The Dance Continues in Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The dance continues for the third-seeded Notre Dame women’s soccer squad as they head to Razorback Field this weekend as second-seeded Arkansas hosts a four-team regional for the NCAA Second & Third Rounds. Up first, the Fighting Irish (12-3-4) will look to end Memphis’ 16-match win streak this Friday, Nov. 17, at 4 p.m. ET. If victorious, the Irish will play the winner of Pitt vs. Arkansas on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.

NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY

• For the 29th time over the last 31 years, Notre Dame women’s soccer qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
• Notre Dame’s overall postseason record sits at 74-24-4. Their 74 victories are tied for third most with UCLA (74-22-6) and rank only behind Florida State (77-19-4) and UNC (145-18-4).
• Irish are an impressive 51-4-1 at home in the NCAA Tournament after the win over Valpo in the first round.
• That 2-0 Valop win also gave the Irish their 50th all-time clean sheet in the NCAA Tournament.
• Notre Dame earned a third seed or higher for the third consecutive year.

THE FAYETTEVILLE REGIONAL

• This weekend, the Irish will experience a first and a lot of deja vu at the same time.
• The first is a matchup with Memphis. The two sides have never met on the pitch before.
• That sense of deja vu – the other two teams in the regional and the location. Just two years ago, Notre Dame traveled to Fayetteville as a three seed and fought its way to the Round of 16 to square off against two-seed Arkansas. The Razorbacks took that one 3-2 to advance.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

For starters, with two wins in Fayetteville, the Irish could qualify for their second straight NCAA Quarterfinal round and 17th overall.

Retribution – I mentioned how Notre Dame has played Pitt and Arkansas already this season – well both those games ended in ties. On Aug 27, the Irish scored first against the Razorbacks but then found themselves trailing 2-1 for a majority of the second half. Ellie Ospeck then scored the equalizer in the 85th minute. Against Pitt, it was the exact opposite. Notre Dame went ahead in the 60th minute off of a Kristina Lynch goal and then Pitt had the equalizer in the 83rd minute.

EYES ON IRISH

• Ranked in the top-10, with an RPI in the top-12, for the latter half of the season, the Irish enter the NCAA Tournament with an 11-3-4 record. Notre Dame finished in second place in the always-tough ACC, producing a record of 7-1-2.
• The Irish recorded a 2-2-1 record against ranked opposition, which included wins against No. 8 Clemson and No. 16 Duke, with ties against No. 3 North Carolina and No. 10 Arkansas.
• Four players were named All-ACC selections: Eva Gaetino (First Team), Kiki Van Zanten (First Team), Leah Klenke (Second Team) and Maddie Mercado (Second Team).
• Gaetino was also named the ACC Defender of the Year for the second year in a row. She became the third ACC player to win multiple ‘Of the Year’ awards.
• In addition, both Charlie Codd and Morgan Roy were named to the ACC All-Freshman Team.

FIRST ROUND RECAP

The final scoreline did not math with the stat sheet but a win is a win in the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame outshot Valpo 33-1, including an 11-0 SOG differential, but settled for just a 2-0 victory. Ellie Ospeck and Charlie Codd were your Irish goal scorers, both in the second half.

Tigers’ roar

• Memphis enters the matchup an impressive 19-1 and the winners of 16 straight games. The Tigers claimed its third consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship.
• Memphis is ranked in the top-10 in the country in goal differential (5th), corner kicks per game (4th), save percentage (4th), goals-against average (1st) and shutout percentage (1st).
• For the season, Mya Jones and Saorla Miller have been the biggest offensive threats for the Tigers with a combined 22 goals and 14 assists.
• On the defensive end, Memphis has allowed just seven goals this season while racking up 13 shutouts – a program second best.

GOAL SCORERS FROM ALL OVER

Last season, 47 of the team’s 56 goals came from Korbin Albert, Olivia Wingate, Mercado and Van Zanten.

This season’s stats allude to the depth and balanced attack Coach Norman has at his disposal. Currently seven players boast four goals or more. All-in-all there have been 11 different goal scorers for the Irish — four of which have been freshmen — all equating for 44 goals.

It is three grad players who lead the way –> Mercado (8), Van Zanten (6) and Lynch (6). Ellie Ospeck follows right behind with five while the trio of Meg Mrowicki, Eva Gaetino and Charlie Codd all boast four.

POINTS SPREAD

• Heading into this week’s game, eight players now boast double-digit points or more– Mercado, Ospeck, Mrowicki, Van Zanten, Lynch, Gaetino, Klenke and Codd. It marks a career high for everyone except Mercado and Van Zanten.
• No other team in the ACC has eight players with double-digit points.
• In terms of ranked teams – only BYU has more with nine players with double-digit points.

ASSIST LEADER – LEAH KLENKE

• Klenke has been an absolute sparkplug and the main cog that runs the Notre Dame offense. Klenke leads the team with 10 assists, which ranks 17th nationally and 4th in the ACC. Her 0.5 assists per game rank 16th in the country and 3rd in the league.
• Get this, Klenke has registered points in 10 of the last 15 matches.
• She had 7 assists in conference play.
• Klenke now has a career best 14 points on the season.

TRENDING

• Maddie Mercado has found the back of the net four times over the last eight matches.
• As previously stated, Leah Klenke has notched at least one point in 10 of the last 15 matches.
• Charlie Codd has scored all three of her goals in the month of October and netted her first NCAA Tournament goal of her career when ND won against Valpo in the first round.
• The key to victory – Irish are 11-1-2 when scoring two goals or more.The lone loss – just happened in a 3-2 decision to Clemson in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.

CUE THE CRAZY FROG

If you see the frog emoji in the comments section of any Ellie Ospeck post on social, it’s because her goal song is Crazy Frog and the team has rallied behind it.

Ospeck turned up the heat in October and achieved a lot of firsts: First career ACC POTW honor, first four-point performance of her career in the win over BC on Oct. 5, and first three-assist performance of her career in the win over Miami on Oct. 8.

She is fresh off of scoring her first-ever NCAA Tournament goal, netting the game-winner against Valpo in the first round.

She ranks 2nd on the team in total points with 17 – for reference, her point total last year was four. She also ranks second on the team in assists with seven.

MULTIPLE FRESHMEN STEPPING UP

First, there’s 5-8 midfielder Morgan Roy. The Michigan native has started every game in the midfield minus Senior Day and ranks third on the team in shots with 37. She has 2 goals including one in the ACC Tournament semifinals against Clemson.

Charlie Codd has made three starts (including the first round of the Tournament) and seen significant time in both the midfield and up top in all 19 games as well. She boasts four goals on the year – all from October 5 on.

Both Roy and Codd were ACC All-Freshman Team selections.

Atlee Olofson battled Naylor for the GK role in preseason. Olofson, who was ranked 35th in her class, is a 5-8 goalkeeper out of Austin, Texas. She was First Team All-State as a senior and set a school record with no goals against in a season. Olofson, now 7-2-2 record with five shutouts, a .788 save percentage and a 1.00 GAA.

Lastly, let’s look at Meg Mrowicki, who has been a great breakout story for the 2023 season. She’s played in all 19 games with seven starts and has recorded four goals.

— ND —