The No. 6 Irish cruised past former Big East Conference rival Villanova on Sunday in a 17-8 victory.
The match featured goals from ten different Irish scorers, including freshman midfielder Emma Claire Fontenot, who scored her first goal of the season. Fontenot notched the final tally of the game for the Irish (8-3, 1-3 ACC) with less than two minutes to play.
Wildcat junior midfield Hannah Goforth answered Fontenot’s goal with 17 seconds left to round out the game’s scoring. Goforth and freshman midfielder Becca Hetrick led the Wildcats (4-4, 0-0 Big East) with two goals each.
The Irish attack featured hat tricks from two sophomores: attack Kiera McMullan and midfield Brie Custis. Freshman midfield and attack Cortney Fortunato led the team in assists. Fortunato and McMullan tied for point leader with five apiece.
In the defensive end, the Irish held the Wildcats scoreless for numerous stretches throughout the game. The Irish defense and freshman goalkeeper Liz O’Sullivan kept the ball out of the Irish net for 23 consecutive minutes at one point in the second half.
O’Sullivan took over for junior Allie Murray in net after the first half. O’Sullivan and Murray collected two and three saves, respectively.
For the Wildcats, sophomore goalkeeper Jaclyn Fraum tallied eight saves. Fraum was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll last week. Despite this distinction, Fraum was unable to stave off an Irish attack that had outscored its opponents by a combined margin of 126-95 in the season.
The victory over Villanova marks another game played without junior defender Barbara Sullivan, who is out for the rest of the season with an injury. Sullivan had been a team leader in draw controls.
Against the Wildcats, freshman midfield Casey Pearsall took the majority of the draw controls for the Irish, winning nine. Persall now leads the team in draw controls with 23 on the season.
The Irish return home next weekend for a matchup against No. 15 Stanford. The two teams faceoff at 12 p.m. Saturday at Arlotta Stadium.
