A Look at Notre Dame’s First Year in the ACC

The Fighting Irish have faced a whole new set of challenges this year in joining the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Notre Dame left the Big East Conference beginning with the 2013-14 season, where the Irish have won 126 championships over the course of their membership, in all sports except football and hockey.

Notre Dame Football finished the season with an 8-4 record, with the team’s biggest win coming against a Michigan State squad that went on to win the Rose Bowl. The team defeated Rutgers 29-16 at the New Era Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium, New York. The Shamrock Series game came to Arlington, Texas and AT&T Stadium this season, where the Irish won 37-34 against Arizona State.

Notre Dame Women’s Basketball has had an exciting season this year, holding an undefeated record of 16-0 in conference games. They are currently 36-0 overall, and defeated Baylor in the Purcell Pavillion on Monday to advance to the Final Four. This is Coach Muffet McGraw’s sixth Final Four, and the fourth in a row.

Notre Dame Men’s Basketball faced a tough season this year, finishing their inaugural ACC campaign with a 15-17 record overall and a 16-12 record in conference play. The team ended their season with an 81-69 loss to Wake Forest in the First Round of the ACC Men’s College Basketball Championship tournament. They finished the season 13th overall in the conference. The team did manage to knock off traditional powerhouse Duke in an exciting game at the Purcell Pavilion, and nearly did the same to fellow Carolina team UNC.

Notre Dame Men’s Soccer had their greatest season to date, winning not only the regular season ACC title, but also bringing home the NCAA College Cup. They defeated Maryland 2-1 at PLL Park in Philadelphia to win their first NCAA Championship. The team finished with a 17-1-6 record overall, going 7-1-3 in conference play. Notre Dame central defender Grant Van De Casteele was selected 19th overall in the first round of the Major League Soccer draft.

Notre Dame Women’s Soccer faced a rougher road, posting an overall record of 13-8-1, and a conference record of 7-5-1. They ended their post-season run with a 1-0 loss to Michigan in the third round of the NCAA Championship at the U-M Soccer Stadium. Coach Randy Waldrum resigned to enter the professional coaching ranks, so the Lady Irish will be led by Theresa Romagnolo next season.

Notre Dame Hockey finished with an overall record of 23-15-2, and a conference record of 9-9-2. The team lost 4-0 to the UMass-Lowell River Hawks in the Hockey East Semifinal game, after upsetting favorite Boston College in the previous round. The season came to an end with a 4-3 loss in overtime to St. Cloud State at the Regional Semifinals in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Notre Dame Men’s Swimming placed 6th overall in its first ACC Championship, with 907.5 points and 15 program records. The team placed 30th in the NCAA Championships meet, scoring 14 points overall.

Notre Dame Women’s Swimming finished sixth overall with 802 points at the ACC Championship meet. The team finished 16th at the NCAA Championships with 49 points, and Emma Reaney brought back the first individual title in program history. Reaney also set the American Record in her event, the 200 yard breaststroke.

Notre Dame Volleyball finished with an overall record of 13-18, and a conference record of 7-13. The team closed out their regular season with four home matches, losing two and winning 3-1 over both Virginia Tech and Boston College.

Notre Dame Cross Country competed well at the ACC Championship meet, with the Men placing third out of 14 teams and the Women finishing fourth of 15. The Men’s team finished 23rd out of 31 in the NCAA Championships, while the Women’s team finished 29th out of 31.

Notre Dame Fencing finished with three number one fencers at the NCAA Midwest Regionals, and sent 10 fencers to the 2014 NCAA Championships. The team had many members perform well, including Gerek Meinhardt, who won his second NCAA men’s foil title, and Lee Kiefer, who won the women’s foil title.

Alicia Czarnecki is a freshman environmental engineering major. She thinks geology rocks. To discuss rocks and other things of a geological nature contact her at aczarnec@nd.edu.