This past Saturday, then No. 16 Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team beat Yale 17-10 at a neutral site in Naples, Florida. The Irish were able to diversify their play as seven different players scored and both senior Bridget Deehan and freshman Lilly Callahan were able to play goal.
While the first goal of the game would be scored by Yale, the Irish quickly retaliated as sophomore attack Madison Ahern was able to score with an assist from senior attack Maddie Howe. A few minutes later, sophomore midfielder Kasey Choma would also score from a free position. The Irish would not let the Bulldogs close the quickly rising gap as Howe would score the first of her seven goals of the night, followed by another goal by Choma and then one more unassisted goal by sophomore attack Jane McAvoy. While Yale was able to get one more goal in, it was answered by Choma within the final seconds of the first quarter. The lead increased to 6-2.
Scoring opened in the second quarter when freshman midfielder Kelly Denes scored unassisted. Over the next six minutes, the Irish would dominate, with the first goal by sophomore attack Jackie Wolak. Play continued with three goals by Howe, two of which were assisted by Ahern and McAvoy. With the Irish up by nine, the Bulldogs began to close the gap, and Yale scored three more goals before halftime, the final one in the last 15 seconds of the quarter. At the end of the half, Notre Dame was up 11-5.
The third quarter began with a Yale spark, and the Bulldogs saw two goals within the first three minutes. But the Irish stopped the momentum before it could get going with three goals from Howe, Ahern and freshman midfielder Mary Kelly Doherty. With three minutes left, Yale would score once before Howe would find the back of the net to seal the lead at 15-8.
Despite a large lead over the Bulldogs, the Irish came out hot in the fourth quarter as Ahern scored within the first 30 seconds to increase the lead by eight. Yale would score again before Howe notched the final Irish goal. In a last attempt, Yale scored within the last 30 seconds, and the final score was set at 17-10 Irish.
While the draw controls were equal at 15-15, Notre Dame outshot Yale by 48-28. Howe was the heavyweight for the attack this game. Not only did she score her career high of seven goals, but she had her season high of 13 shots and four assists. In addition, she notched a caused turnover and a ground ball. Junior midfielder Hannah Dorney also matched her season high of five caused turnovers as well as one ground ball. Graduate student midfielder Diana Kelly had a strong defensive effort with three caused turnovers and a season-high four ground balls.
The Irish hope to keep this momentum as they return home to play No. 8 Duke on Saturday, March 26 at 1 p.m. Duke steps into South Bend 10-1 on the season while the Irish have a record of 4-5. The game will be streamed on ACCNX and live stats will be available. This game will also be the final game for Notre Dame’s annual Daughters for Dads fundraiser.
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