The NCAA Tournament Road Leads to Starkville

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s soccer program’s NCAA Tournament road runs through Starkville, Mississippi, for the next two rounds. In the second round, the Fighting Irish (12-3-4) will clash with the Kentucky Wildcats (11-4-5) in a four-seed versus five-seed matchup.

That match will kick off on Friday, Nov. 22, at 3:30 p.m ET on ESPN+. The winner will play on Sunday against the winner of 1-seed Mississippi State vs. Washington.

NCAA Tournament history

For the 30th time over the last 32 years, Notre Dame women’s soccer qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

Notre Dame’s overall postseason record sits at 75-25-4. Their 75 victories are tied for third-most with UCLA (75-22-6) and rank only behind Florida State (78-19-4) and UNC (146-18-4).

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. However, now they must take their act on the road.

Notre Dame will be a seeded team for the fourth consecutive year, earning the four-seed in the bottom-right quadrant. The past three seasons under Doug & Lisa Jones Head Coach Nate Norman: Sweet 16 in 2021, Elite Eight in 2022, 2nd Round in 2023.

STARKVILLE SITE

Notre Dame and Kentucky have only squared off once in their collective history. You have to go all the way back to 1992 when Notre Dame blasted Kentucky, 9-0, in South Bend.

Fast forward to 2024 and this Kentucky squad is 11-4-5. It took winning 4-2 in a PK shootout to advance to the second round over West Virginia.

If successful on Friday, it’ll be either No. 1 seed Mississippi State or Washington. The Bulldogs are an impressive 18-2 this season and 11-0 at home. If you want intrigue though, Miss State played one ACC opponent this season and it was one of their losses – a 2-1 loss to Wake Forest.

Washington advanced to Starkville with a 3-1 PK shootout win over No. 8 seed Utah State. The Huskies are 10-6-4 on the year.

Scenario Stat — Last time the Irish defeated a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament — the year of their last NCAA Championship, 2010. They defeated two No. 1’s in North Carolina and Stanford.

If victorious in both matches this weekend, the Irish will advance to their 17th all-time NCAA Quarterfinals.

NOTRE DAME’S RESUME

• RPI of 12. They went 3-2-1 against the RPI Top-25.
• Irish competed in the No. 1 RPI league, the ACC, and went 5-2-4. Before the ACC Tournament, Notre Dame was the only ACC school to earn a point against the Duke Blue Devils.
• The Irish went 4-3-1 against ranked opposition this season. They defeated No. 6 Stanford, No. 25 Cal, No. 13 TCU and No. 14 Virginia, while tying at No. 1 Duke.
• All 3 of ND’s losses were to ranked teams. They dropped the season opener against then No. 13 Michigan State and then later against then No. 19 Virginia Tech at No. 6 Florida State.

FRESHMEN CLEAN UP ACC AWARDS

Kudos to Coach Norman for the talent he’s been developing in South Bend. 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 Joseph, Ellie Hodsden and Annabelle Chukwu were all named to the All-Freshman Team. The foursome rank first, second, fourth and sixth, respectively, on the team in total points.

TRENDING

• Notre Dame’s highest national rankings: seventh in both scoring offense (2.63) and shots per game (19.6). Irish average 9.0 SOG/game which ranks eighth nationally.
• ND’s 2.63 scoring offense is its highest since 2008 (3.07).   
• Irish are 12-0 when scoring first this season. ND is 11-0-1 when leading at the half. They are 10-0-2 when allowing just one goal or less.
• 39 of the team’s 50 goals have been scored by freshmen.
• Right now five of the top-six point getters on the team are freshmen: Izzy Engle (35 points), Ellie Hodsden (18 points), Grace Restovich (18 points), Lily Joseph (17 points), Annabelle Chukwu (8 points).

ELECTRIC ENGLE

Izzy Engle scored 10 goals during the non-con portion of the schedule and was the nation’s leader in Goals Per Game entering ACC play. The freshman hit a little dry spy but finally got the monkey off her back against No. 6 Stanford on October 20. Since then, she’s been on an absolute tear again, and what a perfect time with the NCAA Tournament.

Case in point, she’s recorded seven goals over the last six games with braces at No. 1 Duke and against Pitt.

• Her 0.89 goals per game rank second nationally and leads the ACC.
• Her 17 goals now rank eighth in the country, and second in the ACC.
• Engle’s 17 goals tie her for the seventh most by a Notre Dame freshman all-time. Irish great Kerri Hanks holds the record with 28.
• Engle leads the Irish with 35 points, which ranks third in the league (14th nationally). Her 1.84 points per game rank 11th nationally, second in the ACC.

— ND —