Oregon State Men's Soccer at Notre Dame: Game Preview

Oregon State has opened the season with a strong pair of wins, but this week they hit the road for the first time, and they've scheduled some tough opponents. Up first are the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a program with a lot of history, only a couple seasons out from an appearance in the NCAA Tournament Finals. So how are this year's Irish?

Notre Dame never really managed to restock after that 2023 tournament run. In 2024 the Irish finished tenth in the ACC standings and were knocked out of the conference tournament in the first round. The team did produce the ACC's Offensive Player of the Year, forward Matthew Roou, but he's since graduated.

This year Notre Dame has started the season with a pair of ties, against Michigan and IU Indy. That's an interesting pair of schools to be evenly matched against, so it's hard to draw much about this year's Notre Dame team. The Irish's one goal, against Indy, was scored by defender Diego Ochoa, a graduate transfer from Boston College who was one of Notre Dame's biggest pick ups in the off season.

Another player to watch is Wyatt Lewis. After many departures on offense, Lewis, who was a full time starter as a sophomore last season, was picked by many to be the new face of the Fighting Irish offense. He was named Notre Dame's one player to watch in the ACC preseason poll.

The Irish are very much a work in progress. We'll find out how far along they are Thursday night, with kick off set for 5:30 PM PT.