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ndie Aldave had pictured how she’d feel when she flew home to Baltimore this spring.

It would be the end of May, and Notre Dame would be flying east to play in its first Final Four since 2006. The junior All-American midfielder would lead the Fighting Irish out on Homewood Field, less than 10 miles away from where she won four state championships at the McDonogh School.

“We all knew that we were going to make it to Memorial Day weekend, and that’s why it was so weird for me last week, because I was like, ‘I didn’t want to be on a flight to Baltimore until Memorial Day weekend.’ Not by myself, but with my teammates,” Aldave told US Lacrosse Magazine. “But there I was, sitting by myself, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to be home yet.’”

Aldave, like hundreds of college athletes around the country, has found herself home sooner than expected. Notre Dame’s undefeated season was cut short when the NCAA announced the cancellation of all spring sports championships on March 13 due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Fighting Irish were ranked No. 2 in the nation and just days away from their biggest game of the year against No. 1 North Carolina when the 2020 campaign came to an abrupt end. They’d ranked in the top 10 in both offense and defense — one of just four teams in the country to do so — and with three ranked wins already secured, they were on pace for more.

“[Head coach] Christine [Halfpenny] told me when I was being recruited to Notre Dame, ‘Trust me, at a point in your four years, we’re going to have all the pieces to put the puzzle together,’” Aldave said. “I felt like this was that year where we really had all the pieces.”

***

The Fighting Irish were 436 miles from home when the sports world started to shut down.

They’d had some inklings of worry leaving South Bend for their two-game road trip on March 10. That afternoon, Amherst had become the first college to suspend its spring sports seasons, and some parents had reached out concerned about what that meant for Notre Dame.

But no Division I school had yet made a decision, so Halfpenny urged those in the program to focus on what was right in front of them: Their seventh game of the season, against Vanderbilt.

Notre Dame took care of business against the Commodores. The Irish scored 11 straight goals in the first half and walked away with a 16-6 win to keep their undefeated record alive. But once the game had ended, they started to realize their season was about to change.

“As soon as our game was over and we shook hands, as the teams were stretching, we learned that the Ivy League had canceled the remainder of its season,” Halfpenny said. “That was the tip of the iceberg.”

The team stayed the night in Nashville, where, even though the SEC men’s basketball tournament was just beginning, they could tell the streets were emptier than normal.

On Thursday afternoon, they’d just finished their scouting session for North Carolina, which they were scheduled to play on Sunday in Chapel Hill, when word came in from the ACC that all athletic-related activities in the conference had been suspended. An hour later, the NCAA sent out a tweet announcing the cancellation of all winter and spring sports championships.

There were hugs. There were tears. There was confusion.

“It was such a crazy moment to even describe, thinking that we had just done a scout for an awesome game that we had circled on our calendar since the start of the season,” Aldave said. “To realize that we didn’t even get the opportunity to do that and continue our season was really heartbreaking.”

They managed to catch a flight back to Chicago and then to South Bend, and the players had a few days together before going back home.

“We really just cherished the last two, three days we had with each other because we knew how much we all meant to one another,” Aldave said. “I’m glad we got to do that because honestly at this point, you never know when you’re going to see everyone together in a setting like that again.”

***

Halfpenny has led the Fighting Irish for nine years now, and she doesn’t mince words when she says that his year’s team was on track to be Notre Dame’s best ever.

It’s tough to find a silver lining in a canceled season, especially one that had as much potential and ended as abruptly as this one. But for now, at least, the Fighting Irish will cherish the memories that the 2020 campaign delivered.

“The season that we did get together was completely on our terms. We left zero doubt with what we did, who we were, where we were going,” Halfpenny said. “It’s such an abrupt ending, but we look back and say, ‘Well gosh, there were no regrets, and we left no doubt.’”

They’re moving forward. The players started Notre Dame’s online classes on Monday, and Halfpenny and her staff have created a schedule to keep the Fighting Irish connected. That includes texts on Mondays, class-wide Zoom video chats on Tuesdays, phone calls on Wednesdays and group check-ins on Thursdays.

Those Thursday talks are meant to bring the Fighting Irish the latest updates on happenings from Notre Dame, the ACC and the NCAA. Halfpenny said it’s too soon to know what will come in regards to eligibility relief. The Fighting Irish have 10 seniors and two graduate students on this year’s roster, and the NCAA plans to vote on the topic on March 30.

Halfpenny’s main message to this team in recent days has been simple — this season wasn’t a one-time thing. The Fighting Irish’s top four leading scorers through this season’s seven games were two freshmen and two juniors — Madison Ahern and Kasey Choma, and Aldave and Howe — who will all return.

“This wasn’t going to be just one hot year with a bunch of great players,” Halfpenny said. “We feel like we’ve now made the statement and that there’s the optimism here that we’re here to stay. That we want to be taken seriously as a team that can continue to compete not just in and out of the top 10, but consistently in the top 10, top 5, and that can realistically be in the hunt for a national title.”

And they’ll be ready for 2021. Before they all left South Bend, Aldave said, one player wrote a message on the Fighting Irish’s team whiteboard: “Less than 365 days until we get to be in-season again,” it read.

“We’re so strong and we’ve built such a great culture that I have no doubt we’re going to pick up where we left off,” Aldave said. “We couldn’t be more excited to be back in South Bend and get going after it again.”