Irish prepare to close out regular season against Syracuse, Boston College

By MATTHEW CROW a ssociate sports editor

The notre dame women’s tennis season has been full of ups and downs. a fter picking up two big home wins against Wake Forest and Louisville at the end of march, the i rish traveled to Florida last weekend and fell to Florida state and m iami. They’ll have the chance to get back on the upswing before postseason play begins as they return home to face s yracuse and b oston c ollege in their final regular season matches this weekend. The matches come in advance of next week’s acc c hampionship, and notre dame’s performance this weekend could significantly impact their seeding at the tournament. The no. 27 i rish (13-9, 4-7 acc ) currently sit eighth in a tightly bunched acc no. 36 s yracuse (11-7, 4-7 acc ) is even with notre dame, while no. 41 b oston c ollege (10-9, 3-8 acc ) is just a single game back. Losing both matches could drop the i rish as low as 12th, while a pair of wins could vault them into the top half of the standings. notre dame hopes that a strong conference tournament showing will earn them their first ncaa Tournament bid since 2017. similar to the i rish, s yracuse enters the weekend looking to get back into the winning column. a fter an 11-1 start to the year, the o range have slumped in recent weeks. road defeats at the hands of nc state and Wake Forest last week extended their losing streak to six, five of which were decided by a 6-1 score. s yracuse’s schedule has done them no favors, as they have faced three top-10 opponents during that stretch, and five teams in the top 30. a s they look to break through with a long-awaited win against the i rish, they will be led by senior Zeynep e rman, ranked no. 102 nationally in singles. b oston c ollege arrives refreshed after a bye week preceded by a similar gauntlet to that faced by s yracuse. Playing all four acc schools from the state of north c arolina in a two-week span, they managed just one point combined in three lopsided losses against north c arolina, d uke and nc state. They also earned an impressive 5-2 road win against Wake Forest just days after the i rish shut the d eacons out by a 7-0 margin. The e agles feature junior marice a guiar in the no. 1 singles spot. a guiar, ranked no. 65, is coming off of a strong weekend of play and will provide a tough test for notre dame senior Page Freeman, who slotted in at no. 61 this week. not much went to plan for notre dame in Florida, but their masterful doubles performance was a silver lining. The i rish claimed the doubles point in both of their matches. a gainst Florida state, sophomore c arrie b eckman and junior Julia a ndreach began doubles play with a 6-1 victory

Softball

con T inued From PaGe 16 combined to shut out michigan state in another run-rule win.

Gumpf spoke after the indiana victory about the importance of her entire rotation getting positive game action in midweek contests heading into a weekend series.

“i wish i would have put one in earlier [today],” Gumpf said. “but they all got action. They all got a good workout. all of them got some good innings, and now it’s like ‘lets go.’” at the plate for the irish, expect a combination of power from junior first baseman Karina Gaskins and small ball from the rest of the lineup to be Gumpf’s recipe for success at the plate. Gaskins, the reigning acc player of the year, has been exceptional so far this month. The junior infielder has had six home runs across eight april games for the irish. in the win over indiana, however, contact hitting did the job for on court no. 2. Freeman and sophomore maria olivia c astedo followed with a 6-3 win on court no. 1 to seal the point. a gainst the hurricanes, it was a similar story. beckman and freshman bojana Pozder were victorious on court no. a fter their impressive performance in Florida, the pairing of beckman and a ndreach sits at no. 41 nationally. meanwhile, the Yellayihanford duo entered the rankings at no. 76. The i rish will look to continue building up confidence as well as their doubles winning streak. the notre dame offense. The irish notched only one extra-base hit against the hoosiers, a third-inning double by senior outfielder macie eck. however, notre dame also racked up 11 singles, and pushed across over half of their runs on five of those singles. if the irish bats stay hot, the series against the hokies’ strong offense should be a high-scoring one. and if the pitching from notre dame’s midweek contests is backing up a potent attack at the plate, the irish could steal a statement series against one of the acc’s best squads. notre dame softball will return to action on Friday against virginia Tech at melissa cook stadium. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on acc network extra. saturday and sunday’s games begin at 5 p.m. and noon, respectively. saturday’s is available on acc network, and sunday’s is back on acc network extra.

3. Junior Yashna Yellayi and freshman r ylie hanford doubled down with a win of their own on court no. 2 to extend notre dame’s doubles winning streak to four matches. a s the i rish prepare to match up with some of the nation’s most talented and deepest teams at the acc Tournament, being able to count on their doubles pairings rising to the occasion could provide a crucial boost.

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

14 notre dame will conclude its regular season slate at home this weekend. The irish host syracuse at 3:30 p.m. on Friday and boston college at 11 a.m. on sunday. both matches are at the eck Tennis Pavilion and will be live streamed on the notre dame athletics website.

Contact Matthew Crow at mcrow@nd.edu

Golf

con T inued From PaGe 16 competition is no exception. The hosting sun devils rank in the top-five nationally. other ranked teams making the trip are no. 2 north carolina, no. 4 Texas Tech, no. 12 Texas, no. 21 a rizona and no. 19 oklahoma state. The irish also competed against oklahoma state and Texas at the stephens cup. notre dame has not played in the Thunderbird in recent years, which could make things even more challenging. The irish are also one of the lower-ranked teams in this year’s field, so they will have something to prove when the tournament tees off on Friday.

Contact Andrew McGuinness at amcguinn@nd.edu