The Notre Dame women's basketball team has a chance to put the cherry on top of a great 48-hour stretch for the Irish.
The Notre Dame women square off against Tennessee in the NCAA tournament's Dayton Regional final at 7 tonight with a trip to the Final Four in Indianapolis at stake.
If the Irish post their first victory in program history over the Volunteers, who are 20-0 in the series, Notre Dame will have put a second team in a national championship semifinal on the heels of another team winning a national championship.
The Irish fencing team started the athletic program's big run when it captured the NCAA championship for the eighth time in school history when Notre Dame defeated Penn State in the French Field House at Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday.
The Irish edged the Nittany Lions 174-168, with Notre Dame freshman Rachel Beck sealing the title with a 3-2 overtime foil victory against Harvard's Katherine Chou.
It was Notre Dame's first fencing title since 2005. The Irish also won the championship in 1977, 1978, 1986, 1987, 1994 and 2003.
Notre Dame's big Sunday continued in the NCAA Northeast hockey regional championship game, as the Irish defeated New Hampshire 2-1 at Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H.
Notre Dame goaltender Mike Johnson stopped 37 of 38 shots in the victory, and Stephen Johns and Billy Maday notched goals.
The Irish advanced to the Frozen Four for the second time in four years. In 2008, Notre Dame fell to Boston College in the championship game after defeating Michigan in the national semifinals.
Notre Dame (25-13-5) will open play in the Frozen Four against Minnesota-Duluth (24-10-6) at 5 p.m. April 7 in the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The winner of that game will play either Michigan (28-10-4) or North Dakota (32-8-3) at 7 p.m. April 9 in the title game.
In order from the Irish women's basketball team to add to this run, they will have to content with a tall, physically imposing Tennessee squad.
"I think they are going to set some bone-crushing screens. They are going to be very physical on the boards," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw told reporters about facing Tennessee. "We've got to be able to hold our ground.
"I think we've been tough all year long. I think our players are tough. They are fighters. We are going to need all of that."
Notre Dame's game against Tennessee will also feature a matchup of two of the best young guards in women's basketball.
The Irish's Skylar Diggins averages 14.2 points and 4.8 assists, and needs six points tonight to be the second player in Notre Dame history to reach 1,000 points in just two seasons.
Tennessee freshman Meighan Simmons averages a team-high 13.8 points and 2.9 assists, and has 498 points this season.
"(Simmons) is very fast. She has a scorer's mentality," Diggins said. "She's definitely going to be looking for her shot, and put herself in a position to score and her teammates. She knows where her shooters are going to be. They do a great job of moving for her.
"On defense, she's going to be aggressive. She's a player who plays with a lot of emotion, so we are definitely going to put pressure on her."
