Rookie Aoife Scannell scoring for Notre Dame. / Photo: Mark Russell
The DI Big 10 conference is six teams large this year, and with one exception, all teams play each other before the championship. Ohio State and Rutgers are not participating again, and Michigan State, Penn State and Purdue will play their first league games this weekend.
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But that’s not to say that Penn State has been idle. The team has already played its alumni and Philadelphia Women to ties, and will face Michigan on the road Saturday. Then on top of all the Big 10 games, excluding Purdue, the Nittany Lions will face a diverse fall lineup. Penn State plays fellow DI Elite Life University (Sept. 27) and Lindenwood University (Oct. 14), NIRA’s Army (Oct. 6) and Quinnipiac (Oct. 20), and DI independent Davenport (Oct. 27).
Notre Dame has been the second-strongest team in the league for the last few years and has north of 30 players, allowing for inner-squad activities that expedite the learning curve and development of positional depth.
“The team this season has a large number of new faces after graduating 11 players at the end of last year. The three captains – Scout Muzikowski, Emma Shimek and Tori Jones – have been vital in getting the new players up to speed with the program and creating a productive environment on different levels,” Notre Dame coach Ricardo Ramirez explained. “We have seen new players to the team come a long way in a short amount of time, and some of the younger players from last season step up to fill big shoes.”
Notre Dame warmed up with a pre-season win over DII Grand Valley State and then downed Indiana 52-10 last weekend. Shimek led with three tries and handled the conversions, while Muzikowski, rookie Aoife Scannell, Cristal Sicard and Estephany Tanwere also among the try-scorers.
The Redstorm trailed 28-0 at the half but then sent sophomores Arie O’Brien and Teddi Buell into the try zone to draw within two scores, 28-10. The Irish regrouped, and Ramirez pointed to the trio of captains for motivating the young squad and legging out a comfortable win.
The weekend prior, Indiana defeated Michigan 24-0 in the teams’ league opener. Lauren Lad led the way with 14 points on two tries and two conversions, while Emma Jones and freshman Alayna Iles added a try apiece. The Redstorm head to Purdue this weekend in search of win number two.
SEPT 22-23 MATCHES
Penn State (0-0) @ Michigan (0-1)
Indiana (1-1) @ Purdue (0-0)
Notre Dame (1-0) @ Michigan State (0-0)
#Big10 NotreDame