In late February and early March of every collegiate athletics season there can be so many teams competing at once is becomes difficult to keep up with all the noteworthy individual accomplishments and team victories. Sure enough, the past weekend for Fighting Irish athletics at Notre Dame provided so many highlights we tried to gather them all in one place to appreciate an amazing weekend of competition.
BASEBALL
Notre Dame swept through three games in Deland, Florida, over the weekend to improve to 5-1 on the year. Game one was a drama-filled contest against Iowa that ended up needing extra innings to decide the outcome…
A look from the stands of the solo HR by @CHincks_9 that helped lift us to the 2-1 win!#GoIrish βοΈ pic.twitter.com/X1p4X72oS9
β Notre Dame Baseball (@NDBaseball) February 21, 2025
Connor Hincks’ first-pitch home run off the video board not only earned the team a walk-off victory, the win would prove to be John P. and Catherine Murphy Head Baseball Coach Shawn Stiffler’s 400th career victory.
The momentum of the win propelled the Irish to a run-rule 12-2 win over UMBC on Saturday and an 8-2 victory over Stetson on its home field Sunday.
The Irish are off to Belmont in Nashville, Tennessee, for a three-game series this weekend.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Down two starters to injury (Braeden Shrewsberry and Matt Allocco) and facing March Madness bubble team Pittsburgh, the Irish stepped up to earn a big home game victory 76-72 over the Panthers. Junior forward Tae Davis led the team with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting while Markus Burton added 20 points of his own.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
The top-ranked Irish went on the road at No. 13 NC State and battled the Wolfpack over a marathon double-overtime contest. There were 21 ties and 21 lead changes over 50 minutes of hoops and at the end of regulation the Irish were down three points with under five seconds to set the stage for a Sonia Citron clutch play…
SONIA CITRON TRIPLE!! She really did that!!
πΊESPN#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/m2gXBPggkP
β Notre Dame Women’s Basketball (@ndwbb) February 23, 2025
A 6-0 run in a second overtime by NC State earned the Wolfpack their 20th straight home win 104-95 and set the stage for the possibility of an epic rematch in the ACC tournament.
FENCING
It was a clean sweep for the Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing teams at the ACC Championship over the weekend.
The women’s team, winners of each of the last six ACC championships and nine overall, took down North Carolina 21-6 in the first round, Boston College 20-7 in round two, third-seed Stanford 22-5 and second-seeded Duke 19-8 in the team competition on Sunday.
While the women were claiming their team title, Radu Nitu won his first ACC individual title in sabre for the men’s team and Liam Bas also claimed his first conference title in foil.
On Saturday, the men’s team earned their eighth ACC team title and eighth overall. The run started with a 17-0 win over Stanford, a nail-biting 14-13 win over Duke (keyed by the epee team’s 6-3 win), 15-12 victory over Boston College then a 16-11 win over No. 2 seed North Carolina in the finals.
The women’s individual competition was also a clean sweep for the Irish, with Rebeca Candescu (foil), Magda Skarbonkiewicz (sabre) and Eszter Muhari (epee) earning championships.
HOCKEY
The Notre Dame hockey team grabbed some momentum heading into its final home series this weekend against Michigan State with a split in its final regular-season road trip at Wisconsin. In game two of the series in Madison, the Irish exploded for six goals while goaltender Owen Say stopped 31 of 32 shots for a 6-1 victory.
Michigan State had entered the past weekend as the top-ranked team in the nation before dropping two games against Penn State. Notre Dame will honor its seniors Friday night and hold hits Alumni Game on Saturday night against the Spartans. Catalino Family Head Hockey Coach Jeff Jackson, in his final home regular-season series, will be looking to notch his 600th career win against his alma mater.
MEN’S LACROSSE
The top-ranked Irish went on the road to claim its first ranked victory of the season 11-9 at No. 11 Georgetown on Saturday afternoon. Junior goalie Thomas Ricciardelli stopped 16 shots and Chris Kavanagh led scoring with three goals and an assist. Notre Dame took a 6-0 lead, but Georgetown was able to cut the lead to two at halftime then just one goal with four minutes remaining. Kavanagh then decided to end the drama there with a key insurance goal.
CHRIS KAVANAGH GOAL!
The senior scores his 3rd of the day and it’s a huge one that puts us up 11-9 with less than 2 minutes left in regulation.#GoIrishβοΈ pic.twitter.com/mx4pQaWzxr
β Notre Dame Lacrosse (@NDlacrosse) February 22, 2025
WOMEN’S LACROSSE
Notre Dame legacy Madison Rassas scored recorded a hat trick and now has 13 goals in three games for the Irish who battled ACC opponent Clemson into the final in the Loftus Sports Center on Saturday. The Tigers held on for a one-goal victory after an amazing final eight seconds when the Irish looked to have earned the equalizing goal only to have the score called off for an offsides penalty.
π©π©π©
Rassas is heating up with her third goal of the night!#GoIrishβοΈ | πΊ @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/v4dbHL3979
β Notre Dame Womenβs Lacrosse (@NDWomensLax) February 23, 2025
SOFTBALL
The Irish traveled to Mobile, Alabama, for the Mardi Gras Classic and came away with three victories, highlighted by Shannon Becker’s six-inning no hitter in a 9-1 Notre Dame victory over South Alabama on day two.
One for the history books βοΈ@shannonbeckerr tosses the 40th solo no-hitter in program history #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/zkqIlkuY3Y
β Notre Dame Softball (@NDsoftball) February 22, 2025
WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING
Freshman Carli Cronk continued her outstanding season making the finals in all three events (500 free, 400 IM and 200 fly). She added a second school record to her resume as well, finishing the 500 free in 4:42.59, which is in addition to her 400 IM record set earlier this year.
Another school record fell on Day One when the 200 medley relay team of Jess Geriane, Gigi Baldacci, Katie Drumm and Madelyn Christman finished ninth in 1:36.73.
View this post on Instagram
MEN’S TENNIS
The Irish entered the weekend as the No. 50 ranked team in the country and swept No. 53 Wisconsin 7-0 in the Eck Tennis Pavilion on Friday. The team then took to the road to claim a 4-2 win against Northwestern on Sunday.
Sebastian Dominko won both his No. 1 matches over the weekend 6-1 and 6-3 and the No. 6 spot proved clutch for the Irish against both the Badgers and Wildcats. Kyran Magimay won 6-2, 6-3 against Wisconsin at No. 6 while Luis Lloren’s clutch battle at Northwestern proved a key win to give the Irish a 3-2 advantage in their eventual team victory.
πππππ πππ π€π£ π©ππ π§π€ππhttps://t.co/pIu9rApNIn#GoIrish βοΈ // https://t.co/Jb0kZntZE8 pic.twitter.com/MvSOSyYprM
β Notre Dame Men’s Tennis (@NDMensTennis) February 23, 2025
WOMEN’S TENNIS
The Irish women’s tennis team, ranked No. 22 in the country, began ACC competition last weekend at No. 57 SMU and improved their record to 11-1 and 1-0 in the ACC with a 4-1 victory.
Junior Rylie Hanford pushed her singles record to 10-1 this season with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win at No. 6 whileΒ Bianca Molnar clinched the match with a 6-2, 7-6 victory at No. 4 which included an 11-9 tiebreak.
π½π.πππ.πππ.πππ
Bianca Molnar wins 6-2, 7-6(9) on Court 4 to secure the win for Notre Dame!#GoIrishβοΈ pic.twitter.com/ut4xuTZP1S
β ND Women’s Tennis (@NDWomensTennis) February 22, 2025
TRACK AND FIELD
The Irish held their final home indoor meet of the year as they gear up for the ACC Championship, playing host the Alex Wilson Invitational at Loftus Sports Center on Saturday.
The women posted six first-place finishes at the event highlighted by Emily Covert’s personal-best of 9:16.22 in the 3000 meters. Robbie Cozean made it a clean 3000-meter sweep for Notre Dame on the men’s side, claiming first in 8:02.71.
