Notre Dame Has Immediate ACC Impact

It wasn’t a surprise that Notre Dame has planted its Fighting Irish brand on the Atlantic Coast Conference in their first season of conference affiliation.

The ND women handed defending champion UNC Tar Heels their first loss of the season (1-0) and the Irish men played UNC’s men to a 1-1 draw.

Notre Dame is ranked #4 in the NSCAA men’s Division I poll, and ranked #5 in the women’s national rankings.

There have been a number of successful stories in ACC men’s play this season.

[show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’] Clemson has jumped out to a league-best 7-1-1 overall start and has earned the #16 spot in the national poll. Maryland, which will depart the ACC after this year, and Wake Forest have gone 3-0-1 in their first four conference games, and share the top spot in league standings. Notre Dame, at 4-0-3, is the only unbeaten team after seven games.

Patrick Mullins, last year’s MAC Hermann Trophy winner, continues to lead the Maryland Terps. He was recently named ACC Player of the Week after a two-goal performance in the Terps’ 3-1 road win at Clemson.

Mullins has four goals in the first six games for Maryland, one less than team leader Schillo Tshuma, who is tied with Thomas McNamara from Clemson with five each.

The previous ACC POW was Notre Dame sophomore Patrick Hodan, who led the Fighting Irish to their first-ever ACC victory, a 3-0 shutout of Syracuse. Ironically, Notre Dame and Syracuse were members of the BIG EAST before moving to the ACC.

Maryland began the season ranked #1, and has dropped to #5, and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons are ranked #24.

Duke has stumbled thrugh its first four ACC games without a win (0-3-1), while Pittsburgh is winless its its first-ever four ACC matches.

Five ACC teams appear in the Top 20 national poll, with the Tar Heels sitting at #1. They have played four times in the league, and four times they failed to win, and four times kept from losing.

Four UNC draws. In fact, in one span of games the Tar Heels played four consecutive overtime matches, winning only once, a 1-0 victory over Campbell.

But draws have been the common thread throughout the ACC this fall for the men’s programs. In fact, team records show 23 draws. Not drawn games, as some of those were against other ACC teams.

You might say the conference has been all knotted up in ties, with eight league games resulting in draws. Of the 12 ACC men’s teams, the only team that has not had a tie this season is Syracuse (6-3-0, 1-3-0).