The Irish will seek to carry the momentum the team has gained into the postseason, starting with the ACC Championship. Head coach Deanna Gumpf said that the postseason is focused on the immediate task ahead of them, rather than games down the line.
“We take those postseason games one at a time because that’s really what it’s about at that point,” Gumpf said.
Gumpf was happy to have Boston College as their final opponent, as they always show up to compete. Especially after seeing her team’s stellar performance against the Eagles, she is happy with the Irish’s level of gameplay heading into the tournament.
“I love the way that we’re playing the game right now and I think we made a huge turn,” she said. “We had a rough weekend about a month ago at Florida State and since then the decision was made. Enough was enough, and we were going to show people what we were really about.”
The team has certainly done so, winning every contest since their four-game series loss to the Seminoles. They were able to maintain a perfect home record, and enter as the fifth seed in the ACC Tournament.
“We’re playing well at the right time,” Gumpf said.
The Irish are familiar with their first opponent: Virginia Tech. The Irish swept their series against the Hokies at the end of April, taking four games in a row. Regardless, Gumpf said that Virginia Tech is a very good team.
“At this point, we just battle,” she said. “The message to the team is ‘find ways.’ They punch us, we punch back. It’s that simple.”
It is this mindset that embodies the postseason, as Gumpf mentioned taking it one day, one game at a time.
“We battle and we find a way to win ball games and that’s what postseason is about,” she said. “You just find a way to try to win a ballgame and just keep one more, one more, one more.”
