Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Five Questions With … WOMEN'S LACROSSE COACH CHRISTINE HALFPENNY liam & Mary, where she won two confer- ence titles in five years as head coach. She has also served as an assistant at Duke, Brown and Virginia Tech. Halfpenny played at Virginia Tech from 1996-99 as part of the school's first varsity women's lacrosse team. going to hear me say I'm satisfied. Even with a national title that will come here in the future, I don't think I'm ever going to think that we've arrived because I think there is more that we can build on. "We clearly saw some success this year with a lot of the with your first season at Notre Dame? Halfpenny: "I don't know if you're ever Blue & Gold Illustrated: Were you happy team back to the NCAA Tournament in her first year as the team's head coach. Notre Dame finished the season with a 13-5 record and was ranked as high as No. 6 in the country in 2012 before losing to defending national champion Northwestern in the opening round of the tournament. Halfpenny came to South Bend via Wil- Christine Halfpenny brought the Irish women's lacrosse people to have a voice. You want them to understand the system and contribute to the final product." "When you're working to a common goal you want Blue & Gold Illustrated: What was the biggest differ- ence between this team and your past teams? Halfpenny: "The energy level that I had down there [at William & Mary] was really, really high. Coming in here, the first shock was the team was a lot quieter than what I was used to and the teams I had been around. There wasn't electricity bouncing off of one person to another. "That was something that I was like, 'Whoa, I have some work to do here.' " Blue & Gold Illustrated: You drew In her first season at Notre Dame, Halfpenny led the Irish to a 13-5 record and an NCAA Tournament berth. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS Northwestern, winners of six of the last seven NCAA titles, in the opening round. Was that expected after a top-10 season? Halfpenny: "Was I surprised to see us new system and structure put into place. I'm really proud of the individual and collective effort to embrace change because there was a lot of it this year." I think that we really allowed these kids to be part of the process of change and have a lot of voice within it. That was something that certainly helped to build that trust. you right away when trying to make changes? Halfpenny: "We were honest. We did ask for flexibility. Blue & Gold Illustrated: How do you get a team to trust better opportunity to play at home or shipped us out somewhere else. But we were excited to get a second crack at the defending national champion." "I was hoping our body of work would've given us a go to Northwestern? Not necessarily. We were right on the edge of being able to host at home going down the stretch of the season. national title here was your goal. How quickly can you achieve that? Halfpenny: "We want to be a household name. We're Blue & Gold Illustrated: You mentioned bringing a certainly looking for in a handful of years to be able to put ourselves in position to consistently be in the Final Four and put ourselves in position to win a national title." — Dan Murphy JUNE/JULY 2012 17