Notre Dame women’s lacrosse hosted Cal Saturday afternoon, with Notre Dame winning 17-4 while celebrating senior day.
The two teams have faced off 12 times. Notre Dame has emerged victorious every time, Saturday afternoon being no exception. The Irish were led by sophomore midfielder Madison Rassas, who scored four goals, notched one assist, collected five points and earned her sixth hat trick this season. Rassas paved the way for junior attacker Kate Timarky, freshman midfielder Charley Bacigalupo and freshman attacker Grace Maroney to all score hat tricks; thus, the Irish had four players each score a minimum of three goals in a singular match.
Maroney, a two-time U.S. Lacrosse All-American (2024, 2025) and 2025 U.S. Lacrosse Jackie Pitts Award winner, tied her career high of four points while also causing two turnovers. Timarky, who finished last season with 15 goals and four hat tricks, sits at No. 2 in the ACC with 40 goals this season after completing her ninth hat trick of the season Saturday. Aside from the usual heroes of the Notre Dame team, senior attacker Emma Murphy scored two goals while dishing out an assist; senior midfielder Franny O’Brien scored a goal while causing a massive turnover, and junior midfielder Angie Conley recorded a goal and assist. Additionally, freshman midfielder Uma Kowalski won the draw control 16-6 and won 10 of the 16 team draws.
The Irish goalies, freshman Ceci Patterson and graduate Isabel Pithie, received massive amounts of play in the goal, each recording three saves, while senior Avery Gawronski, who has been unable to play every season due to injury, recorded her first career save.
Notre Dame was coming off a 20-2 home win against Robert Morris, and had a strong start over the Bears with Rassas immediately scoring two goals, both of which came from spinning around senior California defender Clara Page and beating senior goalkeeper Chloe Rand once low and to the left, then again high and in the corner.
Although the Bears responded quickly with a free-possession goal, Timarky and Maroney found their rhythm shortly after and scored a goal each to end the period. The Irish stood out in their goals as they were consistently passing the ball to one another and allowed other attackers to get the goal when the strongest couldn’t get the clearest shot. A new level of teamwork from Notre Dame was discovered during this period and remained throughout the entire match.
The second quarter was all green for the Irish as they held the Bears to a no-score period, something that the Bears have had to overcome a few times this season already. the Irish defense stayed strong through the last half of the matchup, only allowing three more goals, all while constantly switching goalies and keeping the ball focused on the opposing side of the field, barely allowing a Bear to cross the center line.
Notre Dame honored its team’s eight seniors in a special pregame ceremony where the families of defender Abigail Lyons, attacker Fran Frieri, attacker and draw specialist Maeve Dwyer, defender Ellie Noto, attacker Anna Kenney, Murphy, O’Brien and Gawronski came out to midfield to celebrate their daughters.
Notre Dame will be on the road for three games against Virginia Tech, Liberty and Syracuse before returning home for its final game of the regular season against Louisville on April 16.
