PREVIEW: Irish Open Up Season At Home Against Western Michigan

The No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish host the Western Michigan Broncos in their season opener at Alumni Stadium on Thursday, August 14 at 7:00 p.m.

#2 NOTRE DAME VS. WESTERN MICHIGAN – Thursday, August 14 at 7 PM 
Location: South Bend, Ind.  |  Alumni Stadium
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Game Notes (PDF)

Preseason Praise

• Coming off of NCAA Quarterfinal run last season, the Irish were selected as the no. 2 team in the country in this year’s United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll. This is the highest preseason ranking since the 2011 season after the Irish won the National Championship in 2010.
• The Irish were also selected as the no. 2 team in the 2025 Preseason ACC poll.
• Goalkeeper Sonoma Kasica and forward Izzy Engle have been named to the United Soccer Coaches 2025 NCAA Players to Watch list this preseason.
• Engle was also selected as a Preseason All-ACC honoree, alongside senior Leah Klenky. Both were All-ACC standouts last season, earning All-Region status as well.

Notre Dame’s 2024 Resume

• In the final United Soccer Coaches Poll, the Irish landed in the No. 6 position. There were six ACC teams in the top-10.
• Irish finished with a RPI rank of No. 8. They achieved a 4-4-1 record against the RPI 1-25.
• Notre Dame competed in the No. 1 RPI league, the ACC, and went 5-2-4.
• The Fighting Irish recorded a 5-4-1 mark against ranked opposition this season. They defeated No. 2 Miss State, No. 6 Stanford, No. 13 TCU and No. 14 Virginia, No. 25 Cal, while tying at No. 1 Duke.
• All 4 of ND’s losses were to ranked teams.

Home Sweet Home

• It is not easy for opposing teams to earn a victory inside Alumni
• Stadium. Since its creation in 2009, Notre Dame has gone 134-32-11.
• Over the last four seasons in particular – an impressive 36-6-6 (.813) record inside Alumni.
• The last 5 seasons – 47-9-7 (.802)

A College Cup Core

• The  expectations every year for this program is to qualify for a College Cup and compete for a national championship. The Irish fell a little short in 2024 but the pieces are there to make a run in 2025. We’ve talked already about how dynamic of a freshman class it was. Then there’s the returning vets: Morgan Roy, Charlie Codd, Laney Matriano, Leah Klenke and Clare Logan all started in at least 15 games this season.
• Key losses include graduate forward/midfielder Ellie Ospeck (who recorded 33 points over her Irish career), captain Sophia Fisher (68 games played, 19 starts, 19 points) and KJ Ronan (58 games played, 5 starts).
• All-in-all, the Irish return 141 of its 161 points aka 87.6 percent.

ACC PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH

• 1. North Carolina (10), 246
• 2. Notre Dame (2), 229
• 3. Florida State (4), 225
• 4. Duke, 208
• 5. Stanford, 201
• 6. Wake Forest, 172
• 7. Virginia (1), 169
• 8. Virginia Tech, 162
• 9. Clemson, 132
• 10. California, 124
• 11. Pitt, 111
• 12. SMU, 83
• 13. Boston College, 81
• 14. Louisville, 67
• 15. Miami, 44
• 16. NC State, 40
• 17. Syracuse, 18

All-American – Izzy Engle Is Back For Year 2

• Izzy Engle immediately took the collegiate landscape by storm by putting together an All-American campaign in her freshman season. The United Soccer Coaches named her a Second Team All-American. Head Coach Nate Norman has now produced four different All-Americans over the past three years (Korbin Albert, Eva Gaetino, Olivia Wingate).
• Engle scored 19 goals on the year, plus one assist, finishing with 39 total points.  Her 19 goals were the sixth most all-time by a freshman at Notre Dame.
• Her 19 goals were the 2nd most scored in the country in 2024. Kate Faasse from North Carolina scored 20. Engle’s 0.86 goals per match ranked second nationally as well.
• The Minnesota native scored nine goals over the last nine games and scored in three of the four NCAA Tournament games, including the game-winner against Mississippi State.
• Engle’s 39 points ranked sixth nationally and second amongst ACC players.
• Engle’s brace at No. 1 Duke marked the first time in program history in which an Irish freshman recorded multiple goals against the No. 1 team in the country.
• Engle recorded the first freshman hat trick in program history since 2008 in Notre Dame’s win at Samford. She was the third quickest in program history to record a hat trick, doing so in just her second game. Kerri Hanks (2005) and Rosella Guerrero (1992) achieved hat tricks in their freshman debuts.

Freshmen Clean Up ACC Awards – 2024 Accolades

• Kudos to Coach Norman for the talent he’s been developing in South Bend. For it was the third straight year in which the program took an ACC ‘of the year’ award. And get this, it’s been three different players as well. Korbin Albert in 2022 (ACC Midfielder of the Year), Eva Gaetino in 2023 (ACC Defender of the Year) and now Izzy Engle in 2024 (ACC Freshman of the Year).
• Engle’s awards didn’t stop there. The Minnesota native was also named First Team All-ACC alongside junior defender Leah Klenke. Third-Team All-ACC honors went to freshmen Annabelle Chukwu and Lily Joseph.
• Klenke, who missed a portion of the early season because she was busy winning a bronze medal with Team USA at the U20 World Cup. Klenke came back and solidified the back-three while also securing a goal and an assist. This marked the second straight year for Klenke taking home an All-ACC award, improving upon her Second-Team status in 2023.
• The Irish dominated the ACC All-Freshman Team list with four of the 11 spots, the most of any school. Izzy Engle, Lily Jospeh, Ellie Hodsden and Annabelle Chukwu were all named to the All-Freshman Team. The foursome ranked first, second, fourth and sixth, respectively, on the team in total points.

Notre Dame’s Offensive Improvement

• Notre Dame’s scoring offense of 2.50 ranked eighth in the country and third in the league. It marked Notre Dame’s highest scoring offense since 2008 (3.07).
• In addition, Notre Dame had a whopping 16 different goal scorers on the year, which marked the most since 2008 as well.
• The Irish ranked seventh in the nation in shots per game (19.6) and 12th in SOG/game (8.7).
• Their 55 goals ranked seventh nationally.
• 44 of the team’s 55 goals were scored by freshmen.
• The top-4 point getters on the team were freshmen: Izzy Engle (39 points), Lily Joseph (22 points), Grace Restovich (21 points) and Ellie Hodsden (18 points).
• Irish were 14-0 when scoring first this season. They were 13-0-1 when leading at the half.