It’s hard to imagine Notre Dame women’s soccer finding a better start to the 2024 season than what they’ve had. The Irish have hit the jackpot early with their freshman class of historic proportions. They’ve split their two top-15 matchups at home, dominating the win, while taking back-to-back road games. Their four-match shutout streak has propelled them to the ninth ranking in the United Soccer Coaches poll. And they’re doing it all with three of their primary contributors away at the U20 World Cup.
As ACC play rapidly approaches, the Irish (4-0-1) have one final tuneup of a homestand upcoming this week. Notre Dame will host Northern Illinois (3-0-1) on Thursday before facing Marquette (1-4-1) on Sunday. After that, the Irish will not see another non-conference opponent for the remainder of the regular season.
Chukwu conquers Canada’s youth scoring list
The biggest piece of news surrounding the team this week actually has to do with one of those U20 World Cup players. Freshman forward Annabelle Chukwu, who scored Notre Dame’s first goal of the season, became Canada’s all-time women’s leader in youth international goals on Tuesday. Chukwu surged past Canadian legend Christine Sinclair with a hat trick against Fiji that brought her to 29 career goals. A member of Canada’s youth program since age 15, Chukwu already has four goals in this year’s U20 World Cup.
Engle and Restovich continue remarkable start
The non-World Cup freshmen still with the Irish are making headlines as well. Forward Izzy Engle, who tallied a hat trick of her own in game two of the season, leads all national first-years with six goals. Removing the freshman qualification, she trails only Kaitlyn MacBean (Penn State) and Peyton Parsons (Texas Tech) for the overall lead.
Next off of Engle’s pace for Notre Dame, freshman midfielder Grace Restovich ranks second on the team with seven points. During the recent road trip to Michigan and Butler, she picked up a goal and registered a game-winning assist.
Northern Illinois off to an unbeaten start
Notre Dame’s first opponent, Northern Illinois, also carries a winning streak into South Bend. Since a scoreless draw at DePaul opened their season, the Huskies have outscored their opponents — St. Thomas (Minn.), Southern Indiana and Oakland — by an 11-1 margin. They hung on for a 1-0 road win in their last matchup with the Golden Grizzlies.
Sophomore forward Tyra King, a Freshman All-MAC selection last year, leads the team with three goals and seven points. With all three goals coming in her last two games, she has already met her scoring output from 16 starts in 2023. King leads a Northern Illinois attack that has dominated second halves this season. As a team, the Huskies have posted nine goals while conceding none after halftime this year.
Notre Dame represents the only Power Four team Northern Illinois will face this season.
An old Big East battle renewed
While you might first see Notre Dame and Marquette through the lens of old-time Big East basketball, they have quite the soccer history behind them. Between 2005 and 2012, the Irish and Golden Eagles met six times in the Big East Tournament, including the 2009 Big East Championship final. Since Notre Dame departed for the ACC, the Irish have defeated Marquette twice – once in 2021 and again in 2022.
Marquette has struggled with a fairly tough schedule so far in 2024. The Golden Eagles have won only once in six tries, losing by multiple goals to Colorado, Northwestern and Western Michigan on the road and dropping their most recent match to Minnesota at home. Goal-scoring has eluded Marquette, which has only three goals in twice as many games and zero players with more than three points.
The Irish will host Northern Illinois at 7 p.m. on Thursday before a 1:30 p.m. match against Marquette on Sunday.
