Oct. 7, 2015
DATE: Oct. 7, 2015
TIME: 7 p.m. (ET)
LOCATION: Notre Dame, Ind. (Alumni Stadium — cap. 3,500)
LAST MEETING: UM, 3-2 (10/7/14 at UM)
BROADCAST: WatchESPN
LIVE STATS:
TWITTER: @NDMenSoccer
TICKETS: UND.com/tickets; (574) 631-7356
A regional rivalry is once more renewed on Wednesday when Michigan travels to Alumni Stadium to face the University of Notre Dame men’s soccer team in nonconference play. The 7 p.m. (ET) match will be broadcast live on ESPN3 via WatchESPN.
No. 7/4 Notre Dame and No. RV Michigan will meet for the 15th time in series history on Wednesday, with the Irish maintaining a 10-2-2 (.733) all-time lead. Michigan is in search of its first victory on the Notre Dame campus, as the Irish are 8-0-1 against the Wolverines in home matches. Both teams have met every regular season since 2006.
Scouting Michigan
Michigan enters Wednesday’s match with a 5-2-2 record, battling Wisconsin to a 3-3 draw in Ann Arbor on Saturday. The Wolverines have earned a result in seven of their last eight games.
Head coach Chaka Daley is 30-28-9 (.515) in his fourth season at Michigan, leading the Wolverines to an NCAA Championship berth in 2011. Daley previously spent 12 seasons as the head coach of the Providence College men’s soccer program, and is a member of the New England Soccer Hall of Fame.
Lending A Helping Hand
A pair of assists from senior midfielder Evan Panken and junior defender Brandon Aubrey on the lone Notre Dame goal scored by sophomore forward Jon Gallagher in the 34th minute on Sunday against NC State were the 21st and 22nd Irish assists of 2015. The 22 Irish assists are tied for second in the ACC as of Oct. 5, narrowly behind the 23 of Clemson through the season’s first 11 matches.
Nine different Notre Dame players have recorded at least one assist thus far in 2015, with Panken tied for the conference lead with five assists.
A Super Soph. Year For Gallagher
Jon Gallagher has built on the momentum of his selection to the 2014 ACC all-freshman team by breaking out as one of the conference’s most talented strikers as a sophomore.
Through 11 starts, Gallagher leads all ACC players in goals (7) and points (16), finding the goal column in four of the past five Notre Dame games dating back to a matchup at North Carolina on Sept. 18. A total of 19 of Gallagher’s 35 total shot attempts have found goal (a .543 SOG clip), and he has also notched two assists.
ND At Best With Back Line Intact
Notre Dame has had the services of its full starting defender corps, senior right back Michael Shipp, junior center backs Brandon Aubrey and Matt Habrowski, and fifth-year senior left back Max Lachowecki, for six games thus far in 2015. The Irish are an unbeaten 4-0-2 with their primary back line in the starting lineup, conceding just four goals in nearly 600 minutes of play (598:32).
In comparison, Notre Dame has compiled a 3-2 record when one of the back four has missed a contest, yielding five goals in 450 minutes.
Plethora Of Game-Winners For ND
When fifth-year senior left back Max Lachowecki connected on the go-ahead goal in the 80th minute of a 4-2 Irish win over Marquette on Sept. 29, he became the first Notre Dame player with multiple game-winning goals in 2015.Both of Lachowecki’s goals this season have counted as game-winners, while Jon Gallagher, Evan Panken, Thomas Ueland, Michael Shipp and Matt Habrowski have each added match-clinching tallies.
–ND–
— Tony Jones, Athletics Communications Assistant