The Notre Dame women’s ultimate team attended two different tournaments this past weekend, with the A team at the Missouri Loves Company tournament in Columbia, Missouri, and the B team heading to the Charleston Chili tournament in Charleston, Illinois.
In Missouri, the A team started out seeded ninth overall in the tournament and ranked fifth in its pool. It opened up the weekend against No. 1-seeded Colorado, but the Irish came out strong with an early 5-0 lead that resulted in a 7-4 victory, despite the day's windy conditions. Sophomores Julia Butterfield and Mary Kate Andersen contributed with consistent cuts throughout.
Notre Dame A then moved forward to play against Washington University and came through with an 8-5 victory. It followed this up with a 10-4 win against Iowa State.
The final game of the day was against rival Illinois. The A team struggled against the Fighting Illini in the past, falling to them in regionals last spring. But the Irish started strong with defensive stops from sophomore Mary Hermann and freshman Sarah Lipscomb. Notre Dame A brought that day's record to a perfect 4-0 with a decisive victory over Illinois to move from fifth place to first place.
Sunday morning started late due to frost, but that didn’t stop Notre Dame A from coming out strong against Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a 11-2 win, including an interception by graduate student captain Kelsey Fink in the end zone for a point.
The A team coasted off this easy victory into a tough quarterfinals game against Truman State afterwards. Fink notched another interception in the end zone to help start the team off to a 3-0 lead. Truman State fought back to knot the score at seven, the deciding point. Hermann made a crucial stop in the end zone line to set up the easy, game-winning score.
Notre Dame moved on to the semifinals against Kansas, the No. 2-ranked team overall in the tournament, and the Irish collected their first loss of the tournament, 9-6. However, the game was highlighted by senior handler Nicole Vujosevich's connections with fifth-year cutters Molly Carmona and Elaine Rose.
Notre Dame A faced Iowa in the third-place game and coasted to an easy, 10-4 victory, putting the Irish at 7-1 on the weekend.
The B team had an equally strong showing in Illinois, going 4-2 overall to earn second place.
On Saturday, Notre Dame B beat USI Women’s Anomaly and Lewis but fell in a close game to Marquette. However, the Irish came back strong the next day to beat Marquette in a rematch and also took down Eastern Illinois. Notre Dame B fell to Northwestern’s A team in the finals to seal a second-place finish.
The B team had strong showings from junior Ellie Norby on defense and freshman Elizabeth Lewis and junior Giuliana Carozza on offense. Sophomore Beth Cichon also came in with consistent cuts and catches to help carry the B team to its victories.
