Notre Dame 2015-16 Year In Review: Top 5 Teams

As the 2015-16 academic year winds down at Notre Dame, we will review in the coming days some of the various top highlights and performances. Today, we salute the top 5 teams among Notre Dame's 26 varsity sports. Collectively, they helped Notre Dame finish 17th in the Learfield Directors' Cup, which entails all sports.

1. Women’s Basketball (33-2) — After five consecutive Final Four appearances from 2011-15, notably four advancements to the title game, this year’s ouster in the Sweet 16 might be classified on the outside as a “disappointment.” The 90-84 defeat to traditional power Stanford, the last to vanquish the UConn dynasty, was a stunning jolt highlighted by freakishly good 11 of 20 shooting beyond the arc by the Cardinal. However, it does not overshadow that this season might have been the best coaching job of all by Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw and her staff.

Entering the NCAA Tournament, the 31-1 Irish suffered their lone defeat at UConn (91-81) before racking up 26 straight wins against the nation’s top competition and running the ACC table during the regular season and in the ACC Tournament. All this despite the unexpected departure of junior All-American Jewell Loyd last spring to the WNBA as the No. 1 pick, junior/captain Taya Reimer leaving the team in December, and sophomore All-America post Brianna Turner missing about a month's worth of action and later being hampered by lingering shoulder problems (which necessitated surgery after the season).

This defines the meaning of having a “program” instead of just a team.

2. Fencing — Similar to women’s basketball, the bar is so immense for this program that anything less than being among the Final Four at the end is viewed as a letdown.

Columbia won its second straight national title (15th overall) in the combined men’s and women’s event with 174 points. Ohio State was the runner-up with 167, while St. John’s and Princeton finished with 161, one point ahead of the Fighting Irish. Notable is that the Fighting Irish were paced by a pair of freshman first-team All-Americans, Axel Kiefer for the men and Sabrina Massialas for the women.

3. Men’s Basketball (24-12) — The winning percentage wasn’t close to last year’s sparkling 32-6 ledger, but a 2-0 record against Duke ( the Irish are 4-1 in their last five meetings versus the Blue Devils), dramatic February comeback wins at home versus national runner-up North Carolina and Louisville and a second straight berth to the Elite 8 — despite the graduation of mainstays Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton — merits this nod.

“Two years in a row, we feel we really got the most out of our group,” said head coach Mike Brey.

4. Men’s Lacrosse (11-4) — Ranked No. 1 in the preseason, the third-seeded Irish were upset by eventual national champion North Carolina, 13-9, in the May 22 quarterfinals. Nearing his third decade at the helm, head coach Kevin Corrigan was rumored — and ostensibly destined — to be the next coach at the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1982. But he opted to remain at Notre Dame, a program he built from scratch into a consistent top 5 power.

5. Football (10-3) — It was highly unfulfilling to finish with losses Stanford (38-36 on a field goal as time expired), which would have its highest finish since 1940, and to mini-NFL franchise Ohio State (44-28) in the Fiesta Bowl en route to a No. 11 placement in the final AP poll.

Nevertheless, the Irish overcame a plethora of injuries, especially in the first month of the year, to put themselves in a position to make the four-team College Football Playoff/national title on its final day of the regular season. That occurred 12 times in the 30 years from 1964-93. It has happened only twice in the last 22 (2012 and 2015). That in itself generates excitement during the school year because football is always the engine of the athletic department.

Honorable mention: Women’s cross country was more of an individual dominated sport we will talk about in future sections. Women’s lacrosse (14-7), like the men, lost in the quarterfinals to national champ North Carolina.

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