The Irish kicked off their spring season on Sunday, February 23, 2014 with a trip to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where they participated in a 6 v. 6 indoor tournament. Five coed club field hockey teams from the Midwest were in attendance: Notre Dame, UIUC, Indiana University, University of Iowa, and Western Kentucky University. Each team played four 30 minute games, with every team getting a chance to play each of the other teams once. In their first game, the Irish went up against Western Kentucky University (WKU). WKU scored first, but senior captain and forward, Caitlin Lackner, tied it up with a beautiful goal. Unfortunately, WKU slipped in another goal, bringing the final score to 2-1, for an Irish loss. In the second game, the Irish came back strong with a victory over University of Iowa. Goals were scored by Caitlin Lackner, freshman forward Katie Serody, and junior forward, Rebecca Noble. The third game was a close match up against University of Illinois. This high-scoring game ended in a 4-4 tie with goals from freshman forward Emmet Farnan, Katie Serody, and two more from Caitlin Lackner. In their fourth and final game of the tournament, the Irish put up a good fight against Indiana University. Goals were scored by freshman midfield, Kylie Haush, junior forward, Julia Brehl (X2), and, again, Caitlin Lackner. Despite the exciting back and forth between the teams, the Irish ultimately lost 6-4. Overall, the Irish had a great day of competition at UIUC and they look forward to the chance to play some of these teams again at upcoming tournaments, including at Indiana University’s “B-Town Battle” which will be held in Bloomington on Sunday, April 6, 2014.