The Irish will head to Columbus, Ohio, to play the Buckeyes on Sunday. This match will be the second of four road competitions for Notre Dame (3-0), who is coming off a commanding 6-1 victory against Pittsburgh. Head coach Alison Silverio explained that the Irish are handling this week’s practice with the team’s characteristic effort and determination.
“It’s just been business as usual in practice,” Silverio said. “We’ve really been working on our discipline with our depth and focusing in on trusting the process. That’s been our consistent message with our team since we started this spring, and we’ve just been coming in each and every day and doing the work. We want to carry that through into Ohio State this weekend.”
Sunday’s match could be a tough test on the road for Notre Dame. Although Ohio State (2-0) is currently unranked, it has opened the spring season with two quality wins against No. 4 Georgia Tech and No. 25 Kentucky. Silverio acknowledged the challenges that come with playing against a strong Buckeye team.
“Ohio State is a very good team and are coached very well,” Silverio said. “They are coming off an exciting weekend as they ended up qualifying for the National Indoor Tournament. I am sure they are feeling some great momentum. I think we need to focus on what we do well, take care of what we have control over and expect that Ohio State is going to bring their best. ”
When asked about Notre Dame’s standout performers from the past few games, Silverio expressed that she was very impressed with the whole team from top to bottom.
“I think individually everyone has impressed me at some point in our first three matches whether it’s from a leadership or work ethic standpoint. Everyone has certainly been … taking ownership of their role,” Silverio said. “[Junior] Zoe Spence and [sophomore] Cameron Corse have been doing a great job at carrying momentum and being catalysts for us. [Graduate student] Brooke Broda and [senior] Rachel [Chong] ... are doing very well with their energy and positivity. All in all, everyone has been doing their part and taking care of business.”
Looking beyond one match, Silverio noted that the Irish’s hopes for the season are divided into three categories: outcome, performance and process goals.
“We have our goals broken down into three different pieces,” Silverio said. “Our outcome goals are our big picture goals. Those goals are to host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament … and to have a 3.5 team GPA. Then there are performance goals and that gets into a little bit more of the details with some … statistics such as where we would like our win percentage to be in the conference. Our last stage of goals is really the foundation of our goal setting. We have three main process goals that we’re really focused on each and every day. First, we bring consistent energy and really go after each other in practice. Second, we make sure that we are competing in everything that we are doing. Lastly, every week the team is going to come out individually and focus on something specific to their own game.”
