CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – After sweeping the individual championships on Saturday, the Fighting Irish women’s team dominated the team portion of the ACC Championships on Sunday to claim it’s ninth women’s team title in program history.
The women’s team title gives Notre Dame head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia nine in his career, as no other coach has more than one on the women’s side.
The Notre Dame women’s team has now won each of the last six ACC team titles in which the Irish have competed, dating back to the 2019 season. The Fighting Irish did not compete in the 2021 conference championship due to Covid.
Following her impressive epee individual title on Saturday, Eszter Muhari was named the ACC Women’s Championship MVP.
The sabre squad consisting of Jadeyn Williams, Atara Greenbaum and Siobhan Sullivan was simply sensational on the day, going an astounding 35-1 over the four matches to carry the team to the title.
Notre Dame set the tone from the opening round, posting a decisive 21-6 win over the hosts UNC in the first round. The Irish swept sabre with a score of 9-0 and picked up 6-3 wins in both foil and epee.
The Irish carried their momentum into the second round against Boston College, defeating the Golden Eagles by a score of 20-7. For the second straight round, the Irish sabre squad went undefeated (9-0) to lead the way. The foilists were nearly as impressive, winning the round 8-1.
In the penultimate round Notre Dame took on No. 3 seed Stanford and made quick work of the Cardinal in a 22-5 decision. The sabre squad continued its unbeaten run, posting a 9-0 win over Stanford. The epee team matched sabre by blanking the Cardinal 9-0 to setup a showdown with Duke for the ACC team title.
The final round decided the title, as both the No. 1 Irish and No. 2 Blue Devils were a perfect 3-0 coming into the matchup. Notre Dame used an 8-1 performance from sabre to jump out to an early and insurmountable lead.
With the score 13-5, Notre Dame’s Eszter Muhari came off the bench for her first action of the day to clinch the title in foil by registering the winning 14th point. The Fighting Irish went on to win by a score of 19-8.
MEN’S INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Irish men won two of the three individual championships on the final day of the ACC Championships, taking home the sabre and foil titles.
Radu Nitu (sabre) and Liam Bas (foil) each claimed individual titles on the men’s side on Sunday. It marked the first ACC individual titles for both Nitu and Bas.
Since the 2022 ACC Championships, the Fighting Irish men’s team has now 10 of the 12 individual titles handed out by the league.
The Blue and Gold’s best performance in pool play came from the sabre group. The Irish qualified three into the quarterfinals for knockout competition, including Nitu who earned the top seed after going undefeated in prelims.
Sabre teammate Ahmed Hesham qualified for the knockout stages as the No. 2 seed and Grant Dodrill earned the No. 5 seed.
All three won their quarterfinal bouts, before Nitu defeated Dodrill in the semifinal to advance to the championship match. On the other side of the bracket Hesham pulled out back-to-back 15-13 decisions to set up an all-Irish final. Nitu edged Hesham by a score of 15-13 to claim the title.
In foil both Bas and Dominic Joseph qualified for the quarterfinals rounds. Bas narrowly advanced to the knockout stage, claiming the eighth and final spot. Joseph went 4-1 in pool play to earn the No. 3 seed.
Bas knocked off the top-seeded Nick Baumstein from North Carolina to advance to the semifinals by a score of 15-13 before breezing to the finals after a 15-8 win over UNC’s Kevin Maia Lima.
On the other side Joseph posted wins over Stanford’s Benjamin Shih (15-11) and Renzo Fukuda (15-12) to earn his spot in the title bout against Bas, his teammate.
Bas claimed the first individual ACC title of his career by defeating Joseph 15-3 in the final.
The Irish turn their attention to NCAA Regionals, as Notre Dame will compete at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Granville, Ohio, on Saturday, March 8. The NCAA Championships will take place on the campus of Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania and will run from Thursday, March 20 through Sunday, March 23.