SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame opens up postseason play on the West Coast, taking on Stanford in the first round of the ACC Tournament at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 6 in Palo Alto. The match will air on ACCNX and the winner will face the winner of Clemson and Louisville on Sunday Nov. 10.
NOTRE DAME vs. STANFORD
Location: Palo Alto, California | Cagan Stadium
Watch: ACCNX
Live Stats: Click Here
Twitter Updates: @NDMenSoccer
Game Notes: vs. Stanford
THE STANFORD SERIES
• The Irish and Cardinal will meet on the pitch for the third time on Wednesday evening.
• The the series is tied at 1-1-0 with each team winning one game by a goal.
• Notre Dame and Stanford met earlier this season in South Bend, as the Cardinal escaped with a 1-0 victory.
• Wednesday’s match will be the first between the two sides to take place in Palo Alto.
IRISH IN THE ACC TOURNEY
• Notre Dame has an overall ACC Tournament record of 13-8-3 and has reached at least the quarterfinal round now in 10-of-12 seasons in the league.
• The Irish have won one ACC Tournament title in program history, claiming the 2021 championship. Notre Dame didn’t allow a goal over four matches and defeated Duke by a score of 2-0 in the final.
• Notre Dame has reached the semifinal round or beyond in the ACC Championship in six of its 10 seasons as a conference member.
• The Irish have made two appearances in the conference tournament finals.
• The Irish have won at least one match in nine of their 11 previous ACC Championship appearances.
• Prior to joining the ACC, Notre Dame won three Big East Tournament titles and three MCC (Midwestern Collegiate Conference) titles.
MATTHEW ROOU: GOAL SCORING MACHINE
• Senior forward Matthew Roou enters Wednesday’s match leading the ACC and sixth in the country in goals with 13 on the season.
• Roou is in the best form of his career, scoring 13 goals over his last 11 outings, including back-to-back hat tricks during the stretch.
• The talisman’s 13 goals are the most in a season by an Irish player since Jon Gallagher scored 13 during the 2017 campaign.
• Roou is currently tied for 11th on the ND all-time goal scoring list with Pat Szanto at 34 goals and is one goal away from tying Sami Kahale for 10th (35).
• The talisman now has 81 career points off 34 goals and 13 assists.
• The forward became the first Notre Dame men’s soccer player since Kevin Lovejoy in 1979 to record multiple hat tricks in a season.
• Roou came through in the clutch in Notre Dame’s 2-1 win over Clemson, scoring the winner in the 86th minute to give the Irish the win.
• The senior is one of two players at the men’s DI level to register two hat tricks during the 2024 season, joining Massachusetts’ Alec Hughes.
• Roou scored a goal from the spot in the season opener against Akron.
BRYCE BONEAU: 2024 CAPTAIN
• Bryce Boneau is the captain for this year’s Fighting Irish team.
• Boneau is a senior midfielder from Texas and was selected to the 2024 ACC Preseason Watch List.
• The skipper leads the Irish in assists with a career-high eight on the season.
• Boneau’s average of .50 assists per match ranks third in the ACC.
• Boneau scored four goals and added seven assists last season as a center midfielder and has four goals and 15 assists in his Notre Dame career.
• Boneau was selected by Nashville SC in the third round of the 2024 MLS SuperDraft with the 75th overall pick.
BALANCED ATTACK
• Thirteen different players have found the back of the net for the Irish this season (Roou, Flanagan, Genenbacher, Boneau, J. Bartlett, Spicer, Dunphy, Baffour, Shaul, N. Bartlett, Ferguson, Green, Lewis).
• Fourteen returning Irish players registered at least one point in their Notre Dame career, as the team returned 85 points from last year.
• Ten players that scored a goal during the 2023 campaign are back on this year’s team.
• Senior Matthew Roou is the top returning goal scorer on the 2024 squad after firing in a career-high 10 goals during his junior campaign.
HERE TO ASSIST
• Notre Dame ranks fourth in the ACC in assists per game, averaging 2.13 on the year.
• Bryce Boneau paces the Irish with eight assists while KK Baffour has dished out four and Matthew Roou, Sebastian Green, Mitch Ferguson and Ian Shaul have each added three.
• All three of Green’s assists came in the win over Chicago State, tying the junior for the national lead for most assists in a game at the men’s DI level.
• The Irish dished out 48 assists last season, ranking sixth in the country for total assists.
STRONG STARTS
• Notre Dame has made a habit of jumping out to an early lead this season, as the Irish have scored the opening goal in 11 of 16 matches in 2024.
• Four of the 11 opening goals came within the first 20 minutes of play.
•The quickest goal to start a match came from Bryce Boneau in the seventh minute in the win over Louisville.
• The Irish are outscoring teams 13-4 over the opening 45 minutes of play this season.
2023 SEASON REWIND
• Notre Dame had one of its most successful seasons in program history last year, finishing with an appearance in the College Cup Final.
• The Irish were dominant in the ACC, claiming the Coastal Division crown and earning the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament after going undefeated in regular season conference play with a record of 6-0-2.
• Notre Dame finished the season with a record of 13-3-6 but two of the draws resulted in the Irish advancing in the NCAA Tournament in shootouts.
• The Fighting Irish defeated Kentucky (2-0) in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament before moving past Western Michigan (0-0) and Indiana (1-1) to make the College Cup.
• Notre Dame then defeated Oregon State (1-0) in the semifinal before falling to Clemson (1-2) in the final.