SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 15 Irish return home for an ACC clash with Virginia at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 22 at Alumni Stadium. The match will air on ACCN.
No. 15 NOTRE DAME vs. VIRGINIA
Location: South Bend, Indiana | Alumni Stadium
TV: ACCN
Live Stats: Click Here
Twitter Updates: @NDMenSoccer
Game Notes: vs. Virginia
THE VIRGINIA SERIES
• The Irish and Cavaliers will meet on the pitch for the 21st time on Friday.
• Notre Dame trails the Cavaliers in the series with a mark of 7-9-4.
• The Irish have won three of the last four matchups, splitting the series in 2020-21 and winning both the 2021 and 2022 meetings.
• Each of the last 11 matches between the two sides have either been decided by one goal or a draw.
• The Irish have a record of 6-3-1 against Virginia when playing in South Bend.
• Notre Dame won last years match in Charlottesville in thrilling fashion, as KK Baffour scored on a breakaway right before time expired to give the Irish a 2-1 victory. Daniel Russo also scored in the win.
LAST TIME OUT
• Notre Dame battled No. 4 Akron to a scoreless standstill in a road midweek matchup.
• Senior goalie Bryan Dowd was remarkable, making 12 saves to preserve the clean sheet.
STRONG STARTS
• Notre Dame has made it a habit of jumping out to an early lead this season, as the Irish have scored the opening goal in five of eight matches in 2023.
•All five opening goals have come in the first 25 minutes of play.
•The quickest goal to start a match came from Eno Nto in the 8th minute in the win over IUPUI.
• The Fighting Irish are unbeaten when scoring the opening goal over the last 25 occurrences, posting a record of 24-0-1 spanning back to the early stages of the 2021 season.
SET-PIECE SUCCESS
• ND has excelled on both ends of the field on set pieces during the 2023 season.
•The Irish defense hasn’t allowed a goal off a set piece all season while in attack four of the team’s 12 goals have come via a set piece.
• Notre Dame has scored off two free kicks, a corner and a penalty kick.
DOWD DELIVERS
• Bryan Dowd is back for his senior season after being the team’s primary goalie for each of the last two seasons.
• The shot stopper has 49 career starts while appearing in 50 matches over his previous three seasons in South Bend.
• Dowd has amassed 129 career saves and has recorded 17 clean sheets over his time in South Bend, including four through eight matches of the 2023 campaign.
•The senior produced his best performance of his career in the 0-0 draw at Akron, making a career-high 12 saves to keep the clean sheet intact.
• The 12 saves are the most by an ACC goalkeeper this season and the third most of any goalie at the DI level.
DOMINATING DEFENSE
• The Fighting Irish have allowed just five goals through eight matches during the 2023 campaign.
• The 0.625 goals against average ranks first in the ACC and 16th in the country.
• Notre Dame has given up just one or no goals in seven of eight matches this season.
• Since allowing a goal to No. 2 Indiana in the 28th minute in the season opener, the Irish went 376 minutes without allowing a score before giving up a score to Clemson in the 44th minute.
BALANCED ATTACK
• Six different players have scored in Notre Dame’s six matches to open the 2023 season.
• Matthew Roou paces the Irish with five goals.
• Eno Nto and Daniel Russo have each added two goals while KK Baffour, Paddy Burns and Bryce Boneau have each recorded one.
ROOU’S RUN OF FORM
• Junior Matthew Roou leads the Irish attack through this season, producing 11 points off five goals and an assist in seven appearances.
• Roou’s hat trick in the win over IUPUI was the first of his career and the first of the season for the Irish.
• The junior forward finished with seven points off three goals and an assist, becoming the first Notre Dame player to record seven or more points in a match since Dave Donohue also had seven points against Marquette on Sept. 11, 2008.
• Roou currently has 16 career goals to go along with eight career assists, totaling 40 career points for the forward.