself struggling, I hope that implementing some of my suggestions helps you!

Contact Veronica at vnavarr3@nd.edu The views expressed in this Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

The odd paradox about growing old is you’re the same person, and yet you’re not.

Each facial wrinkle is a story unto itself.

From my life’s viewpoint, the universe flows in a rhythm of threes — the Holy Trinity, a Broadway play, a journalistic writing technique or our actual physical phases of aging.

We oftentimes segregate by Youth, Growth and Yoda. For this wrinkled Yoda, I’ve penned Capitol Comments for exactly three decades, and this is the last.

In October 1991, I inaugurated my Viewpoint column by honoring iconic English Professor Francis J. “Frank” O’Malley, one of the last bachelor dons who lived a few doors down from me in Lyons Hall. The recluse remained invisible other than sporadic treks to class or the University Club. The quintessential chain-smoking instructor had a fondness for an overabundance of “hopelessly dry martinis.” His charisma and wisdom smudged glimpses of the meaning of life onto his students.

Recently, 30 years later, I opined another memorial honoring U.S. Capitol Hill Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, a patriot and friend. He sacrificed his life defending our democracy from delusional domestic insurrectionist terrorists who stormed the Capitol in early January. I could never have planned better memorial bookends for the start and close of my Viewpoint era.

I owe a world, nay a heavenly universe, of thanks to the Observer staff year after year for allowing me to hone my writing skills, spiritually grow, inspire others and express my understanding of the meaning of life while voicing my point of view on a variety of issues. I’ve written forcefully at times, yet respectfully. Many times I acted mischievously, for example by emphasizing my appointment from President Bill Clinton while knowing many would react negatively through political instinct rather than read my column’s content. Oftentimes readers asked how I could critique others having worked for that “lowlife.”

Throughout, I’ve taken delight in exposing hypocrisies at Notre Dame and within the Catholic Church, while always defending everyone’s right to chart a personal spiritual course in life. At times, the University staff replied to parse their exclusionary policies.

In fact, a quite highly placed Notre Dame Administration member’s spouse once told me to leave the Church if I did not like its strict dogma. Naturally, I chose to fight from within, and hold my ground. It takes a thick skin to opine, as many Observer staff and I learned in 2017 after an alumnus threatened and cyber stalked several of us to the point of law enforcement intervention.

My journalistic Yoda status arose by writing often and learning along the way. My first few columns featured a range of issues and styles: underscoring O’Malley’s hope that the

world has time for us during sorrow or while in love; sharing my election loss for Student Body President to a king and his cat joke slate; composing humorous columns; advocating tolerance against cancel culture at Notre Dame; and recalling my Sugar Bowl experience. However, I learned from reader comments that in my zeal to share my New Orleans enjoyment, I became exactly what I abhorred — a petty, betterthan-you protagonist. Another reader suggested that I leave a lesson-learned in each column rather than simply reconstruct my youthful delights.

Fortunately, since then, I’ve shared lessons-learned, most importantly the missed warning signs of a classmate’s suicide. Today from my firsthand experience as a child, my send-off column shares warning signs that your preteen child may have been molested or traumatized. I am a legacy member of the #MeToo society of childhood abuse that still litigates against churches, fraternal organizations and school institutions. For me, sometime between 5 and 10 years of age, I was assaulted, which steered me through lifetime paths unexpected.

Immediately after the assault I wet my bed, which I had never done before. I suffered a reoccurring nightmare that lingered for years afterwards. I was trapped in a small black room with walls five-times higher than usual and only one door behind me. A birthday cake lay on the floor in front of me.

It started expanding and grew bigger and bigger and bigger, squeezing me against the door without any escape. And then the cake exploded, awakening me in a fearful sweat.

Trauma taught me to choose loneliness over disappointment. My safety zone became sports activities with the guys.

Lacking confidence to simply socialize with girls, I struggled to maintain relationships or initiate intimate interactions. In college, I sidestepped the overwhelming stress to fit in by hanging with the guys because merely thinking of “dating” frightened me.

Eventually, I compartmentalized and suppressed everything in my life upon its conclusion, like lifting a book back onto a library shelf. And here I am closing my Capitol Comments chapter by depositing it into the archives.

My archived columns revealed that experiences at Notre Dame are not monolithic, but unique to life in our era on campus. My early columns are part of the person I was back then. I tried to fill wells I did not dig and kindle fires I did not build to comfort others and burn my hurt away. Now forged by time, I’m here to lend a hand for others.

Regardless of how drastically harsh the future may appear, I’ve always believed in a tomorrow as the better day to come. And so, now is a better time to go for #MeToo. Gary J. Caruso, Notre Dame '73 American Studies major, serves in the Department of Homeland Security and was a legislative and public affairs director at the U.S. House of Representatives and in President Clinton's administration.

Contact him on Twitter: @GaryJCaruso or e-mail: GaryJCaruso@alumni.nd.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

The observer | monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

77

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

More than one house In response to the recent news that the University will be closing the Zahm House community, we have witnessed an outpouring of support for the men of Zahm.

There has been an alternate response, however, which has assumed this decision is based on an alleged history and continued existence of sexual assault and rape culture within the walls of Zahm.

We are writing as two female Notre Dame students whose brothers, cousins and best friends call or have called Zahm home. We are also writing as two individuals who have a deep passion for women’s rights and zero tolerance for sexual assault and rape culture. The existence of sexual violence on college campuses, including our own, is appalling and an issue that deserves greater attention from universities and students nationwide. In writing this letter, we do not in any way mean to invalidate the lived reality of those who have had these experiences on our campus or possibly within the walls of Zahm. Our goal is instead to call attention to the fact that by playing into what has, over the years, become a persistent and reckless characterization of an entire dorm community, our peers are ignoring the larger issue at hand.

Tweets and social media comments have surfaced

using terms such as “predators” and “people who assault others” to refer to the Zahm community as a whole.

These comments not only completely miss the mark on the reason Zahm House was closed, but in their stereotyping, they once again bury the opportunity, indeed the necessity, to address the issue of sexual assault campus-wide.

It is unreasonable and beyond unfair to characterize the 177 men living in Zahm House, as well as the thousands more alumni and off-campus students who affiliate with the dorm, as “predators.” A student’s random placement into a dorm community should not subject them to the unwarranted reputation that accompanies the dorm. The group of Zahm men that we know, love and consider family are not only trustworthy and honest, but also make active choices to stand up against rape culture and sexual violence. These men are the ones who walk us home from the library when we are studying late.

They listen honestly when we talk about our experiences of being women on this campus. They are the ones we turn to in social situations when we feel uncomfortable or are receiving unwanted attention and need a way out. They are the ones who make sure we have safe rides

home from off campus venues. For us, they are the people we should not need, yet, sadly, often turn to when we feel unsafe as women on our own campus. They are not “predators,” and they too have zero tolerance for the actions of which they are being broadly accused.

No dorm is perfect and Zahm has had its issues, but there is great danger in blaming one residence hall for the very real problem of sexual assault and women’s lack of personal safety on our campus. Real change will not come from harmful generalizations. If we want to raise awareness about sexual assault, the conversation should not center around the University’s decision to close Zahm. Rather, it should be centered around campuswide policy change, a push to empower and support victims and an attempt to shift the culture that leads to these devastating realities.

Mariah Horvath junior Julia Caccavo junior Mar. 16

The slogans we say Andrew Sveda Church and State

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that in a time of such unprecedented access to information, there is so little wisdom?

Despite our resistance to this idea, we all know it to be true. There’s so much noise, so much talk for the sake of talk. We often find ourselves evoking mantras and slogans without really thinking about what they mean.

In this column, I want to look at a few of the slogans used so often today. What might they really be saying, and are they true? What we find may be uncomfortable, but I hope that you will sincerely think about the truth behind the mantras we so often say. But with any further ado, let’s get on to the slogans.

“Follow the science”: We’ve heard this how many times over the past year as the reasoning behind Covid restrictions. The suggestion is that the science determines the guidelines, and that if you don’t agree with the guidelines, you are really denying the science. But this is tremendously misleading. While science may inform one’s decisions about protocols, they are never what ultimately determines which restrictions are put in place. That’s because protocols (and any law of real significance) are not scientific statements but moral ones.

Lawmaking deals with ethics, what “should” or “ought” to be done. Science does not deal with moral questions but only what “is.” In other words, science provides you with data, but it doesn’t tell you what to do with that data. The one who crosses this line between science and ethics is no longer a scientist but a philosopher. They may still be wearing a white coat and a name tag that says “Dr.” but they have departed from their field of expertise. This doesn’t mean that their suggestions aren’t valid, but we should recognize that they are no longer doing science. We too often fail to see the distinction between scientific claims, and moral statements and laws which cite scientific statements. But it is essential

that we do. When we separate the worlds of scientific observation and ethics in our minds, we begin to think more clearly about both of these spheres of inquiry and the issues at hand.

“My body, my choice”: Let’s take a step back from the abortion debate and just consider the words by themselves. It seems pretty self-explanatory, doesn’t it? What I do with my body is my choice. No one has no right to tell me what I should or should not do with my body.

What is really being said here is that I am the ultimate moral authority on how I use my body. I get to decide, and no one can tell me otherwise as it’s my choice. I am free to do whatever I see fit. I am accountable to no one and to nothing.

I shudder to think of this slogan’s consequences. To accept this is to take a wrecking ball to civilization. Under such a view, quite literally anything goes. Anything.

There is no way to actually persuade people to do what’s good and stop doing evil. Who are you to tell me what I should or should not do? We lose any sense of a higher and objective moral authority and any Supreme Judge to which we will be accountable for all done in public and in secret. Good and evil become nothing but differences in personal preference.

“But you are mischaracterizing our views,” I can hear some of my pro-choice readers saying. “I don’t believe this.” I am glad you don’t. But please use another slogan.

What I outlined above is simply the logical outcomes of what the words mean. The slogan is a philosophical statement that outlines a soul-destroying picture of humanity. If you don’t believe in the worldview the phrase describes, please don’t use the statement.

“In our modern, enlightened age…”/“It’s the 21st Century”: These phrases are often used as fallacious attacks on the “old-fashioned” and “outdated” beliefs of the past. This is when someone tries to dismiss the validity of a view simply by associating the idea with the “unenlightened” past (as if objective truth changes with time). This type of ad hominem attack is prevalent

today and quite successful at disqualifying entire time periods and groups of people. The medieval ages and the Puritans, as C.S. Lewis has noted, are common victims of this fallacious ridicule. Lewis was quite insightful on our persistent problem of what he called “chronological snobbery.” In his book “Surprised by Joy,” he writes: “[‘Chronological snobbery’ is] ... the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively) or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood. From seeing this, one passes to the realization that our own age is also ‘a period,’ and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions. They are likeliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions that are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack or feels it necessary to defend them.”

I remember being stunned the first time I heard Lewis explain this. I so often find myself slipping into this way of thinking. We do it so often without even thinking about it. It’s just natural to us. Lewis’ thoughts would do us much good if we reflect upon them and remember them when we think about the past and ideas from the past that we often irrationally dismiss for no other reason than being old.

Although we only covered three slogans, I hope that you will sincerely think about what’s been said. Am I right, and, if so, how might you move forward? And what other slogans might need rethinking?

Andrew Sveda is a sophomore at Notre Dame from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, majoring in political science.

In his free time, he enjoys writing (obviously), reading and playing the piano. He can be reached at asveda@nd.edu or @SvedaAndrew on Twitter.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Follow us on Twitter. @ObserverViewpnt

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DAILY

The observer | Monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

Crossword | WILl shortz

Horoscope | Eugenia Last Happy Birthday: Keep an open mind when faced with opposition. You’ll gain wisdom if you say less and listen more. Let life unfold before you, take time to enjoy the moment, and recognize and be grateful for what you have. Look for the positive in every situation, and you’ll be prosperous on your journey.

How you respond will determine your destiny. Your numbers are 5, 17, 21, 29, 32, 47, 49.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Focus on expanding your knowledge and skills to encourage better opportunities in a field that excites you. A positive change will lift your spirits and give you the incentive to work hard to fulfill your dream. Self-improvement is favored.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Reach out to people you trust to tell you the truth, and you’ll find out what you have to do to improve a confusing situation. Once a plan is in place, it will ease stress and bring you peace of mind.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Jump into action, get things done and plan for the future. How you use your time will make a difference to the outcome of your day. Idle time will result in frustration and lead to a senseless argument with someone you love.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Emotions will be difficult to control. Think twice before you do or say something you’ll regret. Choose to take the high road. A positive attitude and an offering of affection will bring far better results than criticism or complaints.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Offer time and skills that can make a difference to a cause you believe in or to someone you love. How you approach others will determine what you get in return. A warm, affectionate approach will enhance a meaningful relationship.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Change begins with you. Be original and do something that will broaden your outlook and encourage better health and relationships with others. Replace demands and pressure with incentives; you’ll get the help you need to reach your goal.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Activities that get you up and moving will be invigorating. Focus on health, fitness and challenging yourself, and you’ll gain confidence as well as respect. The experiences you encounter will stifle emotional trouble and encourage new friendships and self-improvement.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Don’t limit yourself. Put together a plan that helps you forge ahead. Look for solutions that are doable, and refuse to let regret lead to anger. Stay focused on what’s important to you, and you’ll find peace of mind through personal growth.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Bypass anyone who is problematic. Focus on what you want to do, and take pride in the way you handle your personal affairs. Refuse to get hung up on what others do or say, and protect your health and emotional well-being.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Emotional spending or risky investments are discouraged. Put your time and effort into positive changes you can make at home that are cost-efficient and are sure to add to your comfort and convenience. Romance will bring you closer to someone you love.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Spend more time searching for opportunities and less time worrying about things you cannot change. A positive attitude will get you where you want to go and deter anyone from interfering with your plans. Focus on home and self-improvement.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Channel emotional energy into something creative. Fix up your living space, find an innovative way to bring joy to someone you love or strive for personal growth and less stress. Above all else, a positive attitude will help you reach your objective.

Birthday Baby: You are sensitive, responsive and irresistible. You are unique and reflective.

Sudoku | The Mepham Group

Jumble | David Hoyt and Jeff knurek

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SPORTS

ndsmcobserver.com | Monday, March 22, 2021 | The Observer

Sports Authority

Sports Authority

Fan Controlled Football Thomas Zwiller Sports Writer

This weekend, like many of you, I got to watch some great games, some high-flying offenses, strong defensive stands and a come-from-behind win that was truly exciting. Unlike most of you, I’m not talking about March Madness; I’m talking about Fan Controlled Football, the latest startup football league. The league just finished up its first-ever season, and I’d like to give you a recap of the season and maybe convince you why you should tune in for the second season.

How it works One of the main reasons you probably haven’t heard of the FCF is because it is solely available on Twitch. For those of you who don’t know, Twitch is an online live-streaming platform where you can find anything from Call of Duty to Mario, including the FCF. The league has seen incredible growth on Twitch. It is the fastest-growing sports channel, the second most-watched sports channel and has had more than 7.5 million viewers. The good thing about streaming the FCF on Twitch is it doesn’t limit viewership; you don’t need a subscription. If you have internet and a computer, you can watch these games.

When you tune into the FCF, you know you are about to watch something different from an NFL game. The games don’t begin with the traditional coin toss but rather rock-paperscissors, as was voted on by the fans. The games themselves are just as different as the opening rock-paper-scissors; they are a 7-on-7 on only a 50-yard field, allowing quick drives and high-scoring games.

Due to this small field, the league doesn’t have any kickoffs, punts or field goals. Teams start with the ball on their 10yard line, and PAT are 1-on-1s for 1 or 2 points. The games also tend to be a lot shorter than NFL games; there are only two 20-minute halves, and the halves move along fast as there aren’t a lot of clock stoppages.

If you like watching football but want games that have a bit more action and more scoring, this is the league for you.

Making it a fans league Fans don’t just decide rules like the rock-paper-scissors rule or that a catch need only have one foot. Any fan who downloads the FCF app can choose the plays the players will then run. This led to an interesting evolution for the league; fans

9

originally called a lot of passing plays. As the season went on, there was a noticeable change to calling running plays. Fans can also go beyond just calling plays, they can vote for which players they want to draft, and owners can franchise-tag critical players to their team. That might not sound too engaging because, in the NFL, the draft and franchise tag only happens once a year. In the FCF, this happens every single Wednesday, allowing you to react to each player’s performance every single week. And franchise tags aren’t limited to the one owner who owns the team. Anyone who buys a share in one of the four teams can become an owner. This is truly a league that is fan controlled.

Why this league will stay If you love all things football, the chances are good you’ve followed other football leagues, not just the NFL. Some of the more recent examples that come to mind are the AAF and the XFL. The AAF couldn’t even finish its first season. The XFL is currently in flux, but it looks like it will merge with the CFL. The CFC looks like it has more potential to stick around long term. For one, it runs a shorter schedule; its inaugural season was merely six weeks long, playoffs included. Both the AAF and XFL had 10-week schedules; the more extended season makes it more expensive. Another cost that the FCF is saving on is teams, there are only four teams in the inaugural season, and the rosters are significantly smaller when compared to the AAF and XFL, who had eight teams and full rosters.

The FCF also saw growth in its viewership; the league saw 7.5 million views on its streams over the past six weeks. While the average game saw around 40,000 viewers, much less than the average AAF and XFL game, those numbers improved instead of declining like AAF and XFL viewership. The opening FCF game had about 35,000 viewers, and the championship game finished with 45,000+ viewers.

I’m not saying this league is going to dominant the football landscape and overthrow the NFL. But I am saying this league has a bright future and is prime for success; I encourage you to check it out next season.

Contact Thomas Zwiller at tzwiller@hcc-nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Thank you for your time, from a now-retired editor Hayden Adams Senior Sports Writer

This will be my 210th byline with The Observer. That’s 210 more than I had ever anticipated writing for my collegiate student newspaper. Forget about me even imagining I would be the sports editor of said paper.

To be quite honest, this all sort of fell into my lap.

Three years ago, as I think many freshmen experience, I felt a little lost as to what I wanted to pursue and do with my life. So, I went to Majors Night at South Dining Hall and signed up for information on a few items, most on a whim. (I wonder what may have come of that Russian major I never revisited.)

But thank the sweet Lord above that one of the items I put my name down on was the JED (journalism, ethics and democracy) minor. It may have taken nearly 10 months, but someone (former managing editor Tobias Hoonhout) finally reached out and asked if I’d be interested in writing for The Observer. The rest is history.

It’s been a lot of fun. It’s also often been stressful and exhausting. But, if I’m being honest, I take pride in the fact that my fellow department editors and I have led The Observer through what is probably the most unprecedented year of its existence since it was founded 55 years ago.

Thank you to my outstanding bosses in our Top 5 — Maria, Mariah, Maeve, Sara and Claire — for trusting me to be the one leading the sports department.

I didn’t take that trust lightly.

And thank you to Maria specifically for putting up with my annoyances and reining me in when I got a little too out of control on Twitter.

In terms of the people I’m in charge of, I’m incredibly proud of my own staff for their work.

I can’t thank them enough for continuing to contribute despite uncertainty, not just with the paper, but in their own everyday lives.

We went online last spring and still attempted to provide content despite no more Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s or Holy Cross sports. We lost the ability

to cover a likely men’s basketball appearance in the NIT, a perpetually competitive softball team, a revamped baseball squad, national championshipcaliber men’s and women’s lacrosse teams and a fencing team that continues to prove, above all else, Notre Dame is a fencing school.

In a desperate attempt to substitute for what we were deprived of, my staff’s work on our way-too-early Notre Dame football game previews and position breakdowns and our simulated March Madness bracket was a godsend.

I also can’t thank my writers enough for never ceasing to come up with ideas for sports authorities, especially our sports authority specialists David Kramer, Tom Zwiller and John Kalemkerian. The same goes for our Observer Roundtable and Observer Fantasy Corner contributors for their never-ending takes on college and NFL football. We couldn’t have done it without you.

To this year’s Observer football beat — Jimmy, Charlotte, Ellen and Aidan — no words suffice. In a year where little was guaranteed, you all did your usual terrific work and made my life so much easier for it. Despite you all ganging up on me in our Basement Breakdown podcast sessions for my terrible fantasy team and Kentucky’s dreadful football and basketball performances (with Aidan often serving as the driving force of that mockery), I count myself fortunate to have been able to have that experience.

To my associate sports editors — Stephen, Jimmy, Mannion and Colin — and all our production workers, thank you for your flexibility and commitment to the paper. Your work did not go unnoticed.

To Mannion, the new sports editor, and her new crew of associate sports editors, I have no doubt you’ll take the department to new heights. I can only hope I’ve set you up to succeed.

Enjoy this experience, because it’s more than just a responsibility — it’s a privilege.

To Notre Dame’s sports information directors, especially football’s Katy Lonergan, thank

you for putting up with our department’s oft-unorganized emails. Little we do would be possible without your efforts, especially our profiles of every senior and graduate student member of the football team.

And thank you to our readers. Time is a precious thing and this process takes a lot of it.

It takes time to write, to proofread, to edit, to put in print and finally, to consume the finished product. There’s a lot of other things readers and writers alike could be doing with their time, so it means the world to me that this time was and is still devoted to what we are trying to do at The Observer, and in the sports department especially.

So, as I move on to my next great adventure — a likely-tofail crusade to save my beloved Zahm House from eradication (and, after that, law school at a to-be-determined institution) — I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Even to those of you who called me moronic for my exceedingly thorough columns on Notre Dame football, I thank you for allowing me to experience what it’s like to immerse myself in Twitter beef.

And good news: you’re not rid of me just yet! I’m gonna keep it coming as a senior sports writer until I’m forced to hang it up in May — and even then I might just spam the Viewpoint department’s inbox with Letters to the Editor as an alum.

But in all sincerity (not that everything I just said lacks complete seriousness), this gig as sports editor has been incredible, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of so many people. It’s because of them I’ve been able to keep sports an integral part of my life. What more could a washed-up high school athlete ask for?

So, whether it was through reading or writing, thank you all for your time. It could have been just a few minutes here and there for you, but it was everything to me.

Contact Hayden Adams at hadams3@nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

The Observer accepts classifieds every business day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Notre Dame office, 024 South Dining Hall. Deadline for next-day classifieds is 3 p.m. All classifieds must be prepaid. The charge is 5 cents per character per day, including all spaces. The Observer reserves the right to edit all classifieds for content without issuing refunds.

Wanted Alumni founded, local nonprofit is searching for soical media director to build a social media presence. Must

be proficent in Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Great CV builder! Contact the Student Mental Health Foundation at Contact@StudentMH.org for more information.

Staring at the blank page before you / Open up the dirty window / Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find / Reaching for something in the distance / So close you can almost taste it

10

Sports

The observer | Monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

M Tennis Continued from page 12

honestly, since then,” said Sachire. “And in our sport, man, there’s no substitute for repetition. And there’s no substitute for actually playing matches.”

Sachire also said he was grateful for the chance to play a first home match outdoors ahead of this weekend’s Florida road trip, which features matchups against Florida State and Miami.

“There’s a significant difference between indoor tennis and outdoor tennis,” he said.

“That was really important for us, to get that match experience outdoors and hopefully fast forward our adjustment to outdoor tennis a little bit quicker than then we get in most seasons.”

Against the Golden Eagles Friday, Notre Dame grabbed the doubles point with relative ease. Senior Richard Ciamarra and sophomore Matthew Che won 6-0 in the two-spot before senior Tristan McCormick and junior Axel Nefve, the preseason 19th-ranked doubles pair in the country, picked up a 6-3 victory at the top of the doubles ladder.

The Irish won five of the six singles matches, with four victories coming in straight sets.

Ciamarra, the preseason No. 6 player in the nation, got a break from his usual spot atop Notre Dame’s singles ladder.

Instead, Nefve — a 2019 AllACC Second Team selection — romped to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Marquette No. 1 and redshirt sophomore Fran San Andres.

Sachire said Nefve, who Tennis Recruiting Network

rated a five-star blue-chip recruit, has always been a tremendous returner and runner of the baseline but has become increasingly dominant by becoming more aggressive with his groundstrokes and as a server.

“And so, prior to this year, he was really, really solid and consistent every single point, but maybe didn’t have the dynamic offensive capabilities and dynamic weapons to control points against really good players,” said Sachire. “And now, he’s added that to his game. When he’s serving, he’s in control of what’s going on and getting a lot of cheap and easy points with his serve and with his offensive tennis.”

The only Irish loss came at the two-spot, where redshirt junior Golden Eagle Luis Heredia Gomez beat McCormick 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Che was forced to grind out his win at the three-spot after dropping the first set, eventually prevailing 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 after a super-set tiebreaker against Marquette redshirt freshman Stefan Dragovic.

Sachire said it was rewarding to see Che, who is still relatively inexperienced at the collegiate level after having his spring freshman season cut short due to COVID-19, win a close match after some narrow losses earlier this year.

“I think he’s been doing a really good job this year [and] playing at a high level,” he said. “[He] lost some really close matches, and a lesser competitor would maybe get down and kind of lose confidence from not getting those results. He has not had that happen to him.”

Notre Dame dominated the bottom half of the ladder.

Observer File Photo

Irish senior Richard Ciamarra dives for the ball during Notre Dame’s 6-1 win over Boston College on Feb. 8, 2019, at Eck Tennis Pavilion. Ciamarra is the No. 6 singles player in the country according to the ITA.

Sophomore Connor Fu only dropped one game over two sets at the four-spot, while graduate student Brandon Ancona and senior William Howells also won in straight sets at the five and six spots, respectively.

After nearly a three-week break from conference play, the Irish will return to ACC action this weekend vs. the Seminoles and Hurricanes on Friday and Sunday, respectively.

The Seminoles currently linger just outside the Oracle

ITA Top-50 and are coming off a narrow Friday loss to #21 UCF on Friday. No. 50 Miami won Saturday against No. 29 USF and will host Louisville Wednesday before welcoming the Irish.

Sachire said he’s always excited to travel to the Sunshine State to take on two historic rivals of Notre Dame. Though both famous rivalries have their roots on the gridiron, he said the intensity of the respective matchups is felt across all sports.

“It’s gonna be fun to hit the road again, get down there and deal with a little bit of the elements with the heat and wind that we’ll expect to have,” Sachire said. “And the crowds there can be tough sometimes, and that’s also fun, to embrace that.”

First serve in Tallahassee and Coral Gables is scheduled for 5:30 p.m and 11 a.m, respectively.

Contact Greg McKenna at gmckenn2@nd.edu

W Tennis Continued from page 12

6-3. The Seminoles went on to sweep the singles matches as well. In match No.1, Corse gave Pairon — the 27th ranked singles player in the nation — a fight, but fell 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8) in a tiebreaker. Freeman battled as well in the second match but fell to Salas 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-4). Das dispatched Lillien in straight sets in the third match, 6-2, 6-1, and in the fourth, Hule defeated Bojczuk 7-6 (7-1), 6-3. In match No. 5, Allen defeated Andreach 6-2, 6-4. Florida State finished off the shutout with Garcia’s 6-3, 6-3 victory over junior Maeve Koscielski.

The Irish will look to turn things around when they head home for a three-game homestand to close the regular season. They take on Louisville at 1:00 on Saturday, April 3rd.

Notre Dame students will be permitted to attend the game at Eck Tennis Pavilion, and all other fans can watch live online via UND.com/ tennisstream.

ALLISON THORNTON | The Observer

Irish junior Maeve Koscielski makes a forehand hit during a game Notre Dame won 4-0 against Purdue on Feb. 13, 2019, at home.

ALLISON THORNTON | The Observer

Irish senior Cameron Corse returns the ball during Notre Dame’s 4-0 victory over Purdue at Eck Tennis Pavilion on Feb. 13, 2019.

Sports

Baseball Continued from page 12

contributing to two more Duke runs. Graduate student Joe Sheridan came on and gave up a bunt single before escaping the frame, down just 4-2.

The game settled down for a bit, as Sheridan stabilized the Irish pitching, but Notre Dame saw seven straight hitters retired by Duke ace Cooper Stinson. However, after Sheridan escaped the sixth inning, despite surrendering a leadoff double, Notre Dame capitalized on the momentum swing, as senior Niko Kavadas launched his sixth home run of the season, a two-run bomb to right field that tied the score at four runs apiece.

For Game one, that was all the scoring fans would see for a long time, as Sheridan was absolutely dealing for the Irish, backed up by some stellar defense. In the seventh, junior right fielder Brooks Coetzee flashed a strong arm, as he prevented a potential leadoff double by gunning down the runner at second. Sheridan was perfect in the eighth and ninth, but the Irish did nearly nothing offensively, and the game rolled into extra innings.

Sheridan escaped a tenth inning jam, created by consecutive one-out singles. However, the lefty reliever concluded a sparkling 6 ⅓ inning effort out of the bullpen by notching his third strikeout and inducing a fly out to right, letting out an emphatic yell as he left the mound. However, it was still three more innings before the game saw its conclusion.

ndsmcobserver.com | Monday, March 22, 2021 | The Observer

Notre Dame continued its fantastic pitching effort with Tanner Kohlhepp, a sophomore right-hander who allowed just two hits and struck out four over three scoreless innings. That gave the quiet Irish bats just enough time to wake up, as they finally did in the 13th inning, sparked by Kavadas once more. The senior drilled a laser down the rightfield line and beat the throw with a headfirst dive into second, firing up the home dugout. One batter later, with the winning run on third base, the Irish looked to reserve left fielder Ryan Cole to deliver the winning blow.

Cole is part of a rotation used in left field by Jarrett, and after Alex Brait had fouled a pitch off his knee, Cole entered for defensive reasons, according to Jarrett. Cole was 1-2 to that point with a bunt single, and the idea of a suicide squeeze had to be on the minds of some. But Cole had other thoughts, depositing a pitch deep over the left-field fence for the senior’s first career home run, a walk-off 2-run shot. He ended up starting the next two games and went 4-8 with a walk and 4 RBI on the weekend.

“We’ve been waiting for someone in that [left field] rotation to take ahold of that moment,” Jarrett noted on Cole’s surge in playing time.

“We needed someone to take charge of some at-bats, and when you step up on Friday, you get an opportunity on Saturday.”

In Game two, it was more strong pitching and clutch offense from Kavadas and Cole that did the trick for the Irish.

11

RYAN VIGILANTE | The Observer

Irish senior catcher David LaManna runs down the baseline during a 2-0 Notre Dame loss against Duke at home on Sunday. LaManna has a .279 batting average on the season, with seven RBIs and eight runs.

Left-handed graduate student John Michael Bertrand continued his blazing streak on the mound, notching his first-ever career complete game, needing just 111 pitches to complete the feat. He scattered five hits and four walks, allowed two runs and struck out six.

His lone major blemish was surrendering a sixth-inning,

RYAN VIGILANTE | The Observer

Irish junior left-handed pitcher Aidan Tyrell winds up for a pitch during Notre Dame’s 2-0 loss to Duke on Sunday at Eck Stadium. Tyrell had a short outing, allowing two runs over 3 innings while striking out two.

two-run bomb to Duke’s RJ Schreck, which temporarily gave the Blue Devils a 2-1 lead.

That one-run advantage didn’t last long, as Notre Dame slapped a five-spot on the board in the bottom half of the inning. Junior designated hitter Carter Putz laced a triple before an HBP put runners on the corners for Kavadas. This time, the first baseman demonstrated his opposite-field power, lifting a high fly over the left-field wall for a 3-run blast that gave Notre Dame the lead for good. Cole, getting the start after Friday night’s heroics, tacked on all the necessary insurance just two batters later; the left fielder roped a single to center that took a strange hop over the head of the center fielder, rolling all the way to the warning track. Despite a near perfectly executed relay from the Blue Devils, Cole wheeled around the bases and beat the throw with a headfirst dive. The inside-the-park home run gave Notre Dame and Bertrand a 6-2 lead, one which marked the final score of the game. Bertrand allowed just two hits in those final three innings, as Duke hardly mounted a comeback.

While the pitching remained fantastic for the Irish in Game three, the bats simply did not show up. Duke’s Jack Carey twirled six one-hit innings and Marcus Johnson polished off the game with three hitless frames of his own. Cole had the only base hit for the Irish, and his single and walk were the only two Irish baserunners, who never had a runner in scoring position.

“Obviously a tough ending to a good weekend. Would have been a great weekend if we had been able to finish this one off today,” Jarrett said.

“Carey pitched a great game.

Fastball to both sides of the plate, the slider was in play, changeup was good enough.”

Duke scratched out runs in the first and second innings, which was just enough for their 2-0 victory. The bullpen remained fantastic for Notre Dame, as junior RHP Alex Rao fired 5 1/3 scoreless innings, giving up just one hit and striking out five. On the weekend, the Irish bullpen gave up one earned run on 15 2/3 innings of work. “ “He’s been much improved this year,” Jarrett said of Rao’s effort. “We’re just finding his role on the team … he pitched very well and continued to evolve in his role with the team.”

The Irish, currently ranked No. 17 in the nation, will wait until Monday to see whether they rise in the polls. At 9-3 in ACC play, Notre Dame is second in the Atlantic Division and they’ll have a chance to surge back into first when they welcome Louisville next weekend. The Cardinals are 7-2 in conference play, and they were ranked No. 8 in the country, prior to sweeping NC State this week. The Irish will take on Valparaiso on Tuesday in a non-conference game at home before the three-game set against Louisville, which begins next Friday, also at home.

Contact Aidan Thomas at athoma28@nd.edu

12

The observer | Monday, March 22, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

BASEBALL | nd 6, duke 4 (13); nd 6, duke 2; duke 2, nd 0

Kavadas, Cole, pitching propel ND to series win

By AIDAN THOMAS Sports Writer

After the COVID-19 pandemic denied the Notre Dame baseball team a home game last season, the Fighting Irish returned home to Frank Eck Stadium for the first time since May of 2019. The team treated the home crowd to a fantastic display of pitching and timely hitting in their first two games, as Notre Dame won their fourth consecutive ACC series to start the season, taking two of three contests from the Duke Blue Devils.

The Irish claimed the first two games of the series, 6-4 (in 13 innings) and 6-2, before their bats went silent in the series finale, a 2-0 loss that left their record at 9-3.

“It was great, it’s comforting being in your own environment,” head coach Link Jarrett said, after coaching his first home series as the Notre Dame head coach. “To win the game Friday night is something I’ll always remember. Personally, for me, it was an enjoyable moment and a good weekend for

the team.”

For Notre Dame, it was their pitching (2.32 ERA on the weekend) and timely offense from both expected and unexpected sources that did the trick.

In Game one, the Irish trotted out reliever Will Mercer to the mound, as the southpaw started the series opener for the second straight weekend. Mercer cruised through three frames, and Notre Dame capitalized on a leadoff single from sophomore third baseman Jack Brannigan, a walk to senior center fielder Spencer Myers, a pair of errant pick-off attempts and an RBI groundout to grab the early 2-0 lead.

However, Mercer tired, and Duke instantly struck back, sending ten men to the plate in the fourth. Three of the first four batters reached via single, cutting the deficit in half, and Irish reliever Liam Simon came on, but he couldn’t find the strike zone. Simon walked three of four men he faced, with a pair of wild pitches see BASEBALL PAGE 11

RYAN VIGILANTE | The Observer

Irish junior outfielder Brooks Coetzee swings and misses at a pitch during the home-opening series finale against Duke that Notre Dame lost 2-0 Sunday. Coetzee’s mark of 12 RBIs is second-highest on the team.

nd women’s tennis | miami 7, nd 0; fsu 7, nd 0

ND Men’s tennis | nd 6, marquette 1

Fresh Notre Dame beats Marquette for 4th win of 5

By GREG McKENNA

Observer Staff Report

Sports Writer

No. 46 Notre Dame (9-7, 3-3 ACC) bounced back from a narrow loss against topranked North Carolina with a 6-1 win over Marquette (6-5, 0-0 Big East) Friday afternoon at the Courtney Tennis Center.

After winning two of their last three home matches in Eck Tennis Pavilion, Notre Dame closed out a four-match homestand in dominant fashion. After a three-match losing streak in mid-February, the Irish have now won four of their last five.

Notre Dame head coach Ryan Sachire said that despite being short-handed in February losses against Middle Tennessee, Wake Forest and NC State due to injuries, the Irish paved the way for their current run of form with solid performances from those who could play in those losing efforts.

“We’ve been building, quite see M TENNIS PAGE 10

Irish shut out in pair of matches

Observer File Photo

Irish graduate student Matt Gamble returns the ball during Notre Dame’s 5-0 loss to NC State on Mar. 24, 2019 at Eck Tennis Pavilion.

The Notre Dame women’s tennis team (9-8, 3-6 ACC) failed to register a single point in two road matchups in the state of Florida this weekend.

In the first matchup, the Irish fell 7-0 to 35th-ranked Miami (7-5, 4-3 ACC) on Friday afternoon. After a two-hour weather delay, the Hurricanes took the first doubles match, courtesy of a 7-5 victory by Estella Perez-Somarriba and Isabella Pfennig over the 19th-ranked Irish pair of senior Cameron Corse and sophomore Page Freeman. Notre Dame battled back to take the second match with a 6-2 victory by Senior Ally Bojczuk and junior Julia Lilien over Diana Khodan and Maya Tahan of the Hurricanes, but the Hurricanes earned the doubles point with the victory in the deciding match; Daevenia Achong and Florencia Urrutia defeated the Irish freshmen Julia Andreach and Yashna Yellayi 6-4.

The Hurricanes went on to take all six singles points.

In the first match, PerezSomarriba defeated Corse in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. In the second, Pfennig bested Freeman, 6-1, 6-2. In the third singles match, Achong quickly dispatched Bojczuk 6-0, 6-1.

In the fourth, Lillien took an early lead but ended up dropping the match in a tiebreaker to Urrutia 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7).

In match No. 5, Tahen handled Andreach, 6-3, 6-2, and in the final match, Khodan defeated Yellayi, 6-1, 6-2.

The Irish then traveled north to Tallahassee for an even tougher test against No. 6 Florida State (13-3, 8-2 ACC).

In the first doubles match on Sunday afternoon, Corse and Freeman were bested by the Florida State pair of Victoria Allen and Emmanuelle Salas 6-4. In match No. 2, Bojczuk and Lillian were defeated

by Nandini Das and Andrea Garcia of the Seminoles 6-4.

In the final doubles match, Giulia Pairone and Petra Hule defeated Andreach and Yellayi see W TENNIS PAGE 10