Sunday was a good day to be a Notre Dame women's sports fan.
First, the Notre Dame women's soccer team won its third national championship with a 1-0 win over Stanford in the championship match at Cary, N.C. Two hours later, the school's basketball team pulled off a 72-51 victory over in-state rival Purdue at Notre Dame.
Despite the win over Purdue, Notre Dame dropped two spots to 18th in this week's polls. On Wednesday, the Fighting Irish began their Big East season with a 79-43 victory over Providence. Notre Dame plays Creighton at home on Saturday.
The Fighting Irish played their 1,000th game in program history on Sunday against Purdue. Also, coach Muffet McGraw celebrated her birthday.
Notre Dame handed Purdue its second straight loss. The Boilermakers, who lost K.K. Houser to a knee injury and Drey Mingo to bacterial meningitis, won their first four games.
"They're physical," McGraw said in the Notre Dame Observer on Monday. "They work hard. Like us, they're still young and finding their way on their first road game, which was a struggle for them, but by the end of the year, (Purdue coach) Sharon (Versyp) is going to have them right where she wants them to be."
This year, the Notre Dame women's basketball team is looking to accomplish the same feat the women's soccer team did -- win a national title. The Fighting Irish won a national crown in 2001 in St. Louis.
A year ago, Notre Dame lost to Oklahoma in the regional semifinals. This year, the Fighting Irish lost five players to graduation, but return several key players, including sophomore Skylar Diggins, junior Natalie Novosel and seniors Becca Bruszewski, Brittany Mallory and Devereaux Peters. Peters and Bruszewski started and played all 10 games and Mallory played eight games and hit eight 3-pointers.
The Fighting Irish lost all three of games to ranked opponents. They fell to UCLA, Kentucky and Baylor, all three teams are ranked in the top 15.
Notre Dame won the WBCA Classic at home. The Fighting Irish also had wins over Morehead State and New Hampshire.
Notre Dame will head to Seattle on Dec. 29-30 to play games against Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount in the Seattle University Holiday Classic. The Fighting Irish play two-time defending champion Connecticut twice -- Jan. 8 at Notre Dame and Feb. 19 at UConn.
Big jump: After beating ranked teams Florida State and Texas last week, the Michigan State Spartans moved up 10 spots to No. 15 in this week's polls, the biggest jump among the top 25 teams.
With a 55-48 win over Milwaukee on Wednesday, Michigan State is 7-1. The Spartans will take a six-game winning streak into Friday's game with Western Michigan.
Michigan State beat Florida State 72-64 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge at Tallahassee, Florida on Dec. 1. Four days later, the Spartans beat Texas 71-57 in the Big 12/Big 10 Challenge at home.
"We think those are two teams that will be in the postseason mix though," Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant said in the State News on Tuesday. "We looked at them more as, if we can get these two, these are quality wins for RPI ranking."
Welcome aboard, Phoenix and Blue Demons: Green Bay and DePaul are the new teams in this week's poll.
Green Bay earned a No. 23 ranking after beating North Dakota 83-40 last week. The Phoenix are 7-0 and will play Southeast Missouri at home on Friday.
DePaul earned a No. 24 ranking after beating Illinois State and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville last week. The Blue Demons improved to 9-1 after beating Pittsburgh 67-51 on Tuesday. They play Loyola-Chicago on Thursday at home and travel to Northern Illinois on Saturday.
Seniors Kalisha Keane and Brittney Thomas played key roles in the Spartans' win over Florida State and Texas. Keane scored 20 points in both games against the Seminoles and Longhorns and Thomas had 14 points against Florida State and 13 against Texas.
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