# 2021 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's soccer team

The 2021 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's soccer team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 2021 NCAA Division I women's soccer season. It was the 34th season of the university fielding a program. The Fighting Irish were led by 4th year head coach Nate Norman and played their games at Alumni Stadium.
The Fighting Irish finished the season 14–6–2, 7–3–0 in ACC play to finish in fourth place. As the fourth seed in the ACC Tournament, they lost to fifth seed Clemson in the First Round. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament where they defeated SIU Edwardsville in the First Round, and Purdue on penalties in the Second Round, before losing to Arkansas in the Round of 16 to end their season.

## Previous season

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACC played a reduced schedule in 2020 and the NCAA Tournament was postponed to 2021. The ACC did not play a spring league schedule, but did allow teams to play non-conference games that would count toward their 2020 record in the lead up to the NCAA Tournament.
The Fighting Irish finished the fall season 4–5–0, 4–4–0 in ACC play to finish in a tie for sixth place. They were awarded the eighth seed in the ACC Tournament based on tiebreakers. In the tournament they lost to Florida State in the Quarterfinals. They finished the spring season 2–2–0 and were not invited to the NCAA Tournament.

## Squad
### Roster

    As of March 8, 2022
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 0 | GK | USA | Mattie Interian |
| 2 | MF | USA | Korbin Albert |
| 3 | MF | USA | Maddie Mercado |
| 4 | MF | SLV | Sammi Fisher |
| 5 | FW | USA | Ellie Ospeck |
| 6 | MF | USA | Brooke VanDyck |
| 7 | FW | JAM | Kiki Van Zanten |
| 9 | FW | USA | Olivia Wingate |
| 10 | MF | USA | Erin Hohnstein |
| 11 | MF | USA | Sophia Fisher |
| 12 | MF | USA | Camryn Dyke |
| 13 | MF | USA | Nikki Colantuono |
| 14 | DF | USA | Aba Dunbar |
| 15 | FW | USA | Kati Druzina |
| 16 | MF | USA | Brianna Martinez |
| 17 | FW | USA | Audrey Weiss |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 18 | FW | ISL | Hulda Ósk Jónsdóttir |
| 19 | MF | USA | Eva Gaetino |
| 20 | DF | USA | Maddie Mooney |
| 21 | FW | USA | Erin Ospeck |
| 22 | DF | USA | Katie Coyle |
| 23 | MF | USA | Aly Akers |
| 24 | FW | USA | Paige Peltier |
| 25 | DF | USA | Waniya Hudson |
| 26 | DF | USA | Julia Ware |
| 27 | DF | USA | Caroline Gray |
| 28 | DF | USA | Eva Wirtz |
| 29 | MF | USA | Sophia Prudholme |
| 30 | MF | USA | Gabrielle Daly |
| 31 | GK | USA | Ashley Naylor |
| 32 | GK | USA | Mary Votava |
| 33 | GK | USA | Kaylin Slattery |

## Team management

| Position | Staff |
| Head Coach | Nate Norman |
| Assistant Coach | Dawn Siergiej |
| Assistant Coach | Jason Hamilton |
| Director of Operations | Brendan Roth |
Source:

## Schedule

Source
| Date Time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site City, State |
| Exhibition ||||||
| August 10* | | Ohio State | W 3–2 | – | Alumni Stadium Notre Dame, IN |
| August 14* | | at Illinois | W 4–0 | – | Demirjian Park Champaign–Urbana, IL |
| Non-Conference Regular Season ||||||
| August 19* 7:00 p.m. | | Bowling Green | W 3–1 | 1–0–0 | Alumni Stadium (351) Notre Dame, IN |
| August 22* 4:00 p.m. | | Indiana | T 0–0 $^{2OT}$ | 1–0–1 | Alumni Stadium (825) Notre Dame, IN |
| August 26* 8:30 p.m. | | at Wisconsin | W 2–1 $^{OT}$ | 2–0–1 | McClimon Stadium (313) Madison, WI |
| August 29* 1:00 p.m., FloSports | | at Marquette | W 1–0 | 3–0–1 | Valley Fields (581) Milwaukee, WI |
| September 2* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX | | Purdue | W 1–0 | 4–0–1 | Alumni Stadium (435) Notre Dame, IN |
| September 5* 1:00 p.m. | | at Missouri | L 2–3 $^{OT}$ | 4–1–1 | Audrey J. Walton Soccer Stadium (561) Columbia, MO |
| September 9* 7:00 p.m. | | Detroit | W 8–0 | 5–1–1 | Alumni Stadium (250) Notre Dame, IN |
| September 12* 1:00 p.m. | | Brown | W 2–1 | 6–1–1 | Alumni Stadium (444) Notre Dame, IN |
| ACC Regular Season ||||||
| September 18 7:00 p.m. | | Syracuse | W 4–0 | 7–1–1 (1–0–0) | Alumni Stadium (542) Notre Dame, IN |
| September 23 5:00 p.m. | | at Miami (FL) | W 5–0 | 8–1–1 (2–0–0) | Cobb Stadium (162) Coral Gables, FL |
| September 26 1:00 p.m. | | Boston College | W 4–1 | 9–1–1 (3–0–0) | Alumni Stadium (351) Notre Dame, IN |
| October 1 7:00 p.m. | | at NC State | W 2–1 | 10–1–1 (4–0–0) | Dail Soccer Field (626) Raleigh, NC |
| October 7 7:00 p.m. | No. 24 | Louisville | W 3–0 | 11–1–1 (5–0–0) | Alumni Stadium (289) Notre Dame, IN |
| October 10 3:00 p.m., ACCNX | No. 24 | Clemson | W 2–1 | 12–1–1 (6–0–0) | Alumni Stadium (597) Notre Dame, IN |
| October 17 1:00 p.m., ACCN | No. 17 | at No. 2 Virginia | L 1–2 | 12–2–1 (6–1–0) | Klöckner Stadium (2,490) Charlottesville, VA |
| October 21 7:00 p.m., ACCNX | No. 15 | at No. 6 Duke | L 0–1 $^{OT}$ | 12–3–1 (6–2–0) | Koskinen Stadium (704) Durham, NC |
| October 24 1:00 p.m., ACCNX | No. 15 | at No. 7 North Carolina | L 1–2 $^{2OT}$ | 12–4–1 (6–3–0) | Dorrance Field (2,248) Chapel Hill, NC |
| October 28 7:00 p.m. | No. 22 | Wake Forest | W 2–1 | 13–4–1 (7–3–0) | Alumni Stadium (277) Notre Dame, IN |
| ACC Tournament ||||||
| October 31 6:00 p.m., ACCN | (4) No. 22 | (5) Clemson First Round | L 2–3 | 13–5–1 | Alumni Stadium (268) Notre Dame, IN |
| NCAA Tournament ||||||
| November 14 1:00 p.m. | (3) | SIU Edwardsville | W 4–0 | 14–5–1 | Alumni Stadium (204) Notre Dame, IN |
| November 19 5:30 p.m. | (3) | vs. No. 24 Purdue | T 1–1 (4–3 PKs) $^{2OT}$ | 14–5–2 | Razorback Field (1,505) Fayetteville, AR |
| November 21 5:30 p.m. | (3) | (2) No. 7 Arkansas | L 2–3 | 14–6–2 | Razorback Field (1,579) Fayetteville, AR |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern. ||||||

## Rankings

Ranking movements Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking RV = Received votes :
| | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week |
| Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Final |
| United Soccer | | | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | 24 | 17 | 15 | 22 | RV | RV | Not released | Not released | Not released | Not released | 16 |
| TopDrawer Soccer | | | | | | 24 | 22 | 20 | 15 | 13 | 14 | 17 | 25 | 23 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 15 |

## 2022 NWSL Draft

| Player | Team | Round | Pick # | Position |
| Sammi Fisher | Chicago Red Stars | 2 | 19 | MF |
Source: