Feb. 4, 2016
NOTRE DAME, Ind. –
By Leigh Torbin
Within a league which has at times featured seven of the country’s top 10 teams, the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse squad’s increased respect was put on display Thursday as the Irish were voted to finish third in the Atlantic Coast Conference in a vote of the league’s eight coaches.
Notre Dame’s 45 points placed behind only 2015 final four participants Syracuse (61) and North Carolina (59). The Irish were comfortably ahead of Duke (31), Boston College (30) and Virginia (30) in the poll — three teams which earned top-eight seeds for the 2015 NCAA championship.
In addition, graduate student Barbara Sullivan and junior Cortney Fortunato represented the Irish on the preseason All-ACC team. Both were first-team All-Americans in 2015 with Sullivan also being the lone defensive finalist for the Tewaaraton Award.
The Irish, ranked No. 7 in the Lacrosse Magazine poll, opens their 2016 season on Saturday when Notre Dame travels south to face two-time defending Atlantic Sun Conference champion Jacksonville. ESPN3 will stream the action live from the first coast at 4 p.m. The Dolphins are one of 12 teams (out of 17 games) on the regular season schedule that competed in the 2015 NCAA championship.
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Leigh Torbin, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2013 and coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse while serving as the football publicity team’s top lieutenant. A native of Framingham, Massachusetts, Torbin graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management. He has previously worked full-time on the athletic communications staffs at Vanderbilt, Florida, Connecticut and UCF.