SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The No. 15/19 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11-4, 5-4) fell in a heartbreaking 9-10 loss in quadruple overtime on the road at No. 3/3 Syracuse (12-3, 7-2).
This is the first overtime game of the season and is just the second quadruple overtime game in program history, with the only other one also happening against Syracuse nearly 16 years ago (May 6, 2010).
The Irish dominated the draw circle 18-6 with Uma Kowalski finishing with 12 draw controls, while also grabbing one ground ball and causing a turnover. The freshman draw specialist now has 132 draw controls so far this season.
Notre Dame finished with seven goal scorers on the day. Emma Murphy and Kate Timarky lead the Irish with two goals apiece as Murphy finished with a team-best three points.
Maura Irish finished with one goal, two caused turnovers, two ground balls, and five draw controls. The rest of Notre Dame’s scoring came from Madison Rassas, Charley Bacigalupo, Grace Maroney, and Mackenzie Conley, who each finished with one goal apiece.
Meghan O’Hare dished out a team-best two assists and recorded two ground balls, one draw control, and caused one turnover.
Defensively, the O’Brien sisters were wreaking havoc as they finished with a combined seven caused turnovers. Lila O’Brien finished with four caused turnovers and a ground ball while Franny O’Brien finished with three caused turnovers and tied her career-high of five ground balls. Defender Abby Lyons also recorded a pair of ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers.
Goalkeeper Isabel Pithie finished with four saves on the day, three of which were big-time stops in overtime for the Irish.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a battle of the defenses as the Syracuse Orange came in as the fourth-ranked scoring defense in the country (7.21) and the Irish came in as the sixth-ranked scoring defense (7.43).
With Bacigalupo getting the Irish on the board first with a free position goal, Notre Dame and Syracuse both swapped goals to leave it at a level 2-2 after the first period.
O’Hare assisted on both Irish goals to start the second quarter as Maura Irish’s goal was quickly followed by a goal from Rassas to make it 4-2. The Orange would send home one last goal to make it a one-goal at halftime as the Irish led 4-3 heading into the third period.
With four different goal scorers in the first half for the Irish, Timarky scored a free-position goal for her second goal of the game to give the Irish a 5-3 advantage. Syracuse, however, would start to pick up momentum as they closed out the period with a 4-1 run as their goals were broken up by a Maroney goal. After leading by one at the half, the Irish now trailed by one heading into the fourth quarter.
Syracuse’s momentum carried into the fourth as they continued their run by scoring two goals to take the largest lead of the day for a three-goal advantage. While the Irish trailed 6-9 with 7:43 remaining, Notre Dame wasn’t going anywhere.
The Irish chipped away, stringing together three straight goals to level the slate at 9-all. A goal from Murphy sparked the 3-0 run as a big-time free position goal from Conley was followed by another big-time free position goal from Murphy to tie it up.
Pithie was a huge factor down the stretch for the Irish as she recorded her first save of the day with just eight seconds left as the Orange took the final shot on the last possession in hopes to win it in regulation.
The defensive battle continued as neither team was able to get a single shot off in the first overtime period. While the Irish had one shot compared to the Orange’s three shots in the second overtime, Pithie recorded two more big saves to keep the Irish in it as a third overtime would ensue.
This time the Irish would outshoot the Orange 4-2 in the third overtime, but neither team was able to get the ball in the back of the net as each defensive unit was relentless in their efforts.
Syracuse was able to get two shots off in the final 20 seconds of the fourth overtime and while Pithie recorded yet another big save on the first shot, the Orange would find a way to score on their second shot in the closing seconds to take the quadruple overtime win.
UP NEXT
The Irish will host Louisville on Thursday, April 16 at 5:00 p.m. at Arlotta for the final regular season game of the year.