ND SPORTS
Notre Dame's Big East championship kept it at the top of the country's RPI rankings and earned the pro- gram its first-ever No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS
they had only themselves to blame for letting close games slip away. "I think this year we focused a lot
on how we didn't make the tourna- ment last year, and we had a chip on our shoulder the whole year," senior midfielder Kyle Richard said. "We re- ally put that in our mind before each game." Richard and his fellow seniors are
the only players that were around the last time this team won a game in the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame lost to Dartmouth in overtime in 2010 be- fore watching the tournament from the sidelines last year. The chip stayed firmly planted on
their collective shoulder after start- ing the season 7-0, coming within a point of winning the conference regu- lar-season crown and then taking the tournament title. They set a goal at the start of the season, as far-fetched as it might have seemed at the time, to win a national championship. The biggest benefit of earning the
No. 1 seed is if Notre Dame continues to win, the Irish won't have to play a game away from South Bend until the College Cup, soccer's version of the Final Four, in Hoover, Ala. Clark and the Irish are hoping to put their revamped, clump-free field to the test for a couple more weeks. ✦
