Mackenzie Wood’s Journey to Notre Dame: A Testament to Excellence
Author: Marshall V. King
Mackenzie Wood’s Unexpected Journey to Notre Dame
Mackenzie Wood, ’22 Graduate
Mackenzie’s journey to the University of Notre Dame could be called a dream come true, but she hadn’t really ever dreamt that it would happen.
Wood had attended Penn High School in Mishawaka, where she starred as the goalie of the girl’s soccer team. She often spent her lunch hours doing homework so that she could travel with a few teammates to Indianapolis to play with the Indiana Fire club team. She was part of teams that won a state championship in 2017 and was runner-up in 2015 and she earned national honors for her play and study. The Granger, Indiana, native graduated as valedictorian.
Wood went to Northwestern University to become a student-athlete and continue her career. “I thought it was a good place for me to study and play soccer,” she said. “For me it was very challenging there, being around such high academic students and trying to play soccer.”
Mackenzie Wood’s Excellences on the Field and in the Classroom
She continued to excel on the field and in the classroom, earning multiple honors. As her ND bio page states, “Wood started in the net for the Wildcats in all 67 games played, racking up 20 career shutouts and 258 career saves. After four years of patrolling the net for Northwestern, Wood boasts a 0.779 career save percentage with a 1.05 career goals-against-average.” Her senior year at Northwestern, she played every minute of the season.
She graduated in three and a half years with degrees in statistics and communication studies. She started a master’s program in data science, but then hit pause on that.
With a fifth year of eligibility due to the NCAA rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic, she came to Notre Dame as a graduate transfer. She was recruited heavily by other schools after entering the transfer portal, but kept talking to the coaches at Notre Dame and opted to come home.
“It was honestly better than I could have ever imagined,” she said.
Mackenzie Wood playing for Chicago Red Stars
When she was in the portal process, her grandfather Curtis Holmes passed away. He had gotten a master’s degree from Notre Dame. Also, her mother Kiley Wood works at the university. Now she had a chance to build on those connections to create her experiences.
Excelling at Notre Dame: Mackenzie Wood’s Journey as a Fighting Irish Goalie
She put on her goalie gloves and won the starting spot on the women’s soccer team. Instead of Big 10 competition, she was facing ACC foes. She spent hours watching film. “I may overthink it, but I watch a ton of film,” she said. She looked for opponents’ tendencies and organized her defense to force weaknesses.
“The transition to Notre Dame was made remarkably smooth, thanks largely to Nate Norman and the coaching staff,” Wood said. “Notre Dame’s goalkeeper coach Dawn Siergiej, in particular, had a profound impact on me during this journey by being a mentor and a friend. She seamlessly balanced tough love with unwavering support.”
Wood excelled on the pitch. She was a Third-Team All-ACC selection, made the conference’s All-Academic Team, and allowed only 11 goals in the 18 games in which she played. She led the ACC in shutouts with 10 and was 13th in the country; (she would have had two more if not for late-game substitutions.)
In the classroom, she earned a Master of Science in Business Analytics with a concentration in Sports Analytics. “Focusing on sports analytics was cool because not many schools have that,” she said, noting that she hopes to someday work in the NHL or NBA as a data analyst.
In her capstone project, she explored whether marketing for Major League Soccer teams could translate into awareness of the upcoming World Cup. Using data provided by a corporate partner and tools such as R, Python, and Tableau, she concluded that marketing targeted regionally could be successful.
Pursuing Her Dreams: Mackenzie Wood’s Journey to the Pros
After the fall season and during her ongoing coursework, she began training with the Chicago Red Stars in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Mackenzie Wood warming up for Chicago Red Stars
She had dreamt of playing pro when she was a little girl. In January 2023, she tried out and in March she signed a contract to join the team in need of replacements for those going to play for the U.S. Women’s National Team.
“I often would commute back and forth from Chicago to South Bend and would visit with the Notre Dame team and staff. They gave me a sense of family, allowing me in the locker room or among the team during a team meal while I was in town,” Wood said.
In August, she signed a three-year contract with the Red Stars and was loaned to Stade de Reims Féminines of the French D1 Féminine league. She move to the city outside Paris and began training with a new team. She’s fighting for a starting job. “I’m confident, so we’ll see,” she said.
Her goal for after this season in France is to return to Chicago and help the Red Stars as starter Alyssa Naher goes to play in the Olympics with the USWNT.
Wood said she likes to keep busy, so while she’s living and playing in France, she’ll also be working on that data science master’s degree she started at Northwestern. “I don’t like having a lot of free time,” she said.
