PREVIEW: Irish Open ACC Play At NC State

The No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish open up conference play on the road as they travel to take on NC State on Thursday, Sept. 11 at 7:00 PM.

#6 NOTRE DAME at NC STATE – Thursday, September 11 at 7:00 PM 
Location: Raleigh, NC | Dail Soccer Field/Track Complex
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CHUKWU CLINIC AT MICHIGAN STATE

• Sophomore Annabelle Chukwu has been named the ACC Co-Offensive Player of the Week and was also named to the Top Drawer Soccer Women’s Team of the Week.
• She recorded her first career hat trick as she scored one goal in the first half and two goals in the second in the 3-0 win at Michigan State
• Shooting a perfect 3-for-3 on night, she finished with a career-high six points.
• This is also Chukwu’s first multi-goal game in her Irish career. With the three goals in the win, she has now recorded a total of eight career goals, six games through her sophomore season.
• Chukwu’s header in the 26th minute put the Irish on the board and scored again in the 48th minute, burying it from the top of the box into the upper 90 to make it 2-0.
• Just two minutes later, In the 50th minute, Morgan Roy fired the perfect corner kick to the near post as another Chukwu header found the back of the net to cap off the hat trick.

MATRIANO HAD HERSELF A WEEK

• Laney Matriano has been named the ACC Co-Offensive Player of the Week and was also named to the Top Drawer Soccer Women’s Team of the Week.
• Matriano helped guide the Irish to a 3-0 win over Michigan and an 8-0 win over Oakland, finishing the week with an impressive two goals, three assists, and seven points.
• She recorded a career-high three assists in the win over the Wolverines on Thursday, assisting on every goal scored that game and becoming the first ACC player to record three assists in a match against a Power Four conference team since Pitt’s Landy Mertz on November 11, 2023.
• She then recorded a brace in the win over Oakland on Sunday, another career-best.

A CAREER NIGHT IN THE 8-0 WIN OVER OAKLAND 

• The No.6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish advanced to 4-0-1 on the season as they defeated the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (1-4-1) in a 8-0 victory on Sunday evening.
• The Irish had seven players in the scoring column, but senior Laney Matriano led the way with a brace, recording a career-high two goals in the dominant win.
• Junior Morgan Roy and sophomore Grace Restovich recorded their first goals of the season, The sophomore duo of Annabelle Chukwu and Izzy Engle chipped in one goal a piece for their second and sixth goals on the season, respectively.
• It was a night of career-firsts and career-highs for Notre Dame. Freshman Tessa Knapp and sophomore Randie Foor each recorded their first career goals, with junior Jackie Hollomon grabbing her first save in goal.
• Sophomore Lily Joseph tied her career-high two assists and Senior Kiki Turner recorded her first career assist.

IRISH REMAIN UNDEFEATED: TAKE DOWN WOLVERINES

• The No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-0-1) remain undefeated on the season as they defeated the Michigan Wolverines (2-3-0) in a 3-0 win at Alumni Stadium on Thursday evening.
• The Irish scored on three headers in the win, with goals coming from the sophomore trio of Izzy Engle, Abby Mills, and Ellie Hodsden.
• Notre Dame finished with a season-best five assists as senior Laney Matriano led the way with a team-best and career-high three assists. Senior Leah Klenke and graduate Carolyn Calzada each recorded an assist for the Irish in the win.
• The Irish outshot the Wolverines 16-5 as sophomore Sonoma Kasica finished with three saves and recorded her ninth career clean sheet.

IRISH TAKE DOWN BEARCATS

• It was a great offensive night for the Irish with three players netting goals in the 4-0 win at Alumni on Thursday, Aug. 21.
• Sophomore Izzy Engle recorded her second brace of the season, with sophomore Annabelle Chukwu and sophomore Ellie Hodsden each adding one goal apiece in the second half.
• Sophomore Grace Restovich led the way with two assists, with senior Laney Matriano and junior Morgan Roy each recorded an assist as well.
• The Irish defense suffocated the Bearcat attack, allowing only one shot on goal. Sophomore Sonoma Kasica finished with a clean sheet for the Irish, her eighth clean sheet in her career.

IRISH DRAW AT #2 ARKANSAS

• The No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1-0-1) earned a hardfought draw on the road against No. 6 Arkansas Razorbacks (0-1-1) on in a heated top-10 battle.
• The Irish offense was led by Charlie Codd and Ellie Hodsden, who each recorded their first goals of the season in the 2-2 draw.
• While Codd netted the first goal of the game to tie it up at1-all, just over 35 minutes later, Ellie Hodsden had the play of the game. The sophomore received a pass in her own half and took it coast-to-coast before firing in a great shot from just inside the box.
• Sonoma Kasica recorded four saves in the stalemate, totaling eight saves in the opening week of the season.

ENGLE WAS EVERYTHING NEEDED IN HOME OPENER

• Sophomore Izzy Engle recorded a brace in the 2-1 win in the season opening win against the defending MAC Champions Western Michigan at Alumni Stadium on Thursday evening.
• The reigning ACC Freshman of the Year and All-American picked up right where she left off in the 2024 campaign, recording her seventh career multi-goal game.
• The Irish improved to an impressive 29-5-3 record in season openers.
• Junior Chase Ying recorded her first career point off an assist on the opening goal.
• Sophomore goalkeeper Sonoma Kasica recorded four saves to pick up the win.

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.
• Engle and Klenke are were each named to the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List as well this preseason.

BY THE NUMBERS – NCAA TOURNAMENT

• For the 30th time over the last 32 years, the Notre Dame women’s soccer program qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
• Notre Dame improved its all-time postseason record to 77-26-4. Their 77 victories passed UCLA (75) for the third most and rank only behind Florida State and UNC.
• With a dominant 5-1 victory over Milwaukee in the First Round, the Irish improved to 52-4-1 at home in the NCAA Tournament
• They have recorded 50 all-time clean sheets in the NCAA Tournament.
• Notre Dame was a seeded team for the fourth consecutive year, earning the four-seed in the bottom-right quadrant.
• The past four seasons under Doug & Lisa Jones Head Coach Nate Norman: Sweet 16 in 2021, Elite Eight in 2022, 2nd Round in 2023 and an Elite Eight in 2024. Thus, two quarterfinal appearances over the last three years.
• The Irish made their 17th all-time appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals. They are now 12-5 all-time in that round.
• They’ve qualified for 12 College Cups with their last being in 2010. They are 8-4 in the Semifinal round.
• The Irish boast three NCAA championships, which is tied for second most – 1995, 2004, 2010 – and five runner-up finishes (1994, 1996, 1999, 2006, 2008).

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 135-32-11.
• Over the last four seasons in particular – an impressive 37-6-6 (.816) record inside Alumni.
• The last 5 seasons – 48-9-7 (.805)

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.