This past Saturday, the No. 1-seeded Notre Dame women’s soccer team faced off against UIC in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Alumni Stadium. The Irish took the 4-0 shutout to move forward and set up a matchup with Ohio State in the second round. This win also marked their seventh clean sheet of the season.
Heading into the first half, the two teams went back and forth taking shots at the goals, but Notre Dame managed to put in its first goal thanks to freshman forward Tessa Knapp at the seven-minute mark. The rest of the first half was quiet as the two teams showed strong defense, and no one was able to put in a shot. At the end of the first half, Notre Dame showed a more agressive offense as it took 19 shots in comparison to UIC’s three.
Notre Dame found more of its success in the second half of the game. After a few quiet minutes, Notre Dame knocked in its second goal of the game at the 63:38 time mark, thanks to junior midfielder and forward Charlie Codd putting in her third goal of the season. Codd would come back 20 minutes later to put in her second goal of the night and fourth of the season in the 84th minute. In the final moments of the game, a third player for the Irish would score, sophomore forward Ellie Hodsden, with an assist from junior midfielder Morgan Roy. Hodsden knocked in the final goal to secure the 4-0 win for the Irish as UIC was unable to find its way past Notre Dame’s sophomore goalkeeper Sonoma Kasica, who had one save.
The Irish finished the game outshooting UIC 40-5, forcing UIC to be more active in goal with 10 saves to Notre Dame’s one. Despite Notre Dame’s strong offensive drive, UIC also showed its determination as it finished with seven fouls while Notre Dame finished with eight. Both teams had two apiece in the first half, and Notre Dame had six in the second while UIC had five. In addition to this, Notre Dame’s offensive drive created a lot of challenges for the UIC goalies, as Sara Sanabria and Francesca Faraci combined for the 10 saves by the end of the game.
The team will now take a break before facing Ohio State on Nov. 20. The match will be played at Alumni Stadium in South Bend.
Ohio State is currently 9-4-6 on its season and 4-2-5 in conference with its losses being against No. 16 South Carolina, Washington, Penn State and Illinois. That being said, the Buckeyes come into their matchup against Notre Dame following a 2-0 win over Georgia this past Friday. Ohio State took the early lead at the nine-minute mark. After a quiet start to the second half, Ohio State would find the back of the net at the 69-minute mark to take the final 2-0 win over Georgia.
