Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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ND SPORTS finished with a hat trick plus an as- sist. ACC Defensive Player of the Year Matt Landis, a junior defender, played a key role in the contest by limiting Thompson, who finished his career as the NCAA's all-time leader in points, to only one goal and four assists. "Defensively, I thought we got an unbelievable effort," Irish head coach Kevin Corrigan told UND. com. "Matt Landis guarded Thomp- son as well as you can guard him. He's a great, great player, and I thought Matt was terrific on him. But he had help. "Our guys were making good slides and decisions. If you get caught in no-man's land against a guy like that, he just kills you. I thought we did a nice job of not do- ing that too much. Overall, the one thing about us is I think we've been pretty balanced, and I think that came through today — we were bal- anced offensively and balanced de- fensively." Corrigan's team will next take on No. 4-seeded Denver, which came back from a 7-1 deficit to beat Ohio State 15-13 in the quarterfinals. The match was set for 1 p.m. on May 23 at Lincoln Financial Field in Phil- adelphia and was scheduled to be t e l e v i s e d o n E S P N 2 . M a r y l a n d , which was seeded No. 6, was slated to face Johns Hopkins in the other national semifinal. "We know what a great team Notre Dame is, and we know what we're up against," Denver head coach Bill Tierney said. "They're a team that we know, and they know us very well. It's going to be a great day." Fencer Dies In Joyce Center Fall The day before his graduation, a two-time monogram winner of the Notre Dame fencing team died May 16, after falling from the Joyce Center roof. The 21-year-old Billy Meckling, a mechanical engineer major, reportedly was on the roof, which was wet from several days of rain, with a group of other students. According to a school release, two students ap- proached a Notre Dame patrolman at 3:45 a.m., asking for help. When they reached the east side of the Joyce Center, the officer observed Meck- ling, unresponsive, on the ground. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Billy's fam- ily and friends after this terrible tragedy," uni- versity president Fr. John I. Jenkins said. "It is a profound sadness for all of us, on this graduation weekend, to lose someone so young and brim- ming with promise." Meckling, who hailed from Centennial, Colo., was a four-year member of the fencing team. "When one thinks of the success of Notre Dame fencing, names like Gerek Meinhardt and Lee Kiefer come to mind," head fencing coach Gia Kyaratskhelia said in a press release. "Yet equally integral to our team success are the un- sung names, the walk-ons that bring the positive spirit, energy and camaraderie to our practices and competitions to push their teammates and themselves to greater heights. "Billy Meckling was one of those teammates — an invaluable member of our sabre squad who left such a massive impact on all of us as a fencer and a human being. … A true Notre Dame man, his kindness and warmth impacted each and every one of us — and make his loss all the more difficult." — Jordan Wells