Oct. 12, 2010
UND.com is debuting another of its new interactive features for the 2010-11 season, with its weekly Fighting Irish Fan Chats. Each Wednesday afternoon, UND.com will sit down for a live chat session with student-athletes, coaches and administrators making news in the world of Fighting Irish athletics. Fans are invited to join in and offer questions or comments for our guests, and if you can’t join us live, each chat will be archived so you can return to UND.com at your convenience and read what your favorite Notre Dame athletic personalities have to say on a variety of topics.
This week’s Fighting Irish Fan Chat will take place from 1:00-2:00 p.m. (ET) on Wednesday (Oct. 13), as men’s soccer forward Jeb Brovsky, women’s soccer defender Lauren Fowlkes, football linebacker Manti Te’o and baseball pitcher Brian Dupra will join us.
Brovsky will open the chat at 1:00 p.m., Fowlkes will follow from 1:15-1:30, Te’o will participate from 1:30-1:45 and Dupra will close the chat from 1:45-2:00.
Brovsky and Fowlkes each were recently named finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. Fan voting makes up one-third of the final vote tally for the award, and supporters for the Fighting Irish duo are encouraged to vote daily for them by going to www.seniorclassaward.com.
Brovsky has started all 11 games this season and has tallied five points on two goals and one assist. He has appeared in 78 games, including 51 starts, and has notched 38 points on 13 goals and 12 assists in his career. Brovsky also carries a 3.442 cumulative grade-point average as a management major in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, which is routinely ranked as one of the top business schools in the country. He is a three-time BIG EAST Academic All-Star.
Throughout her career, Fowlkes has exemplified the term “student-athlete”. Last year, she earned National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) third-team All-America honors and ESPN The Magazine second-team Academic All-America accolades after piling up career highs of 10 goals and four assists (24 points) following an early-season move to forward due to various injuries on the Notre Dame roster. Fowlkes also was named the BIG EAST Co-Offensive Player of the Year and BIG EAST Championship Most Outstanding Offensive Player, as well as a NSCAA first-team all-region and first-team all-conference selection, and a first-team NSCAA Scholar All-America selection. A candidate for this year’s Hermann Trophy, as well as a Soccer America Preseason All-American and the BIG EAST Preseason Co-Defensive Player of the Year, she has been a key component of Notre Dame’s stout defense that has allowed just seven goals through 14 matches this season, posting nine shutouts and a 0.50 goals-against average (GAA). Fowlkes is enrolled in Notre Dame’s College of Science, where she is working towards her bachelor’s degree in science-business and maintains a sharp 3.657 cumulative grade-point average.
Te’o leads the Irish total tackles (69), tackles on running plays (47), solo tackles (34) and assisted tackles (35). He also ranks second on the team in tackles on passing plays (20) and third in tackles for loss (4.0). Te’o ranks ninth in the FBS in tackles per game (11.5). He has registered 10 or more tackles in four of the last five games and six times over his brief career. Earlier this season, Te’o established a career-high in tackles with 21 against Stanford. He was the first player in the FBS this season to eclipse the 20-tackle barrier. In fact, no player in the FBS has had more tackles in one game against a BCS conference foe since Durell Mapp of North Carolina had 23 stops against North Carolina State on Nov. 10, 2007. In fact, it is the most tackles by a sophomore against a BCS opponent since Austin Thomas of Indiana had 22 against Michigan State on Oct. 13, 2007.
Dupra was drafted in the 12th round of the 2010 MLB draft, but he decided to delay professional baseball for another year and return for his senior season. Dupra, first year baseball coach Mik Aoki and the rest of the Irish baseball team will take part in the annual Fall Blue-Gold World Series this weekend. The three-game series opens at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 15 at Frank Eck Stadium. The final two games of the series will be played at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.