Irish fall to Terrapins in Sweet Sixteen

By OLIVIA SCHATZ s enior s ports Writer

The Fighting Irish traveled to Greenville, s outh c arolina to take on the second-seeded Terrapins. After a season plagued with injuries, the Irish were determined to prove their worth. h owever, it was m aryland who would ultimately pull ahead and win 76-59.

The Terrapins got out on an early lead, with a 5-0 run. Junior forward m addy Westbeld turned the tide, putting n otre d ame on the board and igniting a 6-0 Irish run. h owever, this lead would not last long, as m aryland would quickly go back ahead and spend the rest of the quarter in the lead. s imilar to their matchup against m ississippi s tate, the Irish failed to make a three for some time, ultimately finishing the first 10 minutes down 16-14.

m aryland once again got off to a strong start in the second. b ut Westbeld once again broke through, making three to tie the game 19-19. That appeared to be the spark the Irish needed. h owever, another hot m aryland start put n otre d ame’s chances in serious jeopardy. Fouling proved to be a problem for the Irish in this game, with both Watson and graduate student center Lauren e bo tallying their fourth foul midway through the third quarter. h ead coach n iele Ivey was forced to reach deep into her already depleted roster which the Terrapins took advantage of. They ripped off a 9-0 run that forced Ivey’s hand and the Irish head coach called a timeout. o ut of the break, c itron was sent to the foul line to get the first point for the Irish in two minutes. e motions were high and c itron would commit a pair of turnovers and an offensive foul as the Irish struggled to stay grounded. A late shot clock violation gave m aryland another chance to stretch their lead, but the Terrapins were unable to beat the buzzer. Going into the final quarter though, m aryland still held a 57-45 lead.

Junior forward Kylee Watson added another basket, sophomore guard s onia c itron got a steal and the Irish were off to the races. n otre d ame went on an 11-point run before the Terrapins called a time-out. The Irish extended their scoring stretch immediately after the stoppage, but m aryland stabilized thereafter. s till, n otre d ame took a 32-31 lead to the locker room, 20 minutes away from reaching the e lite e ight.

The fourth quarter would prove to be a challenge too difficult for the Irish to conquer. While n otre d ame started with the ball, a foul would send the ball in the Terrapins’ favor. Turnovers and fouls continue to plague the Irish, allowing m aryland to set the momentum in their favor. While Watson was back in with four fouls, Westbeld was corrigan said after the game about the crowd. “but it was a terrific atmosphere.” adding to that momentum was the arrival of the notre dame football team at halftime. a fter finishing their practice, the team walked to a rlotta stadium and watched the game from the grass berm. it might seem unrealistic that anything that went on in the crowd could have a tangible impact on the game, but the energy brought by the football team’s appearance (and enthusiasm) seemed to provide notre dame with a jolt of energy. c hris Kavanagh scored a leaping goal just over a minute into the third quarter. soon after, Pat Kavanagh’s long-range score knotted the game at 7-7 and sent a jubilant crowd into celebration. i n addition to the Kavanagh brothers’s shot-making, the i rish’s ability to create possessions was critical in their 4-0 run. v irginia won six out of seven first-quarter faceoffs. o ver the final three periods, each team won 11.

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Like they had done in five of their first six games, notre dame struck first when sophomore attacker c hris Kavanagh tallied his 22nd goal of the season. but unlike those earlier games, that score was not the start of the i rish building a big early lead, but rather a prelude to v irginia doing so.

The cavaliers feature a pair of star attackers, connor shellenberger and Xander dickson, who were both on top of their game saturday. shellenberger wasted no time answering Kavanagh’s goal with one of his own. v irginia put on a clinic during the rest of the quarter, scoring four more times while stymying the normally-potent i rish attack. The last came from dickson off a shellenberger feed and put v irginia firmly in the driver’s seat, leading 5-1 after the first.

Following nearly 18 scoreless minutes, notre dame finally ended their drought early in the second quarter. Graduate student L sm Jose boyer gained possession after a v irginia turnover and went coast to coast to score his first goal of the season. The i rish would score again soon after but were held at bay by quick cavalier answers that pushed the score to 7-3.

The final minutes of the half were tense, with notre dame working hard to make the halftime deficit more manageable. With under two minutes to play, senior attacker Pat Kavanagh scored to trim the cavalier lead back down to three. a nd senior attacker Jake Taylor followed that up with a critical goal in the final seconds. Taylor’s score made the contest a 7-5 game and gave the i rish some momentum for the second half.

“We got the ball some,” corrigan said about the i rish’s comeback. “Their faceoff guy did a good job early, i thought [junior colin hagstrom and sophomore Will Lynch] did a nice job [later]. o ur faceoff guys and our wings battled and got some possessions back.” a tie game in the second half was a scenario that notre dame was comfortable with. unfortunately for the i rish, it was all cavaliers the rest of the way.

“We had everything we wanted. Five minutes gone in the second half, we’re right where we wanted to be in the game. We’re right where we wanted to be with the score,” c orrigan said. “We just got outplayed from that point forward.” notre dame senior goalie Liam e ntenmann recorded 11 saves on the day, several of which had a high degree of difficulty. but even he could not withstand the onslaught of cavalier shots from right on his doorstep. by the end of the third, dickson had scored four times in the quarter. Three of those goals were assisted by shellenberger, and v irginia led 13-9.

Trying to gain separation from the nation’s top team, v irginia turned to its bread and butter. The combination of shellenberger and dickson proved nearly impossible for the i rish to stop. even after snow began to fall midway through the quarter, shellenberger’s play-making ability allowed him to keep setting up easy looks for open teammates. dickson wasted no opportunity to find the back of the net.

The i rish would keep battling in the fourth but were plagued by unforced miscues and unable to draw any closer. corrigan noted that pregame emphasis had been placed on limiting mistakes and capitalizing on opportunities. v irginia’s ncaa-leading offense was sure to create scoring chances for themselves. Giving them even more kept the i rish from getting back into the game.

“We had chances that we didn’t convert and they had some that they did, but also some that we gave them,” corrigan said. “We came into the game saying that we have to keep them from getting the sloppy, easy goals and i think they got about three of them. Those three make a big difference, and then we honestly just didn’t shoot the ball very well today.” v irginia stretched the margin to six before ultimately closing out a 15-10 victory. Pat Kavanagh led the i rish with two goals and two assists. c hris Kavanagh and Taylor each chipped in a pair of goals as well. shellenberger and dickson finished with seven points apiece for the cavaliers. With the defeat, notre dame saw its 12-game winning streak snap. The i rish will now face its first taste of adversity this season. They will focus on putting the loss in the rearview mirror, knowing it does nothing to change their postseason goals.

“Whether we won this game or lost this game, monday comes, we go back to work. Go back to the process of what we do every week to prepare for the next game. We can’t go back and relitigate this one,” corrigan said. “This one’s over, and we’ll learn from it and get ready for next week.” next week will bring a road trip to syracuse, where the i rish will hope to return to their winning ways and grab their first acc victory of the season. but bigger picture in mind, it will be their first chance to build on saturday’s defeat and prepare to challenge v irginia later in the season, during the a pril rematch in c harlottesville and potentially further down the line in the ncaa Tournament.

Contact Matthew Crow at mcrow@nd.edu

WBB con T inued F rom PaGe 8 taken out after her fourth. n otre d ame visibly panicked. From miscommunication to shots that did not fall, n otre d ame could not close the ever-growing gap. e bo’s fifth foul, committed with 4:44 left, destroyed any faint hopes of an i rish comeback. b oth women ended with 18 points on the night and s ellers held an additional eight assists. There was a tearful goodbye from e bo and graduate

The Terrapins ultimately won by a 76-59 final. That was in major thanks to their two players d iamond m iller and s hyanne s ellers.

Softball

con T inued F rom PaGe 12 start, retiring the top of the o range order in the first inning, but slipped in the third. a home run by Tessa

Galipeau gave s yracuse a 1-0 lead, one that would be pushed to 5-0 in the fourth inning. s ophomore s hannon b ecker provided solid relief from the bullpen to salvage the inning, but the damage was done.

Graduate student infielder Lexi o rozco belted a two-run home run to give the i rish hope in the bottom half of the inning, and a single by senior outfielder Leea h anks would push across one more in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough. s yracuse evened the series at one apiece to set up an afternoon rubber match.

Worthy of a series-deciding contest, the second guard d ara m abrey, who has been out since January with an ac L injury. While a majority of the i rish will be returning next year, those two will say their final farewell to n otre d ame. With 734 points for the i rish in her three years, m abrey has made a substantial impact. a nd while this was her first year with the i rish, e bo has also made a substantial impact on the court. m aryland will now go on to the e lite e ight to play the winner of this afternoon’s s weet s ixteen matchup between the u niversity of s outh c arolina and uc L a game of s unday’s doubleheader was the tightest of the three. i rish head coach d eanna Gumpf put Tidd back on the mound, and she dueled with s yracuse’s Lindsey h endrix in a classic. n otre d ame softball will be back in action on Tuesday when they face off against iu P ui at m elissa c ook s tadium. First pitch will be at 5 p.m. and the game will be on acc n etwork e xtra.

With a 0-0 tie persisting through seven innings, the series seemed set for a cinematic climax. The lighting forecasted for the rest of the night disagreed. a fter a valiant effort to play the top of the eighth, the game was officially called at 7:30 p.m. The rubber match ended in a tie, as did the series.

Contact J. J. Post at jpost2@nd.edu