Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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YEAR IN REVIEW tournaments. The women's basketball program was the top finisher for the Irish during the winter season. They pushed Notre Dame into sixth in the overall standings — with their trip to the title game. A sixth-place final finish would have tied the school's former best mark, set in 2006. The only other time the Irish have finished among the top 10 schools in the country was last year when they claimed ninth place. With a score of 1,128.25 points, Notre Dame managed to hold off fourth-place Virginia by a razor-thin margin. The Cavaliers (1,118.5 points) would have topped the Irish by a quarter of a point with a cham- pionship in baseball — the final NCAA sport to finish each year — but settled for the national runner-up after losing to Vanderbilt in the College World Series final. Stanford and Florida maintained their spots as the top two well-rounded athletic programs in the nation. Florida has taken home second place in four of the last five years. Stanford has won the last 20 Directors' Cups. The Cardinal finished second behind North Carolina in 1994, the first year the trophy was awarded, and has not lost since. — Dan Murphy Top Five Men's Teams 1. Soccer (17-1-6) — The first men's team to win a national title since football in 1988 (fencing counts as a coed sport) is a shoe-in for our top team of the year. A nearly unbeaten season was topped off by strong performances from program alumni like Dillon Powers, the 2013 MLS Rookie of the Year, and Matt Besler, a starter for the U.S. at the World Cup. 2. Lacrosse (12-6) — A less stingy than usual defense and a brutal ACC schedule forced Notre Dame to find creative ways to win games in crunch time. That experience helped them reach the national championship game, where Duke ended the Irish title hopes for the fourth time in the last five years. 3. Tennis (21-10) — Senior Greg Andrews helped carry Notre Dame to its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2007. Andrews, the National Arthur Ashe Award winner, reached the round of 32 in the individual championship tournament held after the team competition. No. 4 Virginia knocked the Irish out of the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. 4. Fencing — A sixth-place finish nationally qualifies as a down year for the Notre Dame fencers, who are usually in contention for a national title. An individual title for Gerek Meinhardt and a runner-up per- formance for sophomore Garrett McGrath helped salvage a year when the Irish lacked their typical depth. 5. Track & Field — The men's team finished third both indoors and outdoors in the ACC Championships in its first season in the league. Junior Chris Giesting was the team's lone All-American, placing in the 400-meter dash. He was also the ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in track & field. — Dan Murphy Top Five Women's Teams 1. Basketball (37-1) — Muffet McGraw had no problem continuing her recent success without pro- gram-changer Skylar Diggins on the floor. The trio of Natalie Achonwa, Kayla McBride and Jewell Loyd helped the Irish set a school record with 37 consecutive wins (by an average of 24.5 points) before losing