PDF for Friday, September 14, 2012

Keeping the door open

University President Emeritus Fr. Ted Hesburgh remembers working with undergrads

By MEGAN DOYLE m anaging e ditor

Editor’s Note: This story is the second installment in a two-part series on University President Emeritus Fr. Theodore Hesburgh’s legacy at Notre Dame. This

series is also the final installment in the “From the Office of the President” series.

The door was always open, and the light was always on.

That was Fr. Ted hesburgh’s philosophy during the 35 years he inhabited the o ffice

of the p resident in the m ain b uilding.

“The students were up half the night, so my light was on until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. every night, and the door was open so the kids felt free to come in,” hesburgh said. “a nd so most universities … the big

problem was that nobody was listening to them, and they couldn’t meet the people in charge. They couldn’t say that to me.”

The 1960s were a turbulent period on college campuses

see hesburgh paGe 6

By KRISTEN DURBIN

in the wake of the Tuesday assassination of christopher stevens, the american ambassador to libya, and three of his staff members during a terrorist attack on a u s. diplomatic

mission in the city of benghazi, americans may be wondering what this act of violence means for their presence in countries embroiled in arab spring.

Though tragic and unexpected, the islamist militant-driven attack

see libya paGe 7

research explores tailgate culture Irish engineers study at ND

By DAN BROMBACH news w riter

Fans of tailgating will be excited to learn grilling burgers and socializing in crowded parking lots can accomplish far more than just building

anticipation for a sporting event.

recent research by notre d ame marketing professor John s herry has revealed tailgating to be a powerful tool

for building community and family connections. s herry said tailgating is a surprisingly intimate experience, with participants sharing in the private lives of neighbors and strangers alike.

“Tailgating takes people’s domestic lives and kind of turns them inside out,” s herry said. “i f you go out and look in the fields and parking lots where it occurs, you see people’s private lives exposed to the world: their living room, their kitchen their dining room. people walking around can observe these interior lives and bond.”

s herry said individual tailgates may not appear to see TailgaTe paGe 6

By NICOLE MICHELS news writer

Though every notre dame student may be i rish in spirit, five graduate students in notre dame’s esT eem program are also i rish by birth.

i reland natives Tom c ollins, c onor o’donoghue, shane mcQuillian, shane mc c arthy and a nthony o’sullivan are students pursuing graduate degrees in notre dame’s e ngineering, s cience, Technology and e ntrepreneurship e xcellence masters program ( esT eem ).

The esT eem program is structured so interested students can study advanced engineering concepts while learning the fundamentals of innovative business practice. The program equips science and engineering graduate

students to create marketable, profitable business products with whatever specific technical expertise they possess.

o’donoghue, native of c lonakilty in c ounty c ork and university c ollege c ork ( ucc ) graduate, said the esT eem program fosters ingenuity in its students.

“i n the esT eem program, they’re always encouraging us to come up with our own ideas and pursue them. … we may or may not have a few ideas on our own, we might start up our own companies,” he said.

The adjustment to living in the united states has been relatively easy one, the students said.

mcQuillan, a native of c arrickmacross in c ounty monaghan and d ublin c ity university alumnus, said one of the biggest differences

appears at mealtimes.

“They hold their knife and fork in the wrong hand — we do it the other way around,” mcQuillan said. “i have allergies, so i can’t find as much to eat. … i can’t eat wheat.”

o’sullivan, born in Killarney, c ounty Kerry, and a ucc alumnus, said he misses the i rish landscape.

“i live out in the countryside, up on a hill. … w here i am, there are mountains all around me,” o’sullivan said. “it’s less green here and very flat. … it’s different.”

c ollins, from c lonakilty, west c ounty c ork, and alumnus of university c ollege d ublin ( ucd ) said he’s noticed a mericans have certain expectations of i rishmen.

“There’s a big difference

see irish paGe 7

Question of the Day:

Abbey Santanello sophomore walsh

“‘be

Jacob

Abby Suckow sophomore

Ben Galloway senior siegfried

“i

Maria

“somehow

‘America’s Church’

By MEGHAN THOMASSEN news writer

Thomas a. Tweed, professor of religious studies at the university of Texas at austin, spoke yesterday on the catholic effort to make a merica’s capital, washington d c., the spiritual capitol.

in his recent book, “a merica’s church,” Tweed said a visit to the capitol’s basilica of the national shrine of the immaculate conception, built from 1920 to 1959, inspired his study.

“i was gripped by the tour guide’s story of the thousands of women named mary who had donated to the church,” he said.

“i pondered several questions: who visited this church, who donated to it, who attended?”

Tweed said the shrine has both religious and historic value.

“much of catholic a merica has crossed its boundary, and it allows us to observe catholic themes,” he said. “The shrine is a threshold that opens to arenas of wider significance, from the

devotees giving and going, how religion functions.”

Tweed said his book focuses on multiple themes, including catholic efforts to build institutions, contest protestants, mobilize women, engage children, incorporate immigrants and claim civic space.

The movement to claim civic space began by catholics holding rituals, parades, memorials, rituals and vigils on capitol soil, Tweed said.

professor analyzes dnc’s effects

By JILLIAN BARWICK saint mary’s e ditor

with both the republican and democratic national conventions completed, both parties anticipate lively debates leading up to the election.

michael Kramer, political communication professor at saint mary’s, shared his overall thoughts on both conventions and what the public can expect as the political debates quickly approach.

“at the democratic nation convention (dnc), there were two speeches that really stood out to viewers,” Kramer said. “michelle obama and bill clinton both delivered enthralling speeches to the public.”

while both were widely accepted, each speaker provided very different takes on president barack obama and the campaign, Kramer said.

said. “They ended up putting the references back in, but by that time there were disagreements about readding to the platform. These made the democrats look like they were not united about their platform.”

This was a distraction for the dnc, but because it was not connected to any of the speeches, Kramer said he is not so sure how much it actually resonated with the public.

“i think the platform discussions aren’t as relevant within the conventions as they used to be, so i think most people made their judgments about the rnc and the dnc based on the primetime speakers each party had,” he said.

president obama and the democratic party gained more support after the dnc ended than the republicans did after their convention, Kramer said.

paid a dverT isemen T paid a dverT isemen T

“They were unsure if their efforts would succeed. … Their public assertions and gestures were expressed in the subjunctive, [which] refers to an action as conceived, not as fact,” he said.

Tweed said catholics strove to be a presence in civil space through ritual and architecture.

“They would announce public prayers for the president in the local press … and invited president Taft and his wife to the pan-a merican Thanksgiving day mass, which was a catholic national holiday,” Tweed said. in architecture, the catholics worked to construct their own monuments and buildings across the urban landscape, he said.

“The nuns of the battlefield memorial literally claims civic space,” Tweed said, “it was built on federal property and was authorized by congress.”

The catholic’s clearest attempt at creating a national religious capitol was the basilica of the national shrine, whose dome echoes the government’s capitol dome, Tweed said.

“They chose a byzantineromanesque plan because it would complement the civic monuments,” Tweed said. “it was no means a rival. a rchitecturally, it compleiments them.”

Tweed said this fight for visibility at the capitol was a part of the a merican civil religion struggle against piety.

“[different religions] were forced to compete with one another to secure visibility and aggregate power,” Tweed said. “They symbolically negotiated cultural power by constructing national centers.”

Contact Meghan Thomassen at mthomass@nd.edu

“michelle’s was more aimed at the heart. it was emotional; it gave a real personal account of barack obama, but what she did that maybe went a bit beyond what ann romney did was that she connected barack personally to his political principles,” he said. “she showed the audience how the things that he believes and the policies that he’s pursued are connected to things that he’s lived or through what his family has lived, which helps to show that he doesn’t just follow polls, but that he’s actually looking at things that he feels deeply about.”

clinton refuted the claims republican vice-presidential candidate paul ryan made during his speech at the republican national convention (rnc), Kramer said.

“he did a very effective job of it, being very specific, showing humor and being dynamic,” he said. “i think it was a very helpful speech for obama.”

Kramer said polls revealed that many viewers responded positively to clinton’s speech.

as for obama’s speech, Kramer said he believes it was different from the speeches he has given before.

“he was more grounded, not as lofty, and i think part of it was the economic conditions and knowing the job report that came out the following day was not going to be all that great,” he said. “obama didn’t want to appear to be celebrating when a lot of people are still suffering.”

while obama’s speech at the dnc was effectively the focal point of the conference, Kramer said he thinks viewers saw actor clint eastwood’s speech at the rnc as somewhat of a distraction to the purpose of the romney-ryan ticket. as far as distractions for the democrats, Kramer said distractions arose concerning their platforms.

“recently, there was a lot of talk about how the democrats had taken god out of their platform and had taken out references to Jerusalem. This caused great controversy and the republicans really criticized the democrats for doing this,” Kramer

“i think this is partly because of the distractions that the republicans had and also because of the strength of clinton’s speech, which i think put the democrats out on top,” he said. “That was a real pivot point for the democrats. i believe the republicans probably would have liked to have a speaker as strong as clinton at their convention.”

as debate season begins, it is likely that romney and the republican party will remain behind obama if the polls continue the way they are, Kramer said.

“romney will have to work harder to make up ground during the debates and will have to perform at a higher level than obama,” Kramer said.

For the debates, the expectations also play a role, he said.

“if the expectations for romney are low as to how he must do in the debate, then he does not have to do as well in order to be seen as having ‘won it,’” Kramer said. “if he sets the expectations very high, or if the media sets the expectations high because he needs to come up in the polls, then that makes it more difficult for romney.”

as for obama, being ahead in the polls might make him think he does not have as much pressure on himself for the debates, a mindset Kramer said obama should avoid.

“i think the public is still going to want to hear more specifics from romney since he did not have many in his speech at the rnc,” he said. “The next few weeks will be interesting to see if he is going to flesh some more of his positions out and then certainly at the debate because that is something the public will want to hear then. The debates are sort of a last chance for voters to hear what romney has to say before the election gets underway.”

Kramer said obama will coast into the debates if he does not make any big mistakes.

“i think that will be his focus for leading up to the debates and the debates themselves,” he said.

Professor analyzes liberalism

By CHRISTIAN MYERS news writer

charles Kesler, political philosopher, author and professor of government at claremont mcKenna college, discussed president barack obama’s place in the history of liberalism during his lecture in the eck hall of law on Thursday.

Kesler recently published a book on the same subject. vincent muñoz, director of the Tocqueville program and one of the event’s organizers, said Kesler’s book went on sale Tuesday and is titled, “i am the change: barack obama and the crisis of liberalism.”

The law school’s Federalist society, the Tocqueville program and the constitutional studies minor all sponsored the event, muñoz said.

To begin his talk, Kesler said his book does not advance any theories about obama suggesting he is a socialist, a Kenyan anti-colonialist or a muslim.

“The thesis of my book runs counter to a lot of conservative views of obama,” Kesler said. “i think he’s very bright and very intelligent. … i think conservatives make a mistake in underestimating obama.”

Kesler said he bases his assessment of obama’s self-conception as a political progressive.

“The way to understand obama is as he understands himself: as a liberal, or rather a progressive, as he likes to be called,” he said.

Kesler said the crisis of liberalism, to which the subtitle of his book refers, is a two-fold crisis obama, and all political liberals, must face.

“The crisis of liberalism is also the crisis of barack obama,” he said. “There are two reasons liberalism has reached a crisis point: one fiscal and one philosophical.”

Kesler said the fiscal reason hinges on the government’s inability to pay for social programs and entitlements.

“it has become so easy for political interest groups to manufacture rights, in the political sense, and it is impossible or nearly impossible to pay for them all,” Kesler said. “we see this problem in europe as well as here. These are promises that have been made to people, so what do we do when they justly ask for the

benefits they are entitled to? it is a crisis of public credit that leads to the moral question: can you trust the government to keep its promises?”

Kesler said this fiscal problem relates to president obama’s health care policies.

“he sold obamacare as a way of cutting down costs while expanding coverage, and that’s the problem obama cannot solve,” he said.

The philosophical aspect of the crisis is one of moral relativism as a part of liberal political philosophy, and obama accepts this line of thought, Kesler said.

“The philosophical part of the crisis has to do with the influence of post-modernism in liberal thought — liberalism doesn’t rest on moral truth,” he said. “The president is stuck believing there is no absolute truth, and that this is absolutely true.”

Kesler said liberalism, as an american political movement, is 100 years old and began with the election of woodrow wilson in 1912. over the course of the 100 years there have been four “waves” of liberalism, with president obama’s efforts representing the fourth wave, he said.

The first three waves were the new Freedom concept advanced by wilson, the new deal legislation under Franklin d roosevelt and the great society legislation under lyndon b. Johnson.

“you can call these three waves political liberalism under wilson, economic liberalism with the new deal and cultural liberalism in the 60s,” he said.

The first wave was the source of the idea of a living constitution. wilson was the first president to criticize the constitution and called it obsolete, Kesler said.

“The founders, according to wilson, didn’t understand that human politics are governed by darwinian laws of change,” he said. “They didn’t realize that human nature was changeable.”

The liberal position was that the constitution had to be made up-to-date with a changing society and had to be positioned on the right side of history, Kesler said.

he said the liberals did not recognize the founding fathers’ conception of a constitution resistant to change as a viable alternative to

comedy writer shares faith journey

By BRIDGET FEENEY saint mary’s a ssociate

e

ditor writer,

producer and story editor Tom l eopold served up his reflections on faith with a side of comedy during his oneman show, “a comedy writer Finds g od,” on Thursday night at saint mary’s.

he said. “For the first time in my life, i was praying.”

Through a series of events, conversations and experiences, l eopold said he seriously considered converting to catholicism. he said he found himself at this new point in his life, and it was a welcome and necessary change.

a living constitution.

“The founders, because they had a static natural law theory, created a constitution that would be very hard to change, hard to amend,” he said. “For liberals, the only alternative to their living constitution is a dead constitution.”

Kesler noted the second wave, under president roosevelt, advanced the idea of a social contract between the government and the people, in which the people exchange their power for rights.

The idea of exchanging of rights for power leads to an argument in favor of a more powerful government, he said.

“This leads to what i like to call the first law of big government,” Kesler said. “There’s no reason to fear government growing, because more government means more rights.”

The third wave brought about a change from quantitative to qualitative liberalism, Kesler said.

This was brought about in part by president Johnson’s efforts to further roosevelt’s policies from keeping citizens above a certain level economically to providing for everyone to have a spiritually fulfilling life, he said.

“The new deal was about meeting the needs of the body, but the great society wanted to address the soul,” Kesler said.

he added the problem was the government programs of the great society were too costly and unsuccessful.

a second aspect of the move toward qualitative liberalism was the cultural liberalism that led those who were very liberal to chastise the majority culture.

“w hen liberalism turned on the majority, the majority turned on liberalism,” he said.

The 2012 election cycle will have a great deal to say about the duration and the legacy of the fourth wave of liberalism that obama represents, Kesler said.

“he took us in a very brief time where the first two years of his term were the breakthrough, sharply to the left,” Kesler said.

“The elections of 2010 brought us sharply to the right. w here we go from here will be determined by this year’s election.”

Contact Christian Myers at cmyers8@nd.edu

l eopold, who has worked with shows like “w ill and grace,” “c heers,” “seinfeld” and “The chevy c hase show,” converted from Judaism to catholicism a few years ago. at the beginning of the show, l eopold explained the title of his program.

“g od was fine, he wasn’t lost,” he said. “i may have been a little bit, but he was fine.”

The performance included an array of jokes about his life growing up but also some commentary on how he got to where he is today. The show told the story about his personal journey to faith and finding his place in the world with g od by his side.

“That’s the great thing about having faith and religion — feeling like you belong,” he said.

l eopold grew up in a Jewish family in m iami but never re-

“That’s the great thing about having faith and religion — feeling like you belong.”

Tom Leopold comedic writer

ally gave much thought to g od as a child or even as an adult. he said when he got married and had his two daughters, he still had not truly considered why or how he had been so fortunate.

“i knew [my family] was blessed,” he said. “i never stopped to think by who, i just knew that we were lucky.”

l eopold said his religious experiences began to change a few years ago when his youngest daughter became deathly ill and had to be hospitalized.

a fter the family experienced a particularly difficult c hristmas eve away from her while she underwent treatment, he said he felt “so sad that i could break” and decided to pray to g od for a sign.

“i didn’t know how to do it, but i actually started to pray,”

“religion is a leap of faith,” he said. “a fter everything i had been through and that had happened to me, i was ready to leap.”

Tonight’s performance concluded l eopold and comedian bill persky’s two-day visit to the college.

persky, a five-time e mmy award winning writer, director and producer, is best known for his work on “The dick van d yke show,” “Kate and a llie,” “That girl,” “w ho’s the boss” and “The cosby show.”

persky introduced l eopold during Thursday’s performance, and he said the headliner was a man very dear to him.

during the trip, the comedic pair met with students for meals, taught private master classes and gave workshops.

The duo also worked closely with english, theatre and communication students for discussion panels. This was persky’s second visit to saint mary’s in just six months and l eopold’s first visit to the college.

persky said he was very excited to be back at saint mary’s.

“it feels like coming back home,” he said. “we’ve spent a lot of time with the students here and they give you hope for the future. The young women at this school are so delightful.”

senior rose Franzen was on of the students able to eat lunch with l eopold and persky during their visit. she also attended the various workshops, master classes and l eopold’s one-man show.

Franzen said she especially enjoyed Thursday evening’s performance for its inclusion of faith and g od into the world of humor and laughter.

“i thought [the performance] was really great,” she said. “i loved how he wove his comedy into his religious experience. l ike he said — it’s not perfect, it’s him.”

Contact Bridget Feeney at bfeene01@saintmarys.edu

tailgate

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be interconnected, but in fact are often part of cohesive and long-lasting social communities.

“it’s not just a bunch of private parties going on; there are communities stretching back over a hundred years,

“There are neighborhoods of people that have been tailgating with one another practically forever.”

John Sherry marketing professor

over multiple generations,” s herry said. “There are neighborhoods of people that have been tailgating with one another practically forever.”

s herry said tailgating offers participants the opportunity to interact with friends and family but also leads to frequent bonding among strangers, with some choosing to “adopt” neighbors and new acquaintances into their parties.

he said this willingness among notre d ame fans to incorporate strangers into

“Tailgaters

are creating Notre Dame essentially; they’re rounding out the brand that the University stands for.”

John Sherry marketing professor

the university family is what makes notre d ame tailgating unique.

“ w hat strikes me about notre d ame tailgating is the sheer number of times people talk about the activity in family terms,” s herry said. “Fans take in rivals from other teams, invite them to tailgate and introduce them to other notre d ame fans. They try

to share the notre d ame experience with everyone who comes through.”

s herry said tailgating also defies the conventional marketing perception of a brand as a passive concept; consumers play an important role in continuously shaping and defining a brand’s image. Tailgating at notre d ame displays the reality of this formative interaction between consumers and a brand, s herry said.

“Tailgaters are creating notre d ame essentially; they’re rounding out the brand that the university stands for,” sherry said. “not just the tradition in itself that the university represents, but these hundreds of other individual traditions people are crafting that become intimately connected with what notre d ame means.”

s herry said he is impressed with how notre d ame shapes the football game-day experience, creating a safe and positive atmosphere without excessive regulation. however, he also said some fans are concerned with the increasing infringement of new building construction on traditional tailgating spaces.

“The bigger the university gets, the more spaces for tailgating get cannibalized,” s herry said. “From a tailgater’s perspective, that has been the greatest concern, the gradual loss of space to actually do it.”

h aving studied notre d ame tailgating extensively, s herry said he is now interested in branching out to see if his findings apply well to other schools around the country.

s herry said the lack of appreciation for the complexities of tailgating is a great example of why we should all stop and pay closer attention to the world around us.

“s o much of what we do in everyday life is just participation, it’s like fish in a fish bowl, you’re not paying attention to the context of events because you’re busy living them,” he said. “ w hen you slow down and focus on what’s actually going on with tailgating, see all the amazing behaviors and cuisines being developed, it’s truly incredible.”

Contact Dan Brombach at dbrombac@nd.edu

Hesburgh

con T inued F rom page 1 across the nation, a time when students rebelled against administrators at university of c alifornia, b erkeley and c olumbia university.

“i was on many … national organizations for educational development and growth, so i was in daily touch with many of the leaders of higher education,” hesburgh said. “ s o all of that was helpful, and it was fortunate that i was around long enough to get to know many of those people as life-long friends, and they were all very helpful of course.”

l ike at other schools across the country, anger boiled at notre d ame. b ut hesburgh engaged students rather than ran from them, even as bricks flew through the windows of presidents’ offices at other schools, he said. a t the height of student revolution around the country, hesburgh penned a letter to the student body in February 1969 outlining notre d ame’s policy on dissent and protest. The letter, soon known across the country as his “Tough 15-m inute r ule,” also ran in The new york Times.

“i believe that i now have a clear mandate from this university community to see that: (1) our lines of communication between all segments of the community are kept as open as possible, with

all legitimate means of communicated dissent assured, expanded and protected; (2) civility and rationality are maintained; and (3) violation of another’s rights or obstruction of the life of the university are outlawed as il-

“I’ve found that students are wonderful people if you understand them.”

Fr. Theodore Hesburgh University President Emeritus

legitimate means of dissent in this kind of open society,” the letter stated.

The letter continued to explain any student who did protest, violently or nonviolently, in a way that infringed the rights of others would be given 15 minutes to reconsider and stop his actions. i f that student chose not to do so, he could turn in his id card at the end of 15 minutes and consider himself suspended. s tudents without id cards would be charged with trespassing and disturbing the peace on private property.

“m ay i now say in all sincerity that i never want to see any student expelled from this community because, in many ways, this is always an educative failure,” the letter stated. “e ven so, i must likewise be committed to

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the survival of the university community as one of man’s best hopes in these troubled times.”

more than 40 years after hesburgh sat down in the early hours of the morning to write that letter, he sat again in his office. The smell of cigar smoke hung in the air. The dome is visible out the west window, shining in the early afternoon sun over hesburgh’s shoulder.

“i found that students are wonderful people if you understand them,” hesburgh said. “a nd what you have to understand is they’re not full-fledged adults. They are people moving toward that goal. … you have to kind of be patient with ‘em because they make some mistakes, but you also have to be friends with them so you can help them in their career of growth.”

it’s been 60 years since hesburgh first sat in the o ffice of the p resident. h is office is now on the 13th floor of the library, but it still sees a steady stream of students.

They read his newspapers aloud, and he listens.

he tells his stories, and they listen.

“i have found students a delight rather than a menace,” hesburgh said. “i ’ve learned a lot from them. i hope they’ve learned something from me.”

Contact Megan Doyle at mdoyle11@nd.edu

Libya

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“wasn’t altogether surprising,” political science professor sebastian rosato said.

“it was a tragic event, especially given the circumstances. This is a guy who had worked hard to help libyans overthrow [col. moammar] gadhafi and clearly cared about the libyan people,” rosato said. “it was surprising that it was the ambassador … but it was completely unsurprising that an american representative was targeted and, in this case, killed by someone.”

according to media reports, fighters involved in the benghazi attack said it was provoked by the release of an american-made film that depicted the prophet muhammad, the founder of islam, as a “villainous, homosexual and child-molesting buffoon.”

The benghazi attack also occurred just hours after an unarmed mob stormed the u s embassy in cairo in protest of the same video. such actions on the part of americans do not go without provoking potentially serious consequences, rosato said.

“in this situation, people have started riots in reaction to a filmmaker who has made a crazy film. They’re upset and protesting and targeting americans, but why is anybody surprised?” he said. “The united states is not a country that people like in the middle east.”

The strong american presence abroad, especially in the middle east, combined with the extreme actions of a few individuals can create tense situations, rosato said.

“if you have a presence in other countries and americans do crazy stuff like come out with movies like this, people are going to retaliate,” he said. “you don’t expect that they’re going to target and kill the ambassador, but things are going to happen.”

rosato said the extreme response to the american-made film in benghazi is somewhat analogous to american treatment of muslims after the sept. 11 terrorist attacks, using last month’s shooting at a wisconsin sikh temple as an example.

“my understanding is that [the shooting] was done by someone who mistook sikhs for muslims,” he said.

“The parallels are quite interesting: an extreme act by a small proportion of muslims has led to people

irish

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paid a dverT isemen T paid a dverT isemen T

between what they perceive i reland to be and what i reland actually is. … i don’t think we live up to expectations,”

c ollins said. “They think we’re fakes, we have to keep proving we’re i rish because apparently other fellows put on the accent and because we don’t all have

being killed on american soil, but the same thing happened when an extreme act by an american filmmaker has led to americans being killed abroad.”

while americans may be quick to generalize about libyans and their attitude towards the united states in the wake ofsstevens’ death, rosato said the attack has more to do with the mentality of a very small group of people than the collective national perception of americans.

“Just as americans would get upset if someone in another country did something that violated their beliefs, people got upset in libya,” he said. “but just because some people in libya killed an american doesn’t mean all libyans want to kill americans. was this a small fringe group that took advantage of a mass disturbance? my guess is yes.”

despite the tragedy of losing the first u.s. ambassador in the line of duty since 1979, rosato said deaths of americans abroad are not unusual.

“There’s a huge human tragedy here … but there always have been and always will be attacks on american nationals abroad,” he said. “The reason we’re paying attention

ginger hair. … i think they expect us to be jigging about the place and drinking all the time.”

o’donoghue said watching the i rish play navy in i reland was an amusing experience for the graduate students.

“ we were at o’rourke’s p ublic house for the i rishnavy game, and this camera crew found out we were i rish,

to this one is because [stevens] was so high-profile, but in terms of international politics, this is not a big event.”

in reality, most americans killed in other countries do not receive the heightened media attention given to prominent figures like stevens, rosato said.

“i think the result tends to

and the reporter came over to interview us,” o’donoghue said. “ we told her we came over [to the u s.] to watch the game.”

o’donoghue said the academic atmosphere provided for the students allows for collaborative innovation and building networks.

“There are a bunch of startup companies in i nnovation park, and we’re immersed in there,” o’donoghue said. “it’s a great place to be located. … There are a lot of research labs and plenty of room.”

esT eem’s students study in i nnovation park, the space developed to house multiple start-up companies in addition to the program’s participants. students complete 12 credit hours of customized commercial courses and six credit hours of science and/or engineering electives.

c ollins said i reland’s undergraduate universities structure their programs very differently from the a merican model.

“ we’d have maybe three assignments at most in a given month, whereas here, there’s at least something every week — it’s a different kind of system,” c ollins said. “i bought one book in my four years of undergrad, and i have seven at the moment.”

e ach student in the esT eem program also completes a capstone thesis, a yearlong project culminating in the defense of the thesis in early June. The projects are picked based on personal skills and interests, mc c arthy said.

“o ne great thing about esT eem is that even though my project wasn’t on the list over the summer when we were trying to work out what our projects should be, when i came they could see that i wasn’t exactly fitting into a

blow the event out of proportion. americans get killed all the time in iraq and afghanistan, but we call that war,” he said. “This somehow seems worse because it happened to a civilian diplomat, but it goes on all the time.”

Contact Kristen Durbin at kdurbin@nd.edu

project that suited me, so they saw that this other project is going on somewhere else and put me into that stream,” he said.

mc c arthy said he wanted to use what he learned as an energy engineer in his undergraduate studies in his thesis project.

“my technical basis is generating electricity, and i did charity work in Zambia, which are brought together perfectly for me in my project,” mc c arthy said. “i’m working on bringing renewable technologies into third world countries to promote economic growth.”

o’sullivan said his association with his project grew out of his ability to bring a unique perspective.

“i’m working on the development and application of ionic liquids,” o’sullivan said. “The reason that they’re interested in me is that everyone who was helping them so far were all chemical engineers and all think the same, so they were looking with someone who thinks differently — that’s why they’re interested in me.”

mcQuillan said he is excited about the potential of his project as a marketable concept.

“i’m working on a healthcare mobile application,” he said. “i think it has a lot of potential — it’s a big market and i think it will be a good area to get involved with.”

c ollins said the program is perfect for science and engineering graduates who harbor ambitions about pursuing business.

“i think all of us have ambitions to go into business, it’s ideal for that point of view,” c ollins said. “it’s a fantastic opportunity to pursue.”

Contact Nicole Michels at nmichels@nd.edu

Romney criticizes Obama on campaign trail

Candidates exchange blows over financial issues, foreign policy as Election Day nears

Associated Press

Fair Fa X, va. (ap) — republican mitt romney accused president barack obama on Thursday of “failing a merican workers” by ignoring chinese trade violations, and seized on new Federal reserve attempts to boost the economy as proof the administration’s policies are not working.

obama campaigned as commander in chief after the violent deaths of four u s. officials at a diplomatic post in l ibya. “no act of terror will go unpunished ... no act of violence shakes the resolve of the united states of a merica,” he said.

The president spoke in colorado and romney in v irginia with less than eight weeks remaining in a close campaign for the w hite house in tough economic times. The two states are among a handful likely to settle the race, and most polls rate obama a shaky favorite.

w ith campaign costs mounting, romney and obama competed for the most innovative fundraising appeal.

The republican challenger’s campaign urged people in an email to make a $15 donation for a chance to join “mitt on board the campaign plane for an exciting day on the campaign trail — at 30,000 feet!”

singer and actress beyonce Knowles and hip-hop-artisthubby Jay Z countered for the president. “Jay and i will be meeting up with p resident obama for an evening in nyc sometime soon,” she wrote. “a nd we want you to be there.” a s with a day aboard romney’s chartered jet, a donation was requested for a chance to win.

only the fine print of both fundraising appeals made clear that no contribution was necessary to win.

romney’s focus on the economy followed a one-day campaign detour into a foreign-policy thicket that left him bruised and his quarry largely unscathed. he made

little mention during the day of the events in egypt and l ibya that he had cited Tuesday as evidence of national security weakness on the president’s part.

The issue intruded, though, when a heckler at romney’s rally yelled out, “w hy are you politicizing l ibya?” The crowd responded with chants of “u-s-a” and supporters tried to place a romney/ryan placard in front of the heckler’s face.

“we’re going to crack down on china,” the former massachusetts governor vowed in an appearance in the v irginia suburbs around washington, d c he spoke after his campaign unveiled a television commercial claiming that china has outpaced the united states in new manufacturing jobs since the president took office. “seven times obama could have stopped china’s cheating. seven times he refused,” it says.

The president pushed back. w hite house spokesman Jay carney told reporters that all the actions the administration has initiated at the world Trade organization to rein in china have been successful. The president’s campaign said obama has brought as many cases challenging china trade policies in 3 ½ years as former president g eorge w bush did in eight. inevitably, the Fed’s new attempt to intervene in the economy became enmeshed in the campaign.

The nation’s central bank said it will spend $40 billion a month to buy mortgage bonds for as long as it deems necessary to make home buying more affordable. it plans to keep shortterm interest rates at record lows through mid-2015 — six months longer than previously planned — and made clear it’s ready to try other measures to stimulate the economy if hiring doesn’t improve.

“The idea is to quicken the recovery,” said Fed chairman ben bernanke at a news conference where he announced the latest attempts to jolt a slow-growth

economy that has left joblessness at 8.1 percent.

carney, the w hite house press secretary, declined to comment, citing a long-standing policy when it comes to Fed actions.

but romney, in an interview for abc’s “g ood morning a merica,” summarized the central bank’s moves as an admission of the failure of the president’s own steps to restore robust economic growth. “a nd now the Federal reserve, it says, ‘l ook, this economy is not going well. ... They’re going to print more money.”

Lebanese Shiites held hostage

Associated Press

a Z a Z, syria — a syrian rebel commander holding 10 l ebanese shiites hostage said Thursday he is willing to release the men but fears doing so could set off a wave of reprisal attacks by sunni extremists.

w hat began as an effort to force l ebanon’s shiite militant group hezbollah to stop supporting the syrian regime has become the latest flashpoint in a conflict with growing sectarian overtones.

The rebel leader behind the kidnappings, a mmar al-dadikhli, is a burly former crossborder trader who goes by the nom de guerre abu i brahim.

his 1,200-strong northern storm brigade controls the vital crossing from syria’s a leppo province into neighboring Turkey, and in may he ordered the seizure of the l ebanese shiites, who had been on a bus tour of religious sites in the area, on the grounds they belonged to hezbollah.

he said the kidnappings were aimed at persuading hezbollah, a strident backer of p resident bashar a ssad, to reconsider its commitment to the syrian regime. instead it set off a string of revenge kidnappings by shiite clansmen inside l ebanon, with two Turks and some 20 syrians being snatched by gunmen. a ll but four of the syrians have

paid a dverT isemen T

since been released, with the last Turk freed Thursday night. The stakes are high. if anything were to happen to the l ebanese hostages, who by all accounts have been well treated, it would ignite shiite rage and set fire to l ebanon’s already delicate sectarian balance.

on aug. 24, abu i brahim moved to defuse the situation by releasing one of the hostages, 60-year-old hussein omar, to the Turkish authorities.

omar told media outlets he had been well treated, but the expected release of the 10 others failed to materialize. abu i brahim said Thursday he is holding on to the others for their own safety.

c hicago teachers continue strike

Associated Press

chicago — The city’s public schools will stay closed for at least one more day, but leaders of the c hicago Teachers union and the school district kept talking Thursday, with both sides saying they were drawing closer to a deal to end the nearly weeklong strike.

“ we are optimistic, but we are still hammering things out,” said Karen l ewis, the union president.

word of the progress in negotiations came less than a day after the school board offered to modify a system that would use student test scores to help evaluate teacher performance.

under an old proposal, the union estimated that 6,000 teachers could lose their jobs within two years. a n offer made late wednesday included provisions that would have protected tenured teachers from dismissal in the first year of the evaluations. it also altered categories that teachers can be rated on and added an appeals process.

c lasses were to be canceled for a fifth day Friday. a nd the union called a special delegates meeting for that afternoon, when the bargaining team is scheduled to give an update on contract talks.

l ate Thursday, the school board said its latest proposal was in the hands of the union and that the union bargaining team was meeting separately to discuss it.

board spokeswoman becky c arroll expected a response later in the night.

“ we are at the brink of getting all the key issues addressed so that we can move forward with getting a deal and getting our kids back to school,” she said.

c arroll said the main sticking points are still the evaluation system and the union’s demands that laid-off teachers get top consideration for rehiring. The district worries that could result in principals being forced to hire unsuited teachers.

“ we’ve made many modifications over the last several days to our proposal,” c arroll said. “ we feel that we’re there. a nd at this point, it’s in the c T u’s hands to bring it to a close.” negotiations resumed Thursday with an air of optimism. l ewis predicted that students could be back in class by monday, a week after 25,000 teachers walked out.

“ we’ve made progress in some areas but still we have a way to go,” she said . “Teachers, paraprofessionals and clinicians remain hopeful but energized.”

Jackson potter, staff coordinator for the union, said a host

of issues were still on the table, ranging from the evaluations to air conditioning in schools.

“There’s a sense of urgency today,” said the rev. Jesse Jackson, who stopped by the hotel where the negotiators were working Thursday and spoke to reporters. e arlier in the week, Jackson said the two sides were talking past each other.

The new optimism also was evident among teachers who marched Thursday along m ichigan avenue. They were joined by marching bands and protesters carrying balloons, pushing strollers and waving c hicago flags.

i n the crowd was high school history teacher a nthony smith, who wants the district to be fair and give all public schools the same resources so they can succeed. The negotiating points include a policy to hire back teachers who get laid off due to school closures

“o ne school being closed down because they didn’t give it proper resources and proper attention is unfair,” said smith, a 25-year classroom veteran. e arlier, teachers picketed at their schools, as they’ve done every day this week.

“i know that we will have a good resolution to this, and i do believe it will be soon,” said m ichelle gunderson, an elementary school teacher on the city’s north side. The negotiators “do not mean to have us be embroiled in this for longer than we have to.”

s chool districts nationwide have grappled with issues surrounding teacher assessments. The obama administration has given states incentives to use student performance as a component of evaluations, though the issue has been most contentious in c hicago.

Teachers say it’s unfair to use test scores to evaluate them, citing the many factors beyond their control that affect student learning: poverty, hunger and the inability to speak fluent e nglish, to name just a few.

c hicago’s walkout canceled class for approximately 350,000 students and left parents scrambling to make other arrangements for young children. The district has kept some schools open on a limited basis, mostly to provide meals and supervision. more than 80 percent of c hicago public school students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

The walkout is the first c hicago teachers strike in 25 years. a 1987 walkout lasted 19 days.

c hicago mayor r ahm e manuel has called the strike unnecessary and repeatedly urged the union to continue negotiating with students in class.

inSide CoLumn

Keep Tupac’s flame alive

Adam Llorens news writer

hip-hop, in its purest form, provides listeners with a glimpse into a society often excluded from the american political and social landscape.

often misinterpreted as music solely pertaining to the subjects of money, cars and personal success, rap gives a voice to the thousands of people struggling in urban areas across the country.

no artist was a better spokesman for the forgotten people than Tupac shakur.

yesterday, the world celebrated the life and music of Tupac on the 16th anniversary of his death. Today, we remember the issues he fought for, many of which are still fought for today. while the labels of thug, criminal and gangster may be the first you use to describe Tupac, consider adding trailblazer, activist and poet to your vocabulary. if this sounds doubtful, just break down the lyrics of “Keep ya head up,” a social commentary about the lives of thousands of inner-city women working to make ends meet for their children.

Tupac preaches, “it’s time to kill for our women / Time to heal our women / be real to our women.” he then adds, “since a man can’t make [a baby] / he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one.”

while lyrics like these cannot be found in the latest track from lil wayne, listeners must understand the various intentions of rappers in the 21st century. nearly all artists today, including lil wayne, are in the game to sell records by giving their audiences what they want to hear. in other words, they rap from their wallets. Tupac was in the game to bring awareness and changes to problems plaguing his brothers and sisters. he spoke from his heart instead. examine the one-to-one message pac gave his fans in “unconditional love.”

he says, “my mission is to be more than just a rap musician / The elevation of today’s generation / if i could make ‘em listen / prison ain’t what we need, no longer stuck in greed / Time to play and strategize, my family’s gotta eat.” it’s obvious rap music isn’t made like it used to be.

while life goes on and rappers today continue to rake in millions, it seems as if Tupac’s legacy gets dimmer each passing year. 16 years after his death, the dark day has arrived where songs like “The motto,” “work hard, play hard” and “cashin’ out” are considered standard hits in the genre, while poetic tracks like “dear mama,” “heartz of men” and “changes” are labeled as endangered.

prior to his death, Tupac asked how long the world would mourn him once he passed away.

The hip-hop community must take a page from Tupac’s playbook to keep his flame alive. otherwise, the doomsday of the genre draws nearer as rap continues to stray away from its soul.

“To all the seeds that follow me, protect your essence. born with less, but you’re still precious. Just smile for me now.”

Contact Adam Llorens at allorens@nd.edu

The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Getting serious about sexual assault

the university’s deputy i X c oordinator who oversees every investigation of alleged sexual crime on campus.

we have to admit it. w hen we got the emails monday and Tuesday night, we laughed. w hen notre dame s ecurity police ( ndsp) alerted students to two separate reports of “forcible fondling” within 24 hours of each other, we chuckled to ourselves and then shrugged it off.

The alliteration seemed to be begging for a witty tweet. o ur best puns seemed too good not to be shared with our followers and friends. o n monday night, we giggled. o n Tuesday night, the jokes seemed to fall into our laps.

we have to admit it — we laughed.

a nd now we have to think about it. For one person on campus, each crime alert wasn’t a joke. it was a reminder of a situation that was probably scary and scarring. a nd that’s an alliteration that isn’t quite as hilarious.

i n a pril 2011, the d epartment of e ducation asked all colleges and universities to update their guidelines on how to handle reports of sexual assault. The department’s new requirements were meant to streamline investigations, encourage reporting of these incidents and to identify “bad actors,” or repeated perpetrators of sexual assault.

a fter the changes prompted by those new requirements, the beginning of this school year was also the beginning of notre dame’s second year with its most updated sexual assault policy. i n august, The observer reported eight cases of alleged sexual assault had been investigated in the policy’s first year. six additional cases of alleged sexual harassment, which include a variety of environmental concerns such as language or posters, were also investigated throughout the year. That number greatly exceeded the number of expected reports, but the administration saw that as positive because victims were speaking up, rather than remaining silent.

ndsp is required by law to alert students to crime on campus, including any incidents of sexual assault or harassment reported directly to their department. The language in these reports is standardized to identify what crime happened as clearly as possible. o ther reports of sexual assault or harassment might not be reported through ndsp alerts if they are directed to administrators like d r. bill stackman,

These measures — a new sexual assault policy, a responsible system of communication — are in place to make us more aware of what happens on our campus. every time we get those crime reports, we breeze through the standard warnings, the disclaimers about being safe. but they say more than we realize — almost every sexual crime committed on a college campus is motivated by alcohol and is committed by an acquaintance.

Translate that sentence. a lmost every incident of unwanted sexual contact, whether it’s inappropriate groping in a sweaty, semi-lit dorm room or a dance-floor kiss that suddenly goes too far, happens because we’re binge drinking, and it happens with someone we know. s omeone we see in class or in the dining hall, not someone who jumps out from behind a bush on the quad and attacks.

That thought isn’t meant to make us scared. it’s meant to inform us. These email alerts aren’t meant to entertain us. They’re meant to help us protect ourselves and our friends. l aughing about “forcible fondling” might make the freshman who overheard you guffawing think the way someone touched her at a dorm party wasn’t a big deal. Joking about ndsp crime alerts might let new students assume those emails are the norm after a home football weekend of tailgating and gameday fun. mocking these reports might discourage a victim of sexual assault from approaching someone who can help him or her in the aftermath of what is a very real and harmful crime.

That’s not who we are. That’s not notre dame.

The university has worked to dramatically improve its sexual assault policies in the past few years. a s students, we need to take reports of sexual crimes seriously, and we need to be open to mature discussion about the ways we can prevent these incidents in a college environment. we need to join in that effort to make notre dame a place where sexual assault and harassment does not happen. it’s a huge goal, and it’s not going to be easy. but our punny tweets and callous jokes can only stand in the way of getting there.

we have to admit it — we laughed. we now have to admit this situation isn’t actually funny at all.

“every day you may make progress. every step may be fruitful. yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. you know you will never get to the end of the journey. but this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”

Austin Lagomarsino

The Toolbox

w hen most of us think about getting hacked, we usually think of leaving our Facebook open and having someone post offensive statuses for all our friends to see. b ut imagine if it were left wide open for someone more sinister than your roommates. i magine if someone could access all of your conversations: They could see who you are talking to, when you were talking and what you were talking about. b ut even worse, imagine if the hack had come from code written by a malicious hacker intent on using that information against you. n ow imagine it isn’t you we are talking about, but i ran, and it isn’t your Facebook account, but the critical, secret communication logs of the nation’s nuclear program. This is the reality i ran’s fledgling nuclear program had to face this summer when Flame struck their systems.

Flame is the most advanced attack code ever seen, and it was deployed by an unknown entity on the i ranian facilities this summer. Flame recorded all data flow into, out of and inside of the facilities it was deployed against. i n essence, it allowed the user to view all communications and information

Iran on ‘Fire’

regarding the facility.

The code for Flame is very similar to that of s tuxnet, the first cyber-weapon successfully deployed. s tuxnet was also deployed against i ran in the summer of 2010. s tuxnet targeted the u ranium enrichment facilities and was secretly deployed from multiple servers to avoid tracking. a fter being uploaded into the facility, s tuxnet burrowed into the hardware and began to wait. w hen the target was confirmed, it began an attack on the infrastructure of the enrichment facility. u pon activation, the code started spinning the nuclear centrifuges at increasing speeds. w hen the angular momentum reached a certain point, s tuxnet stopped the drive shafts, causing the shaft to shear and break. To make the attack even more devastating, the code also ensured that the various sensor arrays continued to report that nothing was wrong. w hen the code was discovered, the facility was forced to shut down until every trace of the virus could be removed, delaying i ran’s nuclear program for months. s tuxnet and Flame are also highly sophisticated in the way they chose targets: They would exploit zero-days, or loopholes, in the systems, customize in order to avoid detection, and then become active. h owever, the programs would only

target specific systems, notably s iemens systems running certain processes. s ince the combination of criteria is only found in the i ranian facilities, it is understood that these are targeted weapons.

The question is: w ho is pulling the trigger?

d ue to the intensive secrecy of the code and the method of deploying the attack from a chain of unrelated servers, no one knows where the attack came from, and no one has yet come forth. m ost experts theorize the code was written by the u nited s tates and i srael, under o peration o lympic g ames (the u nited s tates’ covert cyber-warfare program), because of the incredibly high level of complexity. i n addition, Flame is equipped with a kill-command, where upon discovery it immediately wipes itself out and deletes all traces that it ever existed in the system.

e ven more frightening is the fact the code is now open source on the internet. i f you desired, you could download the script, edit it to assign new processes and new targets (electrical grids, oil rigs and other infrastructure) and then redeploy it. This means should the wrong people begin to edit it, there could be vast repercussions.

Flame and s tuxnet heralded in a new era of warfare: s uppose

your enemy is developing a nuclear weapons facility on its soil. Traditionally, you would have to initiate a physical attack against the facility, which would result in loss of life, cause political blowback and likely launch an international conflict. n ow imagine that you could secretly deploy a code that would render the facility equally inoperable without the aforementioned consequences. The new face of warfare redefines national security and introduces a new weapon that the traditional defenses of gates, guards and guns are useless against.

The popular culture fascination with cyber-warfare already has a solid following, from films like l ive Free or d ie h ard to the forecasted plot of b lack o ps ii . These seemingly science fiction concepts are quickly becoming a reality. w ith the increasing dependence on computers and technology today for everything from infrastructure to finances, these attacks are only going to become more devastating in the future.

Austin Lagomarsino is a junior aerospace engineering major. He can be reached at alagomar@nd.edu

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

‘you have 150 words. Take a risk.’

c ollege applications are exhausting assignments, both for applicants and for those reviewing them. They require an absurd amount of time and energy, and in the end reveal very little about one as a whole person or as an individual. i personally can’t stand them. i found the entire application process stressful and draining. y our whole future rests in the hands of one of the university’s admissions faculty members, possibly a few if applications exchange desks. s o, no pressure or need to worry, right? o n top of the tedious nature of college applications, they tend to all be the same. There’s the section where you fill out your name, address and sa T scores nearly a dozen times, followed by the dreaded essays. For each school there’s the essay about a significant experience or person, the essay about who or what inspires you and the essay about why you want to attend said university.

h owever, n otre d ame didn’t wholly follow this trend. i ts supplement stood out from other schools to which i was applying. i n their supplement, n otre d ame provided theessay option, “ y ou have 150 words. Take a risk.”

r eading this, i was completely at

a loss for words. Take a risk? w hat does that mean? w hat kind of risk? w hat are the rules? i s this some kind of sick and cruel joke a guy in admissions created as a means to laugh at overwhelmed students like myself? For me, the option was a taunt, a dare to step outside my comfort zone, to take a risk for once and do something that did not ensure success in its doing.

l ike many others at n otre d ame, i was and am a devoted student who likes knowing all the answers and being successful in the classroom and life. s uch an essay just seemed wrong to ask someone applying to n otre d ame.

a fter the initial surprise wore off, i began to seriously think about choosing it as one of my essays. i t basically was offering an opportunity to write about anything i wanted. h owever, as time went by i failed to think of anything i deemed adequate or creative enough for the essay. r ather, i chose to play it safe, to not take the risk, and instead wrote about my significant experience and why i wanted to attend n otre d ame. a fter submitting my application, i forgot about the “take a risk” essay. i enjoyed my winter break and celebrated when i received the big nd envelope in the mail. o nly months later when i was joining the various nd Facebook groups was i reminded of this essay. a mong the

“ i ’m so excited! w ho else is excited for next year?!” and “ w here’s everyone living?” posts, one caught my eye. a student wrote, “a midst all the housing hype, i was wondering if anyone else did the essay topic ‘ y ou have 150 words. Take a risk’ for their application? i f so, what’d you write about? i wrote a song called “ p arty at n otre d ame” to the tune of my beautiful m iley’s “ p arty in the usa .” i expected nobody to respond. b ut then people did. a lot of people. s oon enough there were more than 200 likes and 110 comments about said essay, with many coming from all across the board. s ome wrote poems, some wrote about d isney w orld, some wrote five words or fewer and one wrote about his or her future toy store.

r eading through these comments, all i could think was, ‘ w ho are these people? i am not like them at all! w hat have i gotten myself into?’ b ut after getting past our differences, i realized how much i admired them. They took that risk, with some taking it in a huge way ( i ’m looking at you guy who claimed he simply wrote, “To be continued in the fall of 2012”). i made an error in assuming all overachieving n otre d ame students were unable to step outside the lines and do anything that could possibly jeopardize their future.

From my current position, i see how wrong i was to stereotype n otre d ame students. The truth of the matter is we are all very different, viewing the world in unique and diverse ways. That’s the real reason we were accepted and why we chose this school as our home for four years. w e were not accepted simply because we are intelligent, involved and exhibit leadership, but because we see the world from different angles and appreciate each other’s perspectives. n otre d ame is a place that challenges you, as it did from day one with its application essays. w alking away from this, i see how necessary it is to take risks in life, calculated or not. The expression “leap of faith” is aptly used; having faith and conviction in something, especially yourself, is crucial to success. n otre d ame’s admissions staff recognized this, and therefore put this test within its application. i was afraid of failing and did not take the challenge, but i was happily surprised so many students here now did. s o, take a risk today, whether it’s like you to do so or not.

Molly Howell is a freshman Anthropology and International Economics major, as well as a Gender Studies minor. She can be reached at mhowell5@nd.edu.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

By COURTNEY COX

ssociate

a nyone who says south bend lacks high culture hasn’t heard about the wednesday wine walk.

This fun event takes you through eight restaurants once a month for a sampling of fine wine and great food.

The crowd was mostly middle-aged people looking to sample good wine and good food, but it was much less intimidating than i first expected.

we started at The vine.

The first dish was volcano shrimp paired with Zed sparkling moscato rose. The shrimp could have been spicier but when paired with the rose it seemed very light and fresh.

The second dish was a greek chicken meatball paired with Firesteed pinot gris. The meatball was a little on the chewy side and a bit underwhelming.

The final dish at The vine was a stuffed mushroom paired with cayalla table wine. w hile the cayalla seemed a little bitter the stuffed mushroom was excellent.

a fter The vine we moved on to club lasalle, the third floor lounge of lasalle grill.

a ll three wines served at lasalle grill were from australia and were paired with perfectly sized portions of the best food of the night.

The first dish was barramundi fish and chips paired with chateau Tanunda riesling. The pairing of a thin waffled potato chip with a tender fish was delicious and the riesling was crisp and refreshing.

The second dish was a shish kebab of new Zealand lamb loin paired with a blend of shiraz and mourvedre from south australia. The wine blend was a little heavy and the lamb was just nice.

The third dish, my favorite of the night, was a wagyu beef slider paired with a grand barossa. The slider was the perfect tiny portion of succulent beef with a house made pickle. it was done just right and paired with one of the best red wines of the night. it was smooth, not bitter and just right for the burger.

we moved down michigan avenue to Trio’s restaurant and Jazz club. Trio’s focused more on the wine and less on the food. They offered cheese, vegetables and a meat platter.

The first wine, a pinot grigio, was meant to be paired with the vegetables.

The second wine, a valdiguie from an indiana based vineyard, was wine worthy of the made-in-indiana label.

we moved to the exotic with a spanish rioja as the third wine. it was meant to be paired with meat or dark chocolate, but as no chocolate was available we settled for the meat plate that was on the

mediocre side.

next stop on the wine tour was café navarre.

They offered wines from maryhill vineyards in washington state paired with tombo tuna, gazpacho and beef short rib pasta.

The tuna was a bit intimidating because it was served raw, but paired with the maryhill pinot gris it was less frightening and light.

The gazpacho was great but would have benefited greatly from being served with a spoon. The restaurant only offered forks for the tuna and pasta, which was to the detriment of the gazpacho. it was served with a chardonnay from maryhill. i typically steer clear of chardonnay but this was much less harsh than other chardonnays i have had before.

The final course, the short rib pasta was delicious and filling. it was the largest portion of the night and was served with a merlot from maryhill. The merlot was a little on the bitter side and i was told it was a little closer to a cabernet than the typical merlot.

i ended the night at the south bend chocolate café.

it was certainly the most crowded of the venues and would have been much more enjoyable if there were a more open setting.

They put a dessert twist on the evening that served as the perfect ending point.

The first chocolate offered was a dark chocolate toffee paired with a rose, the second offering was a milk chocolate cherry truffle and the third was a dark chocolate peanut cluster paired with a riesling.

a ll were excellent because you really can’t go wrong with chocolate and good wine.

it was difficult to see what wines you were drinking because they didn’t have menus in easily available areas and it was a little less informative than the other restaurants but enjoyable nonetheless. it took about three hours to get through the first five restaurants at a relaxed pace and was a little on the difficult side to make it to the other three restaurants because they weren’t located in the same area.

it was an informative and low-key night perfect for small groups of friends.

next month’s wednesday wine walk is an homage to oktoberfest. each restaurant will serve beer samplings from area breweries.

The downtown dining a lliance has found the perfect way to get people out in downtown south bend and it was a great way to showcase their unique restaurants in a creative way.

Contact Courtney Cox at ccox3@nd.edu

By KEVIN NOONAN

e ditor

looking to go to the movies this weekend? of course you’re not. it’s a dead zone weekend at the movies, the kind of eerie silence you might expect right before you realize you’re suddenly in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Fear not though. next week will be better. look and see films opening next Friday.

“dredd 3d”

Starring: Karl Urban

Directed by: Peter Travis

Studio: Lionsgate

Synopsis: A remake of Sylvester Stallone’s 1995 “Judge Dredd,” considered one of the worst films of the 90s, both financially and critically, this film, inspired by a comic book character, stars Karl Urban (Bones in “Star Trek”) as judge, jury and executioner. It looks more stripped down than the original, and promises to be a fun, if simple, action film.

“e nd of Watch”

Starring: Jake Gyllenhall, Michael Peña

Directed by: David Ayer

Studio: Open Road Films

Synopsis: From the writer of “Training Day” comes an intense, constant motion thriller featuring two LAPD officers who do their jobs a little too well and find themselves in the crosshairs of a drug cartel.

“ t rouble With the Curve”

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake

Directed by: Robert Lorenz

Studio: Warner Bros.

Synopsis: In a film he didn’t also direct for the first time since 1993, Clint Eastwood stars as an aging scout for the Atlanta Braves, whose daughter is determined to help him in spite of his protests.

Contact Kevin Noonan at

Jes Christian scene writer

its here. The occasional brisk day. The wind and rain. school and football well underway. slowly but surely, summer is passing the seasonal baton over to fall and its much cooler temperatures.

regardless of whether we love or hate the arrival of fall, we are all confronted with the same issue when the season finally comes around. as we look through our closets at the shorts, tanks, tees, skirts, and dresses, the reality of the task ahead of us finally sinks in. it’s time to start switching up our wardrobes to suit the colder weather and harsher elements.

For many of us this means pulling tons of clothing out of our closets, throwing it into storage, and restocking with the contents of storage boxes containing our cool weather clothes. The process is often tedious. it forces us to section off our wardrobes, and makes the breakup process between us and our beloved summer season that much more painful.

There is a solution, however, to this fragmented fashion ordeal that we face each year. There is a way to make our parting with summer more palatable. There is a way to hold on to a pocket full of sunshine. put down the hanger, and grab your warmer wardrobe, because below are some cool ways to take what you’ve been wearing and mix it with some warmer pieces so that it still works for fall.

LADIES

substitute bare legs and sandals with tights and boots when wearing summer skirts and shorts. okay – so maybe tights aren’t the greatest form of protection from the colder elements, but lets face it: half of the fashion transition from summer to fall revolves around social normality. in other words, there comes a time when, even if it’s warm enough to wear sandals to class, it’s far enough into fall that they just don’t look quite work. pairing shorts and short skirts with the boot/tights duo keeps you modestly clothed, slightly protected, and really cute without losing great pieces from your summer wardrobe.

xanaxorrunningshoes.com

BOTH

GENTLEMEN

is your old T-shirt no longer getting the job done? add a long-sleeved thermal underneath your favorite tee to add an effective layer of warmth without ruining the look. For when those gamedays get cold, try wearing a black or blue-grey thermal under “the shirt” to keep you warm but still in spirit! you can do this with just about any crew neck tee, and it’s amazing to see what the addition of a couple of thermals can do to transform a summer wardrobe.

substitute fedoras and baseball caps for beanies and other cool winter hats. w hether you’re an everyday hat person or someone who just picks up a cool hat to top off a cute look, this transition is the move for you. if you like fedoras and cowboy hats, trade in those straw looks for knit pieces by picking up trapper hats or baggie beanies. if you’re more traditional and enjoy rocking a simple baseball cap, or you’re sporty and wear snapbacks, try classic skullcap or tassel beanies. you may have to set your summer caps off to the side, but you’ll love the change so much that you wont even miss them, and your new hats will only enhance the rest of your remixed summer looks.

bisouonline.com

BOTH

if it isn’t obvious enough already, try taking an outfit that you once wore with a pair of shorts and subbing longer pants or jeans. if you’re still feeling chilly, then try adding a jean or leather jacket into the mix. between those two additions, you’re dress shirt, favorite tee and summer scarves should transfer nicely into looks for the winter season.

These tips are a great way to get started, but don’t stop here! Keep calm and style on! brainstorm some more tricks on your own, be creative and you’ll find new ways to make pieces work for every season.

Contact Jes Christian at jchrist7@nd.edu

The views in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Small programs strike back

Tailgating and grilling started two weeks ago but we can finally welcome in the college football season. n o more s avannah s tates, no more directional schools, no more cupcakes, just conference games that actually matter.

e very year, in the first few

to face a retooled p enn s tate squad. The b obcats held on for a 10-point victory over the n ittany l ions. d on’t get me wrong, o hio is much improved this season while p enn s tate is not. b ut when this game was scheduled, i ’m sure the n ittany l ions penciled this one in as a win.

p enn s tate learned its lesson.

a nd just last week, a

If you are sitting there and wondering what the Sun Belt is, you probably aren’t alone. No, it is not a fruit snacks company or a Bible-thumping group. It is a conference.

weeks of the season, teams pad their stats and records by scheduling a vastly inferior opponent to saunter into their stadium and gladly take a beating to collect a check. b ut those matchups do not do any good for anyone. They do not help an sec or b ig 12 team sharpen their skills; they certainly do not help the cupcake’s confidence. They do not please fans or television audiences.

The big schools don’t even have anything to gain by taking on inferior opponents. i f lsu rolls over n orth Texas, what do they get? a simple and very expected victory over a team that is barely a blip on the national radar. b ut what if they lose? Their season is a loss and their program will

mighty top-10 power from the sec fell to a s un b elt foe. i f you are sitting there and wondering what the s un b elt is, you probably aren’t alone. n o, it is not a fruit snacks company or a b ible-thumping group. i t is a conference.

l ouisiana- m onroe, a member of the s un b elt, walked into Fayetteville, a rk., last week as huge underdogs and swaggered out of sec country with a monumental win over then- n o. 8 a rkansas. The r azorbacks blew fourthquarter and overtime leads by allowing the warhawks (yes, the warhawks) to convert two big fourth downs. w ith the loss, a rkansas plummeted out of both the top-25 and people’s respect.

a rkansas learned its

So the members of the Football Championship Division, the Sun Belt and the MAC decided to do something about it this year. They fought back.

be ridiculed everywhere. They are just pointless and painful to watch.

s o the members of the Football c hampionship d ivision, the s un b elt and the mac decided to do something about it this year. They fought back.

youngstown s tate, the former annual punching bag of o hio s tate during the Jim Tressel years — after Tressel himself led the program — strolled into p ittsburgh during the first week of the season and knocked off the p anthers. yes, those p anthers that still could earn a berth in a bcs bowl. a nd the mighty p enguins won by two touchdowns, no less.

p ittsburgh learned its lesson.

o hio, the b obcats from the mac , entered an emotional h appy valley two weeks ago

Revis out Sunday with a mild concussion

Associated Press

Florham parK, n.J. — darrelle revis walked off the field thinking he just had a headache — until he started feeling a bit strange.

The new york Jets cornerback suffered what the team called a “mild concussion” — the first of his football career at any level — and it caught him by surprise.

“it’s been a fog, like being in a fog,” revis said Thursday, speaking about his injury for the first time. “i’ve never had a concussion, so this is something you’ve got to get guidance from the training staff and the doctors.”

The Jets will make a decision on revis’ availability before the team travels to pittsburgh on saturday for their game sunday against the steelers.

“i feel good,” he said. “i feel pretty good. i feel like i could play this week, but there are some other procedures we need to do and guidelines we have to follow.

revis has been able to run and lift weights, and attend meetings all week. he added that the foggy feeling he experienced earlier in the week has dissipated, and he hasn’t had any sensitivity to light — a common side effect of concussions.

“it’s cool,” he said before laughing. “i know who you are.”

revis spent practice wednesday and Thursday on the exercise bike on the sideline. he has been cleared for physical activity, but not contact. The team will monitor revis the rest of the week, and if he isn’t cleared by saturday, he won’t fly to pittsburgh with the team.

“if he’s not 100 percent, then darrelle won’t play,” ryan said. “it’s as simple as that.”

revis was injured sunday in the season opener against buffalo when he made a diving attempt to tackle the bills’ c.J. spiller and then teammate bart scott accidentally kicked him in the head.

“i knew he did it,” a smiling revis said, adding that he hasn’t given him any grief. “bart plays aggressive, he plays reckless and of the 10 guys on that field, i knew it was bart. a nd when i asked, everybody said it was bart.”

revis has missed just three games in his career, all in 2010, and is eager to get back on the field, especially with a tough matchup coming up with the steelers trio of speedy receivers in mike wallace, a ntonio brown and emmanuel sanders. he said he is preparing off the

practice as though it’s any other week, with playing being the goal.

“it’s a repeated cycle every day of going through these procedures and testing,” revis said. “hopefully, you know, i pass them and move on with my life.” w hen asked if there’s any part of him that might want to err on the side of caution this week, revis quickly answered: “it’s not my call. it’s the doctors’ call. w hatever they say goes. i would try to be out there with a broken leg. i’m sure they know that. it’s the competitive spirit in me that just wants to go out there and play.”

“if i feel fine, which i do, then we’ll go from there.”

Kyle wilson would slide into revis’ starting spot opposite a ntonio cromartie if the a ll-pro can’t go. ellis lankster would likely move into wilson’s spot as the Jets’ nickelback.

lesson.

s ure, you are still going to have teams like Florida s tate schedule two lackluster opponents to open the season (yes, i do realize s avannah s tate was a backup plan when west v irginia backed out of the game).

i understand the excuses that some teams extend. “ o ur conference schedule is too tough.” “ o ur old coach is there now.” “ m y buddy is the director of athletics there.”

b ut understand them is all i do. i do not agree with them nor do i like them.

b ut maybe some schools will realize cupcakes just don’t taste that good.

Contact Matthew DeFranks at mdefrank@nd.edu

The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Michigan tickets 45 yard line 4 together. Call 609-471-9511

Wante D

WANTED: ACCOUNTING TUTOR for semester; begin immediately; great compensation; pls call 419-351-9178

After-school Care Needed. Seeking female college student to pick up two children from school in South Bend, bring to home in Mishawaka, and supervise homework. Hours 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (the latest). Call 574-274-3778.

Joe Walsh: Life’s Been Good

I have a mansion, forget the price.Ain’t never been there they tell me it’s nice.

I live in hotels, tear out the walls.I have accountants pay for it all.

After-school Care Needed Seeking female college student to pick up two children from school in South Bend, bring to home in Mishawaka, and supervise homework. Hours 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (the latest). Call 574-274-3778.

They say I’m crazy, but I have a good time.

I’m just looking for clues at the scene of the crime.

Life’s been good to me so far.

My Masarati does one-eighty-five. I lost my license, now I don’t drive.

I have a limo, ride in the back. I lock the doors in case I’m attacked.

I’m makin’ records, my fans they can’t wait. They write me letters, tell me I’m great.

So I got me an office, gold records on the wall.

Just leave a message, maybe I’ll call. Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through.

(Everybody say I’m cool......He’s cool)

I can’t complain but sometimes I still do.

Life’s been good to me so far

(One really fantastic guitar solo that radio idiots too often cut up)

young i rish squad begins season in east l ansing

By ISAAC LORTON sports writer

The young i rish team will be coming out swinging this weekend as it looks to topple tough competition in the 28th annual mary Fossum i nvitational.

sixteen teams will participate in the season-opening match in east l ansing, m ich. a strong field at the beginning of the year will provide the i rish with an early glimpse of how they will compete in their upcoming season, i rish coach susan holt said.

“This tournament will certainly give us an opportunity to see where we will be at,” holt said. “p urdue is consistently in the top-25 and has gone to the finals the past seven years. [ p urdue] won the title a few years back. m ichigan state will also be there, and they are a hard team to beat at home. it will be a good test for us right out of the gate. [ despite being a young team] it is important no matter what the situation that we get out to a hot start.”

The no. 22 boilermakers represent highly-ranked opposition, and the spartans have won in seven of the past 10 years at their home course.

The circumstances facing inexperienced i rish freshmen l indsey weaver, Talia campbell and Katherine guo do not faze holt, she said.

“i expect them to do well,” holt said of her freshman trio. “They are very experienced. They have been playing in national tournaments for a number of years. it’s just another golf tournament for them. That’s the way they have to look at it. They should have no problem; it’s just another round of golf.”

holt said her returning players — junior Kristina n him and sophomores a shley a rmstrong and Kelli oride — will be the strong foundation the team needs. n him is a two-time a ll-big e ast honoree, while a rmstrong was the big e ast Freshman of the year in 2012 and took first in the big e ast tournament. The three returning players put up a stroke average of 77.3 in the 2011-2012 season.

“They are ultimately the most experienced in collegiate competition,” holt said. “between them, they have played in every tournament since they have been at notre dame. They will be our consistent contributors day-to-day.

paid a dverT isemen T

i f they put up the numbers they are capable of, we should compete. we have the depth on our team for [consistency] not to be an issue. one girl may have a bad day, but we have the depth that the four others should have good rounds.”

l ooking past this first tournament, holt said the team has high goals for the season. i n a recent meeting the team went over in reverse order what they want to achieve this year.

“we had a meeting and went through our goals,” holt said. “year-to-year they tend to be the same. we work backwards with our goals. o ur final goal is to reach the [ ncaa] finals. we want to win the big e ast. Then it goes down to the 10 tournaments that we are going to try and post top-five finishes in and have our stroke total under 300. we want to put ourselves in a good position in april and may to compete for a national championship.”

The i rish will tee off at the 6,326-yard, par-72 Forest a kers west course in e ast l ansing this saturday beginning at 9 a.m.

Contact Isaac Lorton at ilorton@nd.edu

Mariners fall to Blue Jays, 8-3

Associated Press

T oron T o — Felix hernandez summed up his latest loss in one word: terrible.

e dwin e ncarnacion hit his 40th home run, a dam l ind also connected and the Toronto b lue Jays beat the s eattle m ariners 8-3 Thursday night to send hernandez to his third straight defeat.

“That was terrible right there,” a frustrated hernandez said.

hernandez (13-8) allowed a season-high seven runs and 10 hits in four innings, struck out four and walked one. he has a 9.00 era in his last three outings, losing three consecutive starts for the first time since s ept. 12-24 last year.

“it looked like his stuff was pretty good,” s eattle manager e ric wedge said. “he just didn’t have the same location that you normally see him have.”

hernandez matched a season-high by giving up 11 hits to o akland in his last start, and complained afterward that none of his pitches had been working.

“Today, nothing was working, either,” he said after being beaten around by the b lue Jays.

hernandez is 2-3 since throwing the major leagues’ 23rd perfect game against Tampa b ay on a ug. 15.

“i have to do something,” he said. “The last three starts have been disappointing.”

e ncarnacion hit a three-run shot in a five-run fourth inning as the b lue Jays avoided a three-game sweep.

e ven hernandez was impressed after e ncarnacion sent a changeup into the second deck in left.

“o h, man, that was long,” hernandez said. “That’s a pretty good one right there.

it was a good pitch, it was down.”

e ncarnacion’s shot gave him 102 rbi s, the first time he has topped 100.

“i have eight years playing in the big leagues, i never got to 80,” e ncarnacion said. “it’s not easy to get to 100 rbi s. not many people make it to 100 rbi s so that’s the bigger thing for me.”

l ind’s homer was a two-run shot to right in the first.

henderson a lvarez (9-12) allowed three runs in seven innings to beat his childhood idol. b oth pitchers were born in valencia, venezuela.

“( hernandez) is the guy that i always follow,” a lvarez said through a translator. “i’m always looking forward to see what he’s doing so he can accomplish the same thing.”

a lvarez, who walked three and struck out two, has won back-to-back starts for the first time since July 22-28.

“he was throwing hard and it looked like his velocity stayed with him throughout the game,” s eattle’s John Jaso said. “h is fastball had good life on it and he kept it going.”

b rad l incoln and a aron l oup each worked one inning of relief as Toronto avoided a sixth straight defeat to s eattle.

Trailing 2-0 on l ind’s homer, the m ariners tied it in the second on c arlos p eguero’s two-run double over left fielder r ajai d avis.

b rett l awrie’s two-run single put the b lue Jays ahead in the fourth, c olby r asmus walked and e ncarnacion followed with his homer. he moved one behind Texas slugger Josh h amilton, who leads the major leagues with 41 homers.

“This is a very good righthanded power hitter,” b lue Jays manager John Farrell said of e ncarnacion. “he’s having one heck of a year for us.”

Cavanaugh

year for us as we had a lot of inexperienced young talent,” senior captain and quarterback Kat leach said. “This year we are more seasoned and boast a very strong freshman class.”

The wild women hope an influx of talent, led by freshman quarterback Frances mitchell, will combine with an experienced defense to push them into contention. returning starters on defense include senior captain lindy sanchez at cornerback and seniors a lex meyer, a lyssa casill and Jen rawding along the defensive line. with leach returning at quarterback, the wild women will look for the upset victory sunday.

“we want to come out strong this weekend and show that walsh is ready to play,” leach said.

walsh and cavanaugh face off sunday at 6 p.m. at la bar Fields.

Contact Casey Karnes at wkarnes@nd.edu

Farley vs. ryan

By RICH HIDY sports writer

a matchup of two top teams will take place when Farley faces ryan on monday.

Farley, coming off a semifinal appearance in last year’s playoffs, will look to excel with a roster of several newcomers.

“we are a young team this year with completely new players,” Finest senior captain courtney currier said. “we need to figure out how we play together.”

Farley will look to get its historically inconsistent offense on track to start the season, currier said.

“we had a great defense last year that carried our offense,” she said. “we need to get better with our offensive skills and getting the ball down the field.”

leading Farley’s offense will be junior lauren ladowski, a dual-threat quarterback making her first start. ladowski will pair with speedy sophomore running back madison nelson. currier said Farley is anxious to show the improvements it has made on the field.

“we are excited to get to know each other,” currier said. “we have uncertainty but not a nervous uncertainty. we have the confidence that we will be able to do this.”

compiling a 6-0 regular season record in 2011, ryan carries a title of preseason favorite into its matchup with Farley.

“we will have a lot to prove,” ryan senior captain maya pillai said. “we are coming off an undefeated regular season and return a strong core of our team.” led by dynamic junior receiver maddie swan on offense and junior leah Fisher on defense, the wildcats expect to be strong on both sides of the ball.

“we need to play like we know how to play,” pillai said. “we expected to mercy-rule teams last year.”

even though the wildcats aim to win, pillai said they want to have fun along the way.

“we were the first freshman class in ryan,” pillai said. “we are establishing a tradition of excellence.”

Farley and ryan face off monday at 10 p.m. at the riehle Fields at stepan.

pasquerilla West vs. breen-phillips

in a Tuesday evening matchup, pasquerilla west will take on breen-phillips with a pivotal victory on the line in the season opener.

pasquerilla west will look to pick up where it left off last sea-

“We have a lot of excited freshmen, and we are using their enthusiasm to propel us. ... We are all friends and a community, and I think that shines on the football field.”

Molly Toner junior

son, when the purple weasels lost one regular season game.

“we have a very strong returning team and hopefully we can get our routes down,” pasquerilla west senior captain meghan schmitt said. “we recruited a lot of athletic freshman that can pick up the game really fast.”

The purple weasels will look to succeed with a retooled offense, as sophomore lauren vidal takes over at quarterback. vidal will look to target talented senior receiver a lice yerokun.

“we had a fantastic quarterback that graduated, and she was a two year starter,” schmitt said. “we had to re-work our offense, so hopefully it can get in synch this year.”

schmitt said football brings the purple weasels together as a community.

“we look forward to the season every year,” schmitt said. “we love being with each other and even hanging out on the weekends.”

breen-phillips will look to its season opener with a substantial amount of hope. even though the team finished last season winless and hasn’t won a game in years, junior captain molly Toner said there is optimism for the babes this season.

“we have been practicing really hard and i think we have a good shot of winning [the season opener against pasquerilla west],” Toner said. “They are a great team but we are hoping we can compete this year.”

Toner said the babes will be energized by their large crop of freshmen.

“we have a lot of excited freshmen, and we are using their enthusiasm to propel us,” Toner said. “we are all friends and a community, and i think that shines on the football field.”

pasquerilla west will square off against breen-phillips Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the r iehl Fields at stepan.

Contact Rich Hidy at rhidy@nd.edu

mcGlinn

vs. Lewis

By LESLEY STEVENSON sports writer

with both teams eager for early-season success, mcglinn and lewis will square off monday night for each team’s second game in as many days.

despite starting the season with consecutive games, mcglinn senior captain emily golden said her team would not be deterred by its schedule.

“ we’re really quick; we have a lot of fast girls, and we seem to be in pretty good shape,” g olden said about her team’s strengths. a s many players graduated from last year’s championship team, mc g linn will look for help from its freshmen to repeat its success.

“ we’re a young team, but we’re pretty good so far,” g olden said.

o n the other sideline, l ewis will look to tighten up its communication skills and capitalize on its strong group of returning senior players.

“ we have a great group of seniors, so we’re all basically captains in a way,” senior captain c onnaught blood said.

w hile the team’s freshmen look promising, blood said the key for l ewis is fostering the connections between its new and returning players.

b oth captains highlighted their team’s respective offenses and said the match up could turn into an offensive battle.

g olden said observers should look out for sophomore shamrocks running back e mma c ollis. “i n practice, she’s a beast,” g olden said. “she can make ridiculous catches.”

o n the other side, blood said c hicks junior receiver c olleen h aller will be an asset for the team’s offense.

“she’s really athletic and a pretty good weapon for us,” blood said.

The shamrocks continue on the road to title defense when they face l ewis on monday at 10 p.m. at the r iehle Fields at stepan.

Contact Lesley Stevenson at lsteven1@nd.edu

Lyons vs. Cavanaugh

By DONG-HYUN KIM s ports w riter

lyons and c avanaugh will face off Tuesday in a sequel to last year’s first-round playoff matchup. c avanaugh won 18-6 in last year’s matchup, a part of its run to the championship game.

“l ast year, a big part of our loss was that we lost many players, so everyone played the entire game and we were tired,” lyons captain and cornerback c hristina bramanti said.

lyons hopes for a different result this year, as fresh legs have been added to the

paid a dverT isemen T

l ions squad. a lthough the team consists of many freshmen, senior quarterback e rica m iller, who has had prior experience at the position, figures to be a key element in lyons’s offense.

bramanti said the l ions defense will be crucial in slowing down c avanaugh’s offensive attack in the earlyseason meeting.

“d efense has gotten better at containing the rushing and passing game,” bramanti said. “ we keep c avanaugh in mind because they beat us, and we are taking one step at a time with sunday’s game against [ howard] in mind.”

meanwhile c avanaugh is also very defense-oriented, as the c haos allowed only nine points in the entire regular season last year.

“ we treat every game like it is the most important, against the toughest team,” c avanaugh senior captain rosemary Kelly said. “a djustments may be made but the intention to show our best remains.”

c avanaugh’s offense will include a veteran presence, as senior center Kelly b rakora and senior receiver e rica c henard return for the c haos. c avanaugh will also run a unique three-quarterback rotation, as three strong candidates contend for the starting job.

lyons and c avanaugh will meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at l a b ar Fields.

Contact Dong-Hyum Kim at

Pangborn and Farley ready to meet in opener

Welsh Family takes on Lewis, Pasquerilla East faces McGlinn and Lyons meets Howard in Week One

By SARAH CONNORS sports writer

pangborn and Farley are set to face each other in sunday’s season opener, with each team looking for contributions from its respective young stars.

pangborn senior captain colleen bailey said last year was a rebuilding year for the phoxes. This year, they will look to build on their experience, as all the players on the team return from last season.

“There will be many sophomores on the a team, and the b team is already filled with freshmen waiting for next year,” bailey said.

bailey was very blunt in stating her goals for this year’s pangborn squad.

“The plan for this season is to annihilate everyone,” she said.

Farley, which lost many seniors from last year’s team, will sport a roster filled with sophomores and juniors, many of whom were part of last season’s b-league championship team.

senior captain courtney currier said she hopes that talent and success will carry over to the a-team this season.

Farley will look to win with a strategy that has taken a complete shift from last season. “our defense controlled most of the game last year, and that is not how you win in football,” currier said.

instead, Farley will look to win with an explosive offense. currier said the team has several great running backs and a strong quarterback in junior lauren ladowski.

“we are a team to watch, and we have a lot of star players,” currier said.

with high hopes on the line for

both sides, pangborn will take on Farley sunday at 4 p.m. at l a bar Fields.

Welsh Family vs. Lewis coming off seasons in which they both missed the playoffs, welsh Family and l ewis will realize the promise of a new season when they meet sunday afternoon.

The game will feature a major showdown between senior captains and quarterbacks connaught blood of l ewis and v ictoria moreno of welsh Family, both of whom suit up for their respective teams for the fourth year in a row.

The other major storyline for both teams is youth, as they both feature several new starters.

For l ewis, blood said she hopes the freshmen will be able to see some playing time on the offensive end in sunday’s contest.

“The freshmen are a great group,” blood said. “They are looking especially promising on offense.”

on the other side of the line, l ewis will feature a tough defense, anchored by senior mara catlaw.

welsh Family will deal with similar questions of youth and inexperience as it heads into sunday’s game.

“we have a brand new team,” moreno said. “There are many young players, and we also have new coaches.”

moreno said she is very excited to see what the new coaches have in store for the w hirlwinds. in addition to moreno, welsh Family’s offense will rely on senior receiver Kirsten groody, the w hirlwinds’ top pass catcher last season.

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despite the questions surrounding the team, moreno said welsh Family’s goals for the season are simple: reach the championship game.

“we are going to take it one game at a time, but we really want to make it to the stadium this year,” moreno said.

l ewis and welsh Family are set to play sunday at 5 p.m. at l a bar Fields.

Contact Sarah Connors at sconnor1@nd.edu

pasquerilla east vs. mcGlinn

By MEG HANDELMAN sports writer

pasquerilla east and mcglinn will face off sunday in the kickoff game of their respective seasons.

pasquerilla east is looking forward to getting its freshmen on the field and seeing them contribute. with only two seniors on the team, the p yros will be debuting several new players in their season opener.

pe sophomore macy mulhall will begin her second season as quarterback, and the p yros hope to use mulhall’s skills to get the win this week.

“we’re mostly focusing on building teamwork and learning to play together right now,” pe senior captain a nna perino said. “a ll the skills and plays will come as the season progresses.” perino said she is especially excited for the first game. as captain, she said she is excited to work with the new girls and returning players to create a strong team.

“a ll in all, we love playing flag football … we are going to play hard,” perino said.

coming off of a championship season, mcglinn looks to begin its title defense against the p yros.

“we won last year, so it would be great to be able to do that again,” senior captain emily golden said.

golden, who will play quarterback for the shamrocks, said she is looking forward to playing with the new talent surrounding her.

“we had a lot of girls graduate so right now we are most excited to see the new, younger players get out there and see how everyone performs,” golden said.

one player the shamrocks will rely on is sophomore emma collis, who will start at running back or receiver.

“we’re just going out there to do some trial and error and see what works best to get the team put together in the best way possible,” golden said.

The shamrocks and p yros will face off sunday at 4 p.m. at la bar Fields.

Contact Meg Handelman at mhandelm@nd.edu

Lyons vs. Howard

By SAMANTHA ZUBA sports writer

w hen lyons and howard square off sunday to open the season, both teams will be looking for an offensive rhythm. some returning players figure to be game-changing threats, but the lions and ducks will also incorporate several new faces.

coaches and captains for both teams said the key to this matchup would be seeing how these two groups work together.

howard’s coach, graduate student dan scheper, said he is looking forward to the game as an opportunity for the ducks to formulate a strategy for the season.

“we’ll learn a little bit more about the team, take the opportunity to see how we want to play offense and find what our strengths are,” scheper said.

The ducks have some established threats, including junior clare robinson and sophomore claire Kozlowski.

lyons will also feature upperclassmen, as the team has proven contributors in senior quarterback erica miller and senior aurora Kareh. senior captain christina bramanti said she hopes these returning players can lead the lions to another playoff run.

“aurora is a beast on blocking and defense,” senior captain christina bramanti said.

despite the presence of these leaders, lyons still has questions to answer after losing three players from last year’s team.

bramanti said she believes her team will find those answers when they hit the field and gain some experience.

“we definitely want to win … we have a bigger team this year, a lot of new people, but hopefully once we get out there, everyone will get some confidence,” bramanti said.

The lions and ducks face off in their season openers sunday at 5 p.m. at labar Fields.

Farley vs. pasquerilla West

Farley and pasquerilla west have yet to play a single game, but both teams already possess a strong sense of dorm pride. The Finest and the purple weasels will look to channel their excitement into good football when they clash this sunday.

pasquerilla west senior captain meghan schmitt said her team’s goal is to return to notre dame stadium for the interhall championship game like the purple weasels did in her first two seasons. she attributed the team’s constant success to a culture of group bonding and team spirit.

“we have a lot of girls come out every year,” schmitt said. “20 to 30 freshmen come out because the upperclassmen get so excited about it. we do well because we

like being together.”

schmitt said she hopes her team will mesh just as well on the field. she cites a strong defense, a formidable receiving corps and sophomore quarterback lauren vidal as keys to success for the purple weasels.

last year, many were surprised by Farley’s unexpected b-league championship, but senior captain courtney currier was not. she said the Finest generated a lot of excitement, which translated into on-field success.

“Farley football really took off last year where so many people came out and rec sports finally had the option for dorms to have two teams … a nd they went out and won it all,” currier said. with Farley divided into two teams, freshmen will have more opportunities to prove themselves. This year, one player has caught everyone’s eye, currier said.

“[Freshman] a llie Forlenza is a killer receiver,” currier said. “she really stood out the first day. a nd we were like, ‘w ho is that?’”

The Finest and purple weasels will display their enthusiasm and athleticism sunday at 6 p.m. at la bar Fields.

Contact Samantha Zuba at szuba@nd.edu

Cavanaugh vs. Walsh

By CASEY KARNES sports writer

a fter experiencing disappointing endings to last season, both cavanaugh and walsh will look to generate positive momentum for the season when they battle sunday.

cavanaugh will look to recover from a heartbreaking loss in last year’s championship game, which came after an undefeated regular season. senior captain rosemary Kelly, who plays safety and quarterback, said she believes the chaos have the ability to win the title this year.

“we are looking to go out on top this year,” Kelly said. “our defense should be a huge strength, as we have tons of talent returning from a unit that shut down opponents all season.”

The chaos defense will be bolstered by the play of senior lineman Tegan chapman. The offense, however, is less settled, as the team will rotate Kelly, sophomore sarah vogel and sophomore samantha Flores at quarterback.

“having three quality quarterbacks is a huge advantage, especially since all of us have our own strengths,” Kelly said.

on the other side of the ball, walsh will look to rebound from a difficult season in which it went 1-5.

“last year was a rebuilding

Squad to tee off season in North Carolina

Observer Staff Report

The irish will begin their season saturday when they travel to chapel hill, n c., for the Tar heel intercollegiate.

notre dame enters the campaign as defending big east champions for the second straight year, a title that will be put to the test

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against a 14-team field comprised of schools from all over the eastern half of the country. among the field in the weekend event are two ranked teams, no. 21 duke and no. 34 east carolina.

notre dame will begin the weekend’s play with two rounds on saturday before concluding with 18 more holes sunday. The 54-hole

stroke-play event will be held at the unc Finley golf course, recently named the no. 7 college golf course in america by the golf channel.

The irish head into the season with a lineup that represents a mixture of experience and new talent. senior paul mcnamara leads notre dame, as juniors niall platt and andrew lane and sophomores Tyler wingo and david lowe round out the irish starting five. The top four scorers of each team will count toward the total tally.

The irish will have to do without the contributions of three graduated seniors from last year in max scodro, Tom usher and chris walker. scodro, a two-time big east player of the year, took with him the best scoring average in program history with his mean score of 73.25.

however, several irish players enter this season looking to make an immediate impact. platt won the southern california golf association match play over the summer and captured three more

belles defend undefeated record

By KATIE HEIT

s ports w riter

w ith the completion of its fourth game of the season and a 4-1 victory over o livet in the conference opener Thursday, s aint m ary’s keeps proving its team is an undefeatable force. They face their next test s aturday against a drian.

b elles coach m ichael Joyce said he is excited about what these wins mean for his team.

“ i think we’ve built up some good confidence over the first few games,” Joyce said. “ you can’t turn confidence on and off with a switch. we’ve got some stiff competition coming up with a drian and a lma our next two games. we’d love to get some results out of these games, but as long as we play well, our confidence should remain high.”

The b elles (3-1-0) are experiencing their second straight year with early-season success. l ast season, the b elles outscored their opponents 16-1 and received goals from nine different players as they started off 5-0. a key factor in the positive performances this year is the number of returning players gracing the roster.

o n Thursday, junior forward Jordan d iffenderfer scored almost immediately after being subbed into the game, scoring off a pass from freshman midfielder m aggie m c l aughlin. Just before half, b elles junior co-captain and

midfielder m ollie valencia took the corner kick and sent the ball over the defenders to d iffenderfer, who shot and notched her second goal, bringing the score to 2-0.

a fter halftime, senior midfielder and co-captain m addie m eckes scored on a long shot in the 73rd minute to bring the b elles to 3-0. The b elles extended their lead even further six minutes later when sophomore midfielder e rin Knauf scored her first collegiate goal. Finally, the c omets (0-5) scored in the last few minutes of the match to bring the final score to 4-1.

The b elles look to continue their winning streak s aturday as they take on a drian at home. i n 2011, a drian defeated the b elles twice, each time by a margin of three. This year, the experienced b elles will attempt to achieve a different result.

Joyce said if his team performs well, they should have a good chance against this powerhouse.

“a drian has some very talented attackers,” Joyce said. “ i f we can shut them down, we’ll be in good shape.”

h owever, Joyce said he isn’t sure if his team is performing as cohesively as he would like going into this game.

“ i don’t know if we’ve found that great chemistry on the field yet, but it is coming along,” Joyce said. “ we’re not at our full potential, so it is exciting to think about where we can be.”

The b elles look to prove

top-10 finishes during the offseason. The junior’s 73.81 scoring average last year is the best among irish returnees.

mcnamara recorded two topfive finishes last season, with one coming during the big east championship. lane made 14 starts last year for notre dame while wingo started three times for irish coach

Jim Kubinski. lowe begins his first season with the irish after transferring from arizona state university, where last year he put together a scoring average of 75.11 as a freshman.

The irish will begin their 2012 season at the Tar heel intercollegiate when they tee off at 7:40 a.m.

themselves at home against a drian on s aturday at 12 p.m.

Contact Katie Heit at kheit@nd.edu

belles to compete at notre dame

By BRIAN HARTNETT sports writer

a fter finishing 17th against tough competition last weekend, saint mary’s will cross route 933 on Friday to compete against a loaded field in the national catholic championships at the notre dame golf course.

The belles placed 17th in a field of 22 teams, six of which were regionally ranked, in last weekend’s calvin Knight invitational. Junior Jessica biek ran the fastest time for the belles, recording a mark of 19:15.7 to finish 50th in the field of more than 300 runners, and sophomore samee chittenden finished second among belles with a personal record time of 20:33.1. in addition, seniors elizabeth majewski and sarah copi turned in personal collegiate record times of 20:34.3 and 20:41.8, respectively.

saint mary’s coach Jackie bauters said she was impressed with many of the times recorded at the invitational.

“i was really excited to see samee, elizabeth and sarah copi work together as a group and all earn [personal records],” bauters said. “They’ve been working hard together in practice, and i think they are going to be difference makers for the team this year.”

despite the team’s finish toward the back of the pack at the calvin Knight invitational, bauters said she was encouraged by the team’s gains in the meet, which was its first 5K race of the season.

“it’s hard to go through a tough week of practice and

still put a good race out on the weekend,” bauters said. “They’re not racing fresh right now, so to see these kind of performances is really exciting and makes me hopeful that we will see even bigger gains in the upcoming weeks.”

saint mary’s will look to make some gains Friday when it travels to notre dame to run in a field of 34 teams, 13 of which compete in division i bauters said she believes the high-level atmosphere surrounding the race will invigorate her team.

“The big races are always exciting,” bauters said. “we’ve been fortunate to race against a great range of competition in races before, and i think, as long as the race isn’t crowded, it usually helps the team with some fast times.”

The national catholic championships will serve as the belles’ last race before the miaa Jamboree, which they will host on sept. 21. The event, which saint mary’s last hosted in 2008, will feature all nine conference schools. bauters said the team is eagerly looking forward to running on its home soil at the Jamboree.

“i think the atmosphere at the Jamboree is going to be the highlight of the season,” bauters said. “The team is so psyched to run at home that i’m not sure anything else is coming close to it at this point.”

saint mary’s will compete in the national catholic championships at notre dame golf course on Friday at 3:30 p.m.

Contact Brian Hartnett at bhartnet@nd.edu

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Irish to split up over weekend

Junior Billy Pecor returns a volley during Notre Dame’s 7-0 home sweep of Wisconsin on Feb. 11. The Irish will attend meets in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Olympia Fields, Ill., as a split squad this weekend.

By MEGAN FINNERAN sports writer

Two weeks have passed since the notre dame squad traveled to i reland to face members of the country’s elite players. Today it begins the first of many invitationals this season, where it will face competition from schools across the country. The team split the weekend, with some members traveling to i llinois for the sixth annual olympia Fields c ountry c lub ( oFcc ) Fighting i llini i nvitational and others traveling to Kalamazoo, m ich., for the vredevelt i nvitational.

The i rish send their top players to the i llini i nvitational, where they will face pepperdine, c alifornia, i llinois, Kentucky and Texas.

l eading the team is senior greg a ndrews, who recently received a no. 24 preseason ranking. he stands as the highest-ranked singles player in the big e ast. d espite a 9-3 loss in that exhibition match in i reland on aug. 31, the team is ready to

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jump into the season with high hopes and lessons learned from their first match together, i rish senior blas moros said.

“ we’ve been working a lot on structuring points and being aggressive at the right time,” moros said.

similar to the challenges presented by the artificial grass courts in i reland, the olympia Fields c ountry c lub features har-Tru clay courts that will take some getting used to.

“This is our only clay court tournament, but our goals are always the same: Keep working on individual improvements and rack up as many wins as possible,” moros said.

The oFcc i nvitational will include four rounds of singles matches and three rounds of doubles matches. a ndrews and the i rish will contend against nine other nationally-ranked singles players, only two of whom are ranked ahead of a ndrews, and two ranked doubles teams. pepperdine boasts no. 3 s ebastian Fanselow and Kentucky presents no.

12 a nthony rossi. e ach of the six schools involved made an appearance in the 2012 ncaa tournament, including pepperdine, which finished ranked sixth in the nation. notre dame finished 29th last year.

“These are all premier teams so they will all be big threats,” moros said. “it will be an awesome weekend with high-level tennis at a beautiful club.”

The other half of the i rish team will spend the weekend in Kalamazoo, competing in the vredevelt i nvitational hosted by western m ichigan. There they will face western m ichigan, i llinois state, green b ay, Xavier and c leveland state. The hosting broncos fell to i llinois in the ncaa tournament last season to end 17-12 overall.

The weekend will kick off in i llinois at 10 a.m. with the first round of doubles matches. b oth tournaments will conclude sunday.

Contact Megan Finneran at mfinnera@nd.edu

1 team to visit st. mary’s

By KATIE HEIT s ports w riter

a fter a successful preseason showing by the young team, s aint mary’s prepares to face off against some of the best teams in d ivision iii as it hosts the o’brien national i nvitational at warren g olf c ourse.

b elles coach m ark h amilton said s aint m ary’s traditionally invites the top10 teams from the previous year.

“The traditional powers who come every year will be there, along with a few newcomers,” hamilton said. “it will be the most competition we see all fall.”

o n the first day of competition, the b elles will be paired up against the

n o. 1 d ivision iii team in the country, m ethodist u niversity, the reigning national champion. o ther top competition includes d e p auw, w isconsin- e au c laire, c entre c ollege, and g eorge Fox u niversity.

hamilton said he is looking forward to seeing how his team will perform against difficult competition.

“ we really seem to be peaking at the right time,” h amilton said. “ we’re a young team. i n our top five, [freshman] c laire b oyle has been playing very solidly. [Freshman] a manda g raham was our low scorer for our last tournament. i expect everyone in our top five to perform well.”

r ounding out that top five is sophomore Janice heffernan,

junior Justine b resnahan and freshman s ammie averill, all of whom participated in the a nderson i nvitational on s ept. 1.

h amilton said the competition would be a learning experience for his young team.

“ we’re going to find out how we match up,” hamilton said. “This is going to be their first exposure to the top competition. we’ll get a real understanding of where we stand after that.”

saint mary’s will look to prove itself at the o’brien national i nvitational at warren g olf c ourse at 1 p.m. on sunday. The match will conclude monday.

Contact Katie Heit at kheit@nd.edu

Irish to host Golden Dome Invitational

By CONOR KELLY sports writer

a fter an opening nine matches that would rival most any other in terms of difficulty, the i rish have one more opportunity to make an outof-conference statement this weekend as Xavier, l oyola marymount and Kansas descend on the Joyce c enter for the g olden d ome i nvitational. it will be the last weekend tournament before the i rish open their big e ast schedule s ept. 21 at c incinnati.

Though the i rish (5-4) have taken on four top-20 teams so far this fall, i rish coach d ebbie brown said now is the time to put up the wins that go such a long way to determining rpi and eventual ncaa tournament selection.

“it’s really important now to get victories, and we can’t make apologies for our schedule,” brown said. “rpi is the magic formula, calculating your winning percentage, your opponents’ and your opponents’ opponents. s o these preseason games are actually very important.”

o f notre dame’s three opponents, Kansas (9-1) has got-

“It’s really important now to get victories, and we can’t make apologies for our schedule.”

Debbie Brown Irish head coach

ten out to the best start. The Jayhawks’ only loss came at a rkansas in the team’s only road tilt of the season so far.

Xavier sports a 7-4 record while l oyola marymount boasts a winning mark as well at 6-3.

“This is going to be a really good tournament. These are all strong and well-respected teams,” brown said. “Kansas has obviously gotten off to the best start, but Xavier is always competitive and fast defensively as well. nothing will be easy.”

The i rish have gotten some

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belles face two ranked squads

By NICK BOYLE sports writer

after back to back conference wins, saint mary’s will try to keep its winning streak alive when it travels to carthage this weekend for the carthage Tournament.

w ith conference play in full swing for the belles (6-1, 2-1 miaa), this weekend will offer a chance for the belles to improve against non-conference foes as they prepare for the rest of the conference season.

carthage college (4-1, 1-0 cciw) and no. 13 university of chicago (6-2), with dominican and illinois wesleyan rounding out the belles’ opponents. Facing off against two ranked teams should help the belles prepare for tougher opponents down the line, Kuschel said.

fantastic individual performances turned in by the likes of junior captain and right side hitter a ndrea mchugh, sophomore opposite side hitter Jeni houser, sophomore right side hitter Toni a lugbue and freshman libero Taylor morey, but they have yet to translate into victories against the highly ranked teams on notre dame’s schedule. The goal, brown said, is not only to take sets from top teams but to beat them.

“it really comes down to having the composure and poise when it’s crunch-time and in high pressure situations,” brown said. “ we’ve felt like we’ve had these teams in a good spot during some of our losses, but i think we let them off the hook. we’re still developing that chemistry and personality.”

o ne development that could tear the spotlight away from the action on the court this weekend is the highly publicized move of notre dame’s olympic sports to the a tlantic c oast c onference ( acc ). The i rish have strong historical ties to a number of teams in the acc , having played p ittsburgh, syracuse, boston c ollege and m iami when all were still members of the big e ast. brown said that the switch will be to a strong and well-supported volleyball conference.

“ we’re really excited about the move,” brown said. “There are really strong teams, and it is a conference that is committed to volleyball in terms of allotted scholarships and full staffs. a nd though we haven’t had anything continuous, we have a strong history of playing acc teams.”

For now, however, brown and the i rish are focused on this weekend.

“ we’re getting better all the time,” brown said. “it’s just a matter of coming out this weekend at home and executing well and coming away with wins.”

The i rish take the court against Xavier at 7 p.m. Friday at the Joyce c enter.

Contact Conor Kelly at ckelly17@nd.edu

“we need our level of intensity to stay consistent and to continue to work hard and work smart on the court this weekend,” belles head coach Toni Kuschel said. “we want to play to the best of our ability and come home an even better team.”

saint mary’s will take on two nationally ranked teams in no. 16

“having two ranked teams in our own conference, we want to use these matches [against carthage and chicago] to get ourselves mentally and physically prepared for our next two weeks of tough conference play,” Kuschel said. “we expect everyone we face this weekend to be tough.”

saint mary’s is coming off a home conference win in which the belles defeated albion, 3-1. Kuschel said she hopes her team can keep up its momentum against the weekend’s opponents.

“we are so excited to have

teams come into this meet ranked in the top-25 and are both expecting high finishes on their home track.

runners to get their feet wet,” piane said. “This week is for the older guys like [senior] Jeremy rae and [junior] walter schafer to get their feet wet.

“cross country is just like other sports; runners need some warmups and scrimmages before they can really hit their stride and perform at a high level.”

both the men’s and women’s

“i think having a meet at home gives us a big advantage,” piane said. “The kids are familiar with the track and we do not have to put up with the hassles involved with traveling.”

The irish will have plenty of competition as the race includes a 34-team field, with 13 division i programs. on the men’s side, shafer and

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played so well at home in front of a great crowd of friends and family,” Kuschel said. “There is always room for improvement but we are very happy and confident with how we played against a tough conference team.”

Kuschel hopes her team will step up and compete this weekend against nationallyranked opponents.

“we need everyone to step up and play well this weekend,” Kuschel said. “we will need our defense to be solid and continue to have great presence on the court so that our setters and hitters can do their job in the front row.”

saint mary’s will play four matches at carthage in Kenosha, w isc., this weekend, beginning Friday at 3:30 p.m.

Contact Nick Boyle at nboyle1@nd.edu

[junior] martin grady both finished in the top-five last year and are hoping for an even better performance this year, while senior Jessica rydberg is looking to defend her title in the women’s race. The race will begin Friday at 4:15 p.m. with the women’s 5K race and will be followed by the men’s five-mile race at approximately 5 p.m. both races will take place at warren golf course.

Contact Joe Wirth at jwirth@nd.edu

we’re looking forward to [this weekend]. They will be very good games.”

sunday’s faceoff against the wolverines marks another rivalry match for the i rish.

new michigan coach chaka daley now leads the wolverines, who finished 5-14-1 last season, including a 2-1 overtime loss to notre dame. daley took over the michigan program after 12 seasons at providence, a familiar big east opponent for the irish.

w hile daley’s leadership will provide the i rish with some degree of familiarity with this m ichigan team, c lark said his team is staying true to its mantra of one game at a time and not looking toward m ichigan quite yet.

“i honestly won’t look at m ichigan until Friday night, whenever our game finishes,” c lark said. “That’s the thing about playing the double

Laddish

with the players and trying to get them mentally prepared,” waldrum said. “but i think also having mandy and cari back this week, i’m hoping, will really help us in that area.”

laddish started all 21 games for the irish last season, scoring one goal and notching seven assists.

“mandy’s one of our captains and one of our older players,” waldrum said. “i think she’s really going to help sure up the midfield.”

roccaro comes in as a highlytouted recruit and an experienced international player. she started five games during the u-20 world cup and scored one goal.

“with cari, we’re a little bit undecided with where we’re going to play her,” waldrum said. “but she’s certainly going to be in our [starting] 11. she’s one of the top recruits coming out this year. w herever we put her she’s certainly going to impact our team.”

The irish (3-3-1) have extra motivation going into Friday’s game, which will be televised nationally on espnu last year, louisville (5-1) beat notre dame, 1-0, during the regular season and then again in the big east semifinals, 2-1. The cardinals should be among notre dame’s toughest conference competition this season, waldrum said.

“i think Friday’s a really big game for us because louisville beat us for the first time ever last year, but they beat us twice,” waldrum said. “it’s a program that’s grown and gotten better. having beat us twice last year, they should come in here very confident.”

The irish will get a slightly different look from the cardinals than they have seen this year. louisville is a strong defensive team that has only allowed five

games on a weekend. you obviously have to focus on the first one. a s far as i’m concerned, the only game i’m looking at is m ichigan state.”

c lark said regardless of how much time they have to prepare, the i rish simply need to come out and execute once the clock starts.

“The most important thing is to focus on playing well,” c lark said. “The winning will hopefully take care of itself. we have to look at our performance and focus on getting top-class performances every game out. i f we look at the end of the season and see that, then the results will take care of themselves. The key is how we play individually and as a team.”

a fter the i rish host m ichigan state on Friday at 7 p.m., notre dame travels to m ichigan on sunday with kickoff scheduled for 2 p.m.

Contact Mike Monaco at jmonaco@nd.edu

goals this season.

“we’re going to have to show some patience,” waldrum said. “our speed of play is going to have to be up-tempo to expose them in some ways so they can’t get so organized defensively.”

cincinnati (3-3-1) has hit some early adversity, dropping three straight games to nebraska, uc irvine and colorado.

waldrum said it’s an even greater benefit playing the bearcats at home as opposed to the road because of cincinnati’s uniquely challenging home field. but the irish came away with a win last season, something waldrum was proud to say.

“cincinnati’s a team that we typically play well against at home,” waldrum said. “it’s typically a difficult game on the

road because of their facility: a small field, a turf field. The ball’s always out of bounds. it’s just a hard place to play. having said that, we went to cincinnati last year and played really well.”

Today’s game starts at 4 p.m. in a lumni stadium. There will be a free barbecue for students before the game as well as leprechaun legion scarves given away.

“we’ll try to figure out ways to get the students on national television and get some fans in the stands,” waldrum said. “we really need that help and that support.”

sunday’s game starts at 1 p.m in a lumni stadium against cincinnati.

Contact Matthew Robison at mrobison@nd.edu

a lex green, Trevor yerrick, and nate carr, the Knights are brimming with confidence.

“we expect to win the championship, hands down,” mcdonough said. “if we don’t win the championship it’ll be very disappointing. with the talent we have coming back and the new group of guys, it’s championship or bust. we fully expect to be playing in [notre dame] stadium.”

regardless of favorites or underdogs, both teams expect a hard-fought game.

“we know it’ll be a really good test for us,” Fink said from dillon’s perspective.

mcdonough echoed that same sentiment on behalf of Keenan.

“They’re a great team,” mcdonough said. “we’re preparing like it’s the championship game.”

dillon kicks off its title defense against high-powered Keenan on sunday at 3:30 pm at r iehle Fields at stepan.

Contact Alex Wilcox at awilcox1@nd.edu

Knott vs. Seigfried

By MARY GREEN sports writer

with the annual Flanner cup on the line, mod Quad rivals Knott and siegfried will square off once again in sunday’s season opener.

The Juggerknotts were defensively sound in 2011 but struggled offensively, something they will look to improve on this year. They have rebuilt their dualthreat offense with new plays and new coaches in the hope of bettering last season’s 3-1 regular season record.

Knott’s season ended last year with a first-round playoff loss to dillon, but the team anticipates its preseason work this year will pay off with a week one victory, Juggerknotts senior running back and captain Joey beglane said.

“we’ve played siegfried four times the past few years and haven’t won against them yet, so we’re just looking to get a win,” beglane said.

The ramblers may have something to say about that, however. a fter exiting the postseason with a semifinal defeat at the hands of dillon last year, the team is optimistic about its chances in 2012.

“siegfried’s always been strong athletically, especially in football, and we’re looking to make it to the top this year,” sophomore running back Jose linardi said.

a s opposed to the Juggerknotts, the ramblers have revamped their defense and special teams to create an all-around stronger unit that complements their run-based offense.

They will be tested by Knott’s best in sunday’s contest, highlighted by the matchup between ramblers senior running back and linebacker david w hitmore and Juggerknotts senior running back and receiver Jake coleman.

with the standard set so high last year, siegfried has ambitious expectations for its first game this season, linardi said.

“we look forward to playing Knott, who is our mod Quad rival, and beating them,” l inardi said.

The ramblers and Juggerknotts will kick off sunday at 1 p.m. at r iehle Fields at stepan.

Contact Mary Green at mgreen8@nd.edu

a lumni vs. duncan

By KYLE FOLEY sports writer

sunday’s matchup between a lumni and duncan is a season opener that has different implications for both teams.

The dawgs will hit the field hungry for revenge. coming off two consecutive one-point losses in the semifinals of the 2010 and 2011 seasons, a lumni has its eyes set on taking home the championship this year.

a lumni junior captain Tom o’sullivan said this preseason has been all about going the extra yard so they do not come up short again.

o’sullivan said the dawgs will feature a revamped offense this season.

“we are looking to improve our passing game,” o’sullivan said.

“last season we ran a run-oriented offense. This year we intend to have a balanced playbook that will make us a more dynamic team.”

a lumni junior quarterback will cronin, coming off an injury that prematurely ended his season last year, returns to lead the aerial assault sunday.

o’sullivan and senior cocaptain dan Finan, former high school teammates, will lead an offensive line that looks to duplicate last year’s success rushing the ball. The dawgs believe an improved, versatile offense will take them all the way this year, o’sullivan said.

on the other side of the huddle, the highlanders are looking at a new offense as well. duncan junior captain gerrit hobson said his team is trying to limit the unpredictable nature of the offense from last year. hobson said he will attempt to slow down the pace of the game and increase duncan’s time of possession. with these changes made, the highlanders — coming off a 1-3 season in which they missed the playoffs — expect to see greater success on the field, hobson said. hobson said the duncan defense will be the driving force in sunday’s season opener.

“in our long and illustrious career in dorm football, our strength has usually been our defense,” hobson said. “i think we’ve got a solid front eight that can put a stop on the run game of any opponent we play this season.”

duncan’s defense goes up against a lumni’s potent rushing attack sunday at 2:15 p.m. at riehle Fields at stepan.

Contact Kyle Foley at kfoley2@nd.edu

Stanford vs. Keough

By KIT LOUGHRAN sports writer

with the season opener fast approaching, stanford and Keough are prepared to face off sunday.

both teams are optimistic about the season and feel good about sunday’s matchup, stanford senior captain paul babiak and Keough sophomore captain charlie magiera said. with successful practices underway and the advantage of returning multiple players, both squads are expecting to be more than ready for sunday’s game. The pressure to start the season on strong footing has motivated the griffins and Kangaroos to develop and master their individual strategies.

“we have a good offensive line and defensive line this year, and

enact this game plan, rodriguez said.

“[They will help] prevent penetration and pound the ball,” he said.

rodriguez said one player to keep an eye on is gentlemen junior safety a ndrew blonigan, a two-time swiss football national champion.

spoonmore also said his team is expecting big things from carroll junior bobby dorman, who will play receiver and split time at quarterback with spoonmore.

The gentlemen and vermin will square off at 2:15 p.m. at r iehle Fields at stepan on sunday.

Contact Kit Loughran at kloughr1@nd.edu

Sorin

vs. Zahm

By ALEX STEMBAUGH sports writer

sorin and Zahm look to start the season off on the right foot as they take the field for sunday’s season-opening matchup.

we want to capitalize on those things,” babiak said. with senior Jim waclawik, playing on both sides of the ball for the griffins, stanford will look to exploit Keough’s offensive and defensive lines.

magiera said Keough is looking to use a balanced offense to hopefully get a season-opening victory.

“we have a pretty solid running game, and at the same time we want to see if we can open up our passing game,” magiera said.

Junior running back mike Fischer and senior fullback robby Toole will lead the Kangaroos in the backfield.

The griffin and Kangaroos will battle at 3:30 p.m. on sunday at riehle Fields at stepan.

St. ed’s vs. Carroll

Filled with anticipation, st. edward’s and carroll prepare to square off sunday in their season opener.

both teams have one simple goal entering the season: make the playoffs.

“we want to make a name for ourselves [by making it to the playoffs,]” st. edward’s, junior captain and quarterback paul rodriguez said.

in a similar fashion, carroll, under the leadership of junior captain and quarterback Tommy spoonmore, hopes to make it to the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

before either team actually makes it to the postseason, however, they are focusing their energy on the strategy for sunday’s matchup.

“we want to open up the running game,” spoonmore said.

with the help of their strong offensive line, the vermin hope to do just that.

rodriguez said st. edward’s will try to control possession and play as a unit sunday.

“our strategy is to focus on what we can do as a team … and ball control,” rodriguez said.

The size of st. edward’s’ new freshmen will definitely help

The otters aim to build off the success of previous years, as they feature a solid group of returning players and an exciting freshman class. last year the otters finished as runnersup, while two years ago they garnered the coveted interhall championship.

The biggest strength of the sorin team this year may be the team chemistry, senior captain colin King said.

“we’ve been practicing six times a week and have team bonding sessions on sunday,” King said. “we’re feeling really connected and really confident when we spend that much time together.”

King said sorin is expecting big things out of senior defensive back chris champlin, who does it all for the otters.

“he’ll be our primary focus,” King said. “There is nothing stopping chris champlin.” on the other side of the ball, Zahm hopes to begin the season in a competitive fashion against sorin and have a good time doing so, senior captain a lex bowman said.

a fter finishing winless last season, the Zahmbies look to improve their tackling and running assault. a solid freshman class, including some who will be out playing football for the first time, and a reliable group of upperclassman comprise this year’s Zahm team.

“we hope to enjoy the game,” bowman said. “if we win, we win, and if we don’t, we will have a good time. i think we hope to come together as a team.” bowman also said the Zahmbies are well aware they are in for a tough battle against a solid team in sorin.

“it’s going to be an interesting game,” bowman said. “i expect nothing less than a fight.”

The otters and Zahmbies will face off sunday at 1 p.m. at r iehle Fields at stepan.

Contact Alex Stembaugh at astembau@nd.edu

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: ben savage, 32; Tyler perry, 43; Jean smart, 61; Jacqueline

Happy Birthday: don’t let your emotions get the better of you. you have to carefully think matters through this year before you take action. change is good, but only if you are aware of the consequences that can occur. protect your home and your possessions when dealing with people unfamiliar to you. it’s better to be safe than sorry. your numbers are 6, 10, 13, 27, 31, 38, 45.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): cheer up and do whatever it takes to make you happy. don’t wait for someone else to do things for you. consider what’s most important to you and make it so. change begins within. work hard, play hard and live life your way.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): deal with people directly and you will get things done to your specification. preparation will pay off and lead to success. greater opportunity is heading your way through the partnerships you form and the experience you have.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): weigh the pros and cons before you jump into something that may or may not turn out in your favor. stick to the familiar and take note of those trying to pressure you. decisions must be made that suit you, not someone else.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): size up your situation and stick to your game plan. it’s time to be a leader, not a follower. acknowledge that you know what you want, follow through positively and you will gain comfort in the results you obtain. proceed with passion.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): when it comes to emotional matters, you will be riding a roller coaster. slow down, take a deep breath and take a moment to decide what you want. making a change should be based on your needs, not revenge. proceed positively.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): refrain from overdoing it. Keep your thoughts out in the open and stand up for your rights, but don’t pressure others to do as you do or say. The best way to move forward is to believe in what you are doing.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): instigate what happens next and you will take on a leadership position that brings you greater acknowledgment. you can change the way people view you by your actions, dedication and passion to make a difference.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Take a step back and look at whatever situation you face. There are things you can do to improve your life and people willing to help you achieve your goals, but you have to be willing to accept what’s being offered.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):Talks with so-called friends will lead you astray. you need to embrace change and take action based on the way you feel and what you want to accomplish. personal change will lead to peace of mind and financial stability.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): you can gain ground financially, but only if you are stringent in the way you spend and invest. practical applications will pay off. back away from anyone asking or demanding too much.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Taking on too much physically will hold you back mentally. you have to gauge your time and only do what you are capable of doing. love is in the stars, and an emotional moment with someone special will enhance your relationship.

PISCES (Feb. 19- March 20): listen and react cautiously. getting involved in someone else’s affairs will put you in a precarious position. concentrate on developing a creative hobby or goal that can turn into a moneymaking endeavor. don’t waste time trying to change others.

Birthday Baby: you are friendly, adaptable and outgoing. you are precise and detailed.

Big East play returns

By MATTHEW ROBISON sports writer

notre dame opens its big east slate this weekend with two home matchups, facing louisville on Friday and cincinnati on sunday.

last weekend, the irish (3-3-1) came away with a 1-1 tie in double overtime with portland and a 3-0 loss to washington on their west-coast swing.

“we played really well on Friday night against portland,”

confident Keenan squad faces dillon

By ALEX WILCOX sports writer

For Keenan, the goal is simple: championship or bust. however, the defending champs, dillon, might have something to say about that. it’s only week one of the interhall football season, but sunday’s game between Keenan and dillon already has the billing to be the game of the season. last year the Knights went undefeated in the regular season and were the highest scoring team in the league. dillon’s only loss of last year came against Keenan in the regular season, before dillon went on a run to win the championship. despite last year’s

irish coach randy waldrum said. “so that result was a tie on the road in front of a really hostile crowd of 5,000 people and 2,000 students yelling and screaming at you. i thought the kids did really well on Friday. on sunday we turned around and did just what we did against [north] carolina [on sept. 2, when the irish lost 1-0]. we came out really, really flat and just didn’t have the intensity or the energy level that we needed to perform.”

The “baby irish,” as waldrum has nicknamed this team, took some valuable lessons away from last weekend. in preparation during the week, waldrum pointed out two keys. The first was another week of training and improvement. The other was returning two players.

“This week we’ve had a lot of discussion, a lot of video, talks about how to put back-to-back games together,” waldrum said. “i think part of it’s youth. i think part of it’s inexperience. i think part of it’s not having enough leadership on the field pulling us out when things aren’t going well.”

a fter winning the gold medal for the u s. at the FiFa under-20 women’s world cup in Japan, freshman midfielder cari roccaro and junior midfielder mandy laddish finally return to the pitch for the irish.

“i think hopefully just continuing to work on that in training is one [key], and talking about it

men’S SoCCer

i rish challenge spartans, wolverines

By MIKE MONACO sports writer

before the undefeated i rish football squad takes on m ichigan state on saturday in east l ansing, m ich., the no. 8 notre dame men’s soccer team will try to remain undefeated against the spartans at a lumni stadium on Friday. The i rish will conclude the weekend with a sunday trip to a nn a rbor, m ich., to face m ichigan.

l ast time out, the i rish (5-00) defeated then-no. 4 a kron 3-1 in an emotional and physical battle that continued notre dame’s best start since 1987. i rish coach bobby c lark said although sunday was a big win, the i rish have moved on and are now embracing their game-by-game approach.

“it was a great win but it’s now past us,” c lark said. “it doesn’t really matter. i don’t think it has a negative or positive effect on us. it’s what we do in the next game. That’s certainly been one of the mantras for us, to take it one game at a time. The focus will totally be on m ichigan state; they’re a good team. There will be no easy games and it’s definitely one game at a time.”

c lark said the i rish are expecting a tough battle from the spartans (2-3-1), who have played five one-goal games

to go along with their lone tie. recently, m ichigan state scored a goal in the 86th minute to down p rovidence 3-2 on the road. Two games before that, the spartans outshot no. 4 connecticut but ended up losing 1-0.

“i think it will be a tough game,” c lark said. “we’ve never had an easy game in recent years with them. we watched the tape of them against [ connecticut]. They lost 1-0 but i thought they were the better side on the afternoon even though they didn’t come out with the result.”

l ast season against m ichigan state, the i rish won a hard-fought 1-0 battle in east l ansing thanks to a goal in the 54th minute from junior forward harry shipp.

This year shipp, fellow junior forward l eon brown and senior forward r yan Finley have combined for six goals and five assists to propel the i rish offense.

c lark reiterated that the m ichigan state game will be a difficult one, and that sunday’s game against m ichigan will be quite similar.

“[ m ichigan state] will be a tough game for sure,” c lark said. “it will be a contest. you have these local rivalries with m ichigan, m ichigan state so

see sparTans paGe 21

ND hosts invitational

By JOE WIRTH sports writer

championship, dillon is taking on an underdog mentality.

“new season, new team, we’re just trying to turn the page and start over,” dillon junior captain Kevin Fink said. “we’ve got unproven players, an unproven team, and a lot to prove.”

if dillon is the underdog, Keenan must be the favorite, a role the Knights embrace.

“we’re very confident, but not overconfident,” Keenan senior captain a ndrew mcdonough said. “we’ve had a fantastic two weeks of practice and are looking great. if we execute what we need to do, we’re optimistic.” led by mcdonough at quarterback and senior receivers

The irish men and women are hoping to benefit from some home cooking this weekend as they participate in the national catholic championships on Friday — their first home meet of the season.

This is the 33rd running of the national catholic championships and the irish have dominated the event throughout its history. notre dame has won the team event 22 times and has had 12 individual winners. This year they are trying to make it four straight team titles.

The men’s and women’s teams notched second-place finishes in their previous outings at the crusader open in valparaiso, ind., two weeks ago. although the irish did not win the meet, many young runners gained experience. with the notre dame

invitational looming in two