Quick Rebuild Sends NDC to NCR Women's D1 Final
Quick Rebuild Sends NDC to NCR Women's D1 Final
The Notre Dame College women’s team entered the fall with a number of questions.
The big one was, what would the team look like this year?
With a large number of new recruits as Head Coach Jack Nece worked to build depth, they had some team-building to do.
“We had to work on bringing everyone together,” said Kelly Wallenhorst. “But we were able to do that pretty quickly.”
“Part of it is being welcoming and coming together at practice,” added Abby Dickerson. “But we also had team bonding off the field—movie nights. We end up not really knowing what happens in the movies because we end up talking amongst ourselves but that’s how it works!”
A key moment for the team came early when they met and defeated Northern Iowa, the team that bumped them out of the postseason last fall.
“We’d played our alumni the week before and that was really tough,” said Alivia Leatherman. “We learned a lot from that but it was good because we went out to play UNI and we came together really well. And then we lost some teammates to injuries and that’s been really tough, but we’ve come through it.”
And they have continued to build from there. Garnering that confidence the Falcons rolled through Bowling Green, Colgate, Kent State, and Pitt. They did lose to Davenport and that was a good wakeup call.
When you’re winning big, you have to stick to the standards, added assistant coach Cornel Britz. It’s a constant reminder that the Falcons measure themselves against themselves, not
Head Coach Jack Nece, along with Britz, points to that UNI game as a signal that the 15 new players were going to combine nicely with his experienced returners.
“Being the first game of the year it was obviously a big test and as the game unfolded and we scored four tries in the first 20 minutes, it showed that the players had belief in the system we were running,” said Nece.
“There was one try,” said Britz, “where we had like five offloads, just offload, offload, offload, and that was great to see. It’s the way we want to play.”
Going into the final against Michigan, the Falcons expect to be tested and know they need to be patient. Michigan, after all, beat Northern Iowa too.
“Iowa really pushed us,” said Leatherman. “They were very good. So we were grateful for that. But we know that to win we have to support each other and pass well and play smart. And then on defense … we just play good, solid defense.”
It has been a lot of hard work to get here for the Falcons. Now that the business end of the semester is here, the wintry Cleveland weather is here, too. As a result the NDC players are actually training off-campus.
“It's a lot of work to get to training and back for class,” said Dickerson. “You've got to manage your time. But going to this final means a lot to us; it's worth it.”