Tag: ACC tournament

UNC stuns top-seeded Duke in comeback victory, advances to ACC women’s soccer Title Game

The UNC women’s soccer team won an absolute thriller against archrival Duke on Thursday.

No matter how well the UNC women’s soccer team played during the regular season, there’s one thing it couldn’t do: beat archrival Duke.

North Carolina lost 1-0 at Duke back in September, then again on Halloween in the regular-season finale.

On Thursday night in the ACC Women’s Soccer Tournament semifinal, the Tar Heels finally enacted revenge.

After trailing 1-0 heading into halftime, UNC staged a second-half rally, scoring its second goal with under 10 minutes left for  2-1 victory over the top-ranked Blue Devils.

North Carolina (16-4) dealt Duke its first loss since August 15, when Duke lost 1-0 at Ohio State.

If you didn’t watch Thursday night, let us take you through the exciting comeback.

The Tar Heels allowed their lone goal of the game 28 minutes in, when Blue Devils defender Cameron Roller converted on a penalty kick. UNC goalkeeper Claire Gagne was solid otherwise, saving four shots.

When the second half started counting down, North Carolina started firing up.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCGR0GjMKaC/

The Tar Heels‘ first goal looked extremely similar to Stanford’s goal in the men’s tournament. Not even five minutes into the second half, Linda Ullmark sent a long shot into the box, with the ball bouncing off Duke keeper Leah Freeman’s outstretched arms and rolling slowly into the net.

UNC only was able to earn three corner kicks against the Blue Devils’ tough defense, but made one of those pay off. With approximately 10 minutes left in the second half, North Carolina defender Trinity Armstrong scored her first goal of the season, pushing a header into the goal for a 2-1 advantage.

When the final seconds ticked off, the Tar Heels piled on goalie Claire Gagne.

North Carolina will try for its 23rd ACC Tournament Championship – and first since 2019 – at 12 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10 when it faces Florida State.

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Notre Dame men’s soccer loses ACC Tournament game on Hail Mary goal

You absolutely must see this.

The Notre Dame men’s soccer team lost its ACC Tournament opener to Stanford in the most improbable fashion. The final score was 3-2, but that doesn’t begin to describe how that score occurred.

Trailing, 2-1, with 12 seconds left, the Irish had a free kick inside the penalty area. [autotag]Matthew Roou[/autotag], who had scored the Irish’s first goal, softly kicked the ball to [autotag]Mitch Ferguson[/autotag], who then fired it home to tie the game.

Shortly after the Cardinal reset play from midfield, Dylan Hooper fired a desperation kick from slightly further away. The shot turned out to be on goal, and goalkeeper [autotag]Collin Travasos[/autotag] wasn’t able to stop it.

The Cardinal somehow had regained the lead with one second left, and that lead would stand, enabling them to play Clemson in the quarterfinals.

It was as heartbreaking an ending as it could have been for the 7-5-5 Irish, who now must wait until the Nov. 18 selection show to find out if they made the NCAA Tournament. And all because of a crazy sequence that starts at 1:21 in the below video:

Never say you’ve seen everything in sports. Something new always will find a way.

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Notre Dame guard Sonia Citron named to shooting guard award watch list

Good luck, Soni!

For all the talk about [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], there’s a third Notre Dame guard who often gets lost in the shuffle. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] has made both All-ACC and All-ACC Tournament in two consecutive seasons. She was ACC Rookie of the Year two seasons before Hidalgo arrived.

Now, there’s a possibility she could be honored in a different way this season. The Ann Meyers Drysdale Award is presented annually to the best female shooting guard in the country. Citron is one of 20 to make this year’s watch list.

Also on the list is defending winner JuJu Watkins of USC, which will face the Irish in nonconference play. If Watkins impresses as she did as a freshman, Citron will have to somehow surpass that level to have a shot at the award. Of course, the Irish will take that version of Citron if only to improve their national championship chances:

Best of luck to Citron in her attempt to dethrone Watkins.

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Injury updates provided at Notre Dame women’s basketball media day

A mixed bag of news.

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team held its local media day Thursday. Irish fans undoubtedly were anxious to hear updates about injuries to numerous players ahead of the team’s open practice Friday. While the updates were in fact there, not all of them were positive.

[autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag], who tore her ACL during last season’s ACC Tournament, has undergone knee surgery, and there is no timetable for her return. It’s a tough break for someone who started every game until her injury.

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] already had announced that a foot issue would sideline her for the start of the season, and we now know she likely won’t return until early in conference play, which translates into her missing the first two months of game action.

In much better news, [autotag]Emma Risch[/autotag] and [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag], who had their own seasons cut short by injuries, are fully healthy. And we already knew that [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] will be back to team with [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] in the backcourt.

The Irish open play with an exhibition game Oct. 30 against Davenport, and their regular-season opener will be Nov. 4 against Mercyhurst.

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Notre Dame leads ACC in returning scoring for 2024-25 season

Amazing what continuity on a young roster will do.

A year ago, Notre Dame was completely rebuilding itself. So it was no surprise that it had by far the lowest percentage of returning scoring in the ACC. Ahead of the 2024-25 season, the Irish are on the exact opposite end of the spectrum.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports has tweeted out the percentages of returning scoring for every ACC program, and it’s insane how much difference a year makes:

While the Irish still will be a young team making strides this upcoming season, the high roster carryover from the 2023-24 season should make things run at least a little smoother. It also helps that they barely lost anyone to graduation or the transfer portal.

One easily could make the argument that the Irish overachieved in [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag]’s first season. They stayed out of the conference cellar and even won their first ACC Tournament game en route to a 13-20 record. The question now is how they can build on that.

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ACC Tournament will feature top 15 teams beginning in 2025

The Irish men will have to get better fast.

The ACC will include California, Stanford and SMU beginning with the 2024-25 season. That will bring the total number of conference members to 18. With that clearly being too high of a number for its conference basketball tournaments, the conference decided a change was needed.

Starting in 2025, only the teams that finish in the top 15 in the conference standings will be invited to the ACC Tournament. This follows a cue from a recent decision by the Big Ten, which also will be expanding next season to the point where it also only will invite the top 15 teams in the conference standings to its tournament.

While Notre Dame’s 16th-ranked women’s team is not expected to slide to the bottom of the ACC anytime soon, the men already are there in a rebuilding season. If the new rules went into effect for this season, the Irish wouldn’t be invited to the tournament.

Hopefully, with a year of experience under their belt, the young men’s Irish team will improve enough that they still will play in the 2025 ACC Tournament. There’s a long road ahead though, and there’s no guarantee of things being any better next year. Best of luck to [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] and his team in reaching this new goal.

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Did Duke baseball do enough at the ACC Tournament to host a regional?

Duke outscored its final three ACC Tournament opponents 32-7 en route to its second title in program history, but was it enough for a top-16 seed?

The Duke Blue Devils did all they needed to do this week in Charlotte.

After a 6-7 close to the regular season left Duke outside of the top 16 seeds in most postseason projections, the Blue Devils swept their way through the ACC Tournament for the second title in program history.

Not only did Duke win, but head coach Chris Pollard’s team dominated. The Blue Devils scored 43 runs in four games and outscored its final three opponents 32-7.

Duke’s offense mashed 12 home runs over the four-game postseason run, including eight from the trio of Devin Obee, Ben Miller, and Zac Morris. Obee earned Tournament MVP honors after he hit a home run in each of the last three games.

The Blue Devils dropped down to a No. 2 seed in every projection after the clunky close to the regular season, but five ACC teams were considered safe bets to host a region before the tournament began. Duke emerging from one of the deepest conferences in the nation can’t be taken for granted, especially now that it means the Blue Devils sport a 39-18 record for the season.

The team certainly thinks it did enough, as evidenced by an amusing post from the team account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The selection show starts at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday with the 16 regional hosts announced.

If fans want the official Duke Wire prediction, I think the Blue Devils did enough to earn one of the spots. Expect them to be one of the last three seeds on the board, somewhere between 14th and 16th in the country, but expect postseason baseball in Durham.

Duke baseball advances to ACC title game after huge eighth inning against Miami

The Blue Devils overcame an early deficit with a six-run eighth inning to book their spot in the conference championship game.

The Duke Blue Devils will play for the ACC title on Sunday.

The Duke baseball team used a six-run eighth inning to overwhelm the Miami Hurricanes in Saturday’s semifinal game, winning 8-2 in order to keep their tournament alive.

The Hurricanes actually drew first blood during Saturday’s game. After the two offenses combined for two walks, no hits, and one double-play during the first three innings, Miami third baseman Daniel Cuvet launched a ball into the night sky for a two-run home run in the top of the fourth.

That hit marked the second-to-last at-bat for Duke starter Ryan Higgins, and praise for Saturday’s win must begin and end with the Blue Devils bullpen. Gabriel Nard, Fran Oschell III, and Charlie Beilenson combined for 5.1 scoreless innings with a single hit allowed. Miami only generated three base runners over the closing five innings at the plate, and no member of the Hurricanes reached third base.

The Duke offense slowly crawled its way into the game. Three walks and a single in the bottom of the fifth brought home the first run, one-run ballgame. Two hits and a sacrifice fly brought home the second, tie game.

Then, carnage erupted in the eighth. After 7.1 innings of impressive work between Herick Hernandez and Nick Robert, with a runner on first and one out, Miami brought out Myles Caba on the mound.

Duke catcher Alex Stone promptly did this to his eighth pitch of the game.

Miami swiftly reeled in Caba after he allowed another single, replacing him with Brandon Olivera. Devin Obee, less patient than Stone, did this to Olivera’s third pitch of the night.

The game entirely unraveled from there. Well, it already had unraveled, but the Hurricanes lost contain. Olivera coughed up a walk and two singles in his next four batters, and the fourth at-bat still reached base safely due to a fielding error.

Two more runs came home in the meantime, and within the span of 30 minutes, the door slammed shut on Miami’s ACC tournament run.

Duke advances to play Florida State in Sunday’s championship game.

UNC baseball falls short to Wake Forest in a classic for the ages

The UNC baseball program falls short of Wake Forest in a classic game, ending their ACC championship hopes.

The North Carolina baseball program had a monstrous comeback against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons Friday night, rallying from four runs down to electrify the sold-out crowd and tie the game. But in the end, it was Wake Forest’s comeback in the ninth and then four runs in extra innings to push them through. 

The Demon Deacons outlasted North Carolina for a 9-5 win in 12 innings, eliminating the Tar Heels and moving on in the ACC Baseball Championship.

It was a slow start for the Tar Heels, falling behind early to Wake Forest, giving up two runs in the third and fourth innings while struggling to muster up any runs. To make matters worse for UNC, the demon Deacons followed up in the seventh inning to grab a 4-0 lead.

It was looking like Wake Forest had full control of the outcome, but in UNC fashion, the Tar Heels would swing themselves back into the ball game in the bottom of the seventh, scoring three runs to find themselves down 4-3.

UNC followed up the late game surge in the bottom of the eighth after holding Wake, adding two more runs to take the lead 5-4, started by a huge double to right center by [autotag]Vance Honeycutt[/autotag] that brought Jackson Van De Brake in.

Just when the game seemed like it was the Tar Heels for the taking, Wake Forest kept the game alive with first baseman Nick Kurtz doing his best Honeycutt impression with a double to right center RBI of his own to even things, eventually causing extra innings.

It would take three extra innings before a run would be scored, and unfortunately, it wasn’t off the bat from UNC, instead, it was Wake’s Kurtz, who ultimately finished the job with a home run, bringing in Marek Houston in the process. Wake wouldn’t be done, adding two more insurance wins to ultimately win 9-5.

Next up for UNC is finding out what seed and region UNC end up with as they prepare for the NCAA tournament.

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Fourth anniversary of Niele Ivey’s hiring as Notre Dame coach

A look back at Ivey coaching the Irish so far.

Monday meant four years since [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] took over the Notre Dame women’s basketball program. Hall of Famer [autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag] had been at the helm for 33 years, but she chose to retire after completing the worst season of her career. While Ivey had plentiful experience as an assistant coach, including on McGraw’s staff, the question obviously was whether she could be a worthy successor to her mentor.

Four years later, Ivey has laid the groundwork for her own long tenure as Irish coach. She has accumulated an 89-32 record, made three straight Sweet 16s for the NCAA Tournament and won both an ACC regular-season championship and ACC Tournament championship. Obviously, the ultimate goal is to a win a national championship like she did as a player for the 2001 Irish.

Until that national title comes, Irish fans can be happy to know the program is in good hands with Ivey. Here are some images of her tenure so far: