Aug. 26, 2011
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Junior defender Jazmin Hall (Highland Village, Texas/Marcus) scored her first collegiate goal in the 71st minute, but third-ranked North Carolina netted the match-winner in the sixth minute of extra time to oust No. 1/2 Notre Dame, 2-1 on Friday evening before a crowd of 5,236 fans at Fetzer Field on the first day of the Carolina Classic.
Tar Heel forward Courtney Jones settled matters at 95:25, a frustrating end for the Fighting Irish (1-1), who controlled the run of play for large stretches of Friday’s match and wound up with the upper hand in all statistical categories.
Notre Dame had an 11-9 edge in total shots, and doubled up UNC in shots on goal by an 8-4 count. The Fighting Irish also earned five of the seven corner kicks in the contest, while the Tar Heels were whistled for 15 fouls to seven for Notre Dame (Jones received the lone yellow card), and the Fighting Irish garnered all three offside calls.
Freshman goalkeeper Sarah Voigt (Middleburg, Fla./St John’s Country Day School) looked sharp in her college debut, going the distance and making two saves. North Carolina netminder Hannah Daly had to be on her game Friday night and she was, registering a career-high seven saves.
Daly was solid early on with four stops in the opening 16 minutes, the most notable coming in the 10th minute after Notre Dame freshman forward Lauren Bohaboy (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita) uncorked a rising rocket from the left channel that Daly leaped to push over the bar.
After the Fighting Irish controlled the early possession game, UNC finally got going and made its first shot on goal pay off in the 20th minute. Jones had her shot from the right side blocked over the by-line for a corner kick and on the ensuing service, Notre Dame wasn’t able to clear the loose ball, which landed at the feet of Ranee Premji. Her timely shot from the top of the box snaked through traffic and tucked inside the left post for a 1-0 Tar Heel lead (19:13).
The goal seemed to energize the hosts, but the Fighting Irish weren’t about to let up, and they had a pair of golden opportunities to draw level before halftime. In the 32nd minute, they worked a efficient run through the attacking third, with sophomore forward Adriana Leon (Maple, Ontario/The Country Day School) doing the heavy lifting by coordinating a precision passing sequence in tight quarters. She then slipped a pass to senior defender/tri-captain Jessica Schuveiller (Plano, Texas/Plano West), who found her fellow captain and classmate, senior All-America forward Melissa Henderson (Garland, Texas/Berkner) on the left side of the area and she poked it past Daly for the equalizer, but the near-side assistant referee judged Henderson a step offside and the score was negated.
Six minutes later, Notre Dame did everything but find the back of the net. Sophomore midfielder Mandy Laddish (Lee’s Summit, Mo./Lee’s Summit) took control of the ball on the left flank, drove to the edge of the penalty area and lofted a cross through the goalmouth, with the ball dropping perfectly at the back post. Sophomore midfielder Rebecca Twining (Houston, Texas/Second Baptist School) timed her run extremely well and tried to volley home her classmate’s cross, but Daly slid across in time to get a hand on the point-blank shot at the right post before her defense came in to clear away the rebound.
Despite conditions deteriorating a bit at halftime thanks to some early rain showers and wind gusts from the fringes of Hurricane Irene, the Fighting Irish came out of the locker room with renewed purpose, keeping play largely in their attacking third with the occasional UNC foray into enemy territory (resulting in just one shot, which was blocked). The pressure eventually paid off at 70:25, when Hall latched on to a ball in the left channel, 35 yards from goal, and fired a high ball into the box. Daly had to contend not only with a wet ball, but with Leon flashing right in front of her going up for the header, and the UNC goalkeeper misplayed the shot, which got past her and into the vacant net before Tar Heel defender Rachel Wood could retreat in time to clear it off the line.
This time it was Notre Dame that gained an added bounce in its step, and it nearly resulted in the decisive score with less than five minutes to play. After earning a foul just outside the right corner of the area, Laddish served a ball into the mixer near the penalty spot, where Schuveiller went high and nodded a sharp header that caromed hard off the crossbar. The shot ricocheted out on the left side to Leon, who spun over her right shoulder and cracked a wicked left-footed shot that was ticketed for the far upper corner, but Daly somehow got back in time to get her left hand on the ball and parry it wide of the right post (85:58).
North Carolina (2-0) had the only two shots of the overtime period, the second coming shortly after the Fighting Irish were flagged for their third offside infraction of the night. Jones collected a ball just inside the midfield circle and made a long run into the attacking third before sending a ball wide to Amber Brooks and then along to Kealia Ohai, who squared a pass back to Jones at the top of the box. The veteran took one touch toward goal and then drilled a low 20-yard shot inside the left post past a diving (and partially-screened) Voigt.
Notre Dame returns to the pitch at 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday when it takes on No. 21/10 Duke on the second day of the Carolina Classic at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Blue Devils won Friday’s other tournament match, 2-0 over Houston, to improve to 3-0 this season. Live stats for Sunday’s Notre Dame-Duke match will be available on the official Fighting Irish athletics web site, www.UND.com, while a live in-game interactive chat will be provided through the new Irish UNDerground blog (UND.com/blog).
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s soccer program, join the Fighting Irish women’s soccer news Twitter page (@NDsoccernews) or sign up for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the sidebar on the women’s soccer page at UND.com.
— ND —
POST MATCH NOTES: Notre Dame played its first overtime match since Oct. 24, 2010, when the Fighting Irish earned a 1-1 draw at Georgetown … Notre Dame is winless in its last four OT contests, having also played to a 1-1 tie at Connecticut and lost 2-1 in overtime at #13 UCLA last season … still, this was just the fifth extra-time loss in 36 OT matches during the 13-year Randy Waldrum era (now 20-5-11 when playing bonus soccer) … Friday marked the first time the Fighting Irish and North Carolina went to overtime since Sept. 3, 1999 (Waldrum’s debut match at Notre Dame), when UNC pulled out a 3-2 victory at old Alumni Field … it was the sixth OT match in the series, with the Tar Heels winning three times and two others ending in draws … this also snapped a three-match Fighting Irish win streak at Fetzer Field, with Notre Dame losing in Chapel Hill for just the second time in eight all-time matches (the other was a 5-1 loss to North Carolina on Sept. 13, 1998) … Friday’s match was the first time in the 20-match series between the Fighting Irish and Tar Heels that Notre Dame came in as the higher-ranked team (let alone the nation’s No. 1 squad) … UNC leads the all-time series between the squads, 13-5-2, with the Fighting Irish still holding more overall wins (5) and road victories (4) over the Tar Heels than any other opponent in history … of those 20 series matches between Notre Dame and North Carolina, 13 have been decided by one goal or ended in a draw, including seven of the past nine … the last time the Fighting Irish lost a match when it held the upper hand in total shots and shots on goal was on Dec. 7, 2007, when Florida State defeated Notre Dame, 3-2 in the NCAA Women’s College Cup semifinals at College Station, Texas, despite the Fighting Irish outshooting the Seminoles, 16-7 (6-5 in shots on goal) … Hall is the first Notre Dame upperclass player to open her goalscoring account this late in her career since Nov. 13, 2009, when then-senior forward Rachel VanderGenugten scored in the 44th minute of a 5-0 win over IUPUI in the first round of the NCAA Championship at Alumni Stadium.