Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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ND Sports No. 7 Soccer Team Faces A Challenging Schedule By Dan Murphy N Senior forward Alex Priede, who ranked fifth on the team in both goals (four) and points (nine) last year, will be part of a more balanced offensive attack in 2013. photo courtesy notre dame media relations obody remembers the No. 1 seeds in an NCAA Tournament. They remember the team that won it all. A year after top-ranked Notre Dame fell two games into the postseason to Indiana, the eventual champs, the Irish are aiming to bridge that gap against a daunting schedule. The No. 7 Irish play nine teams in the national preseason poll in 2013, and five of those nine are in the top 10. The team's jump to the Atlantic Coast Conference, along with an out-ofconference schedule that includes a rematch with the No. 1-ranked Hoosiers and games against No. 6 Creighton and No. 9 UCLA, will test Notre Dame early in the season. Head coach Bobby Clark is hoping it will give them the adversity they need to succeed later in the year. "We've huffed and we've puffed and we've been very good," Clark said of his team's regular-season success during recent years. "But nobody really knows who the No. 1 RPI is. They all know who the national champion is. We feel we shortchanged ourselves [last season]." To get another shot at ending the year on top, Clark and his team will have to replace a pair of first-team All-Americans and first-round Major League Soccer selections. Ryan Finley and Dillon Powers combined to score