SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The #14/15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (12-4, 6-4) defeated the Louisville Cardinals (6-9, 2-8) in a dominant 18-3 victory in their final regular season game of the year.
The Irish were led by freshman Grace Maroney with a career-high six goals and six points in the win. She was followed by senior Emma Murphy, who tied her career-high four goals, while also dishing out two assists, to tie her career-best six points.
Freshman Charley Bacigalupo recorded a hat trick in the win to finish with four points on the night and was followed by sophomore Madison Rassas, who scored two goals in the win.
Freshman Maura Irish recorded a goal, a draw control, and two ground balls. Junior Meghan O’Hare finished with one goal, two ground balls, three draw controls, and three caused turnovers (tying her career-high).
Senior defender Abby Lyons also got in on the scoring action as she scored a goal going coast-to-coast, while also causing two turnovers and grabbing four ground balls.
Sophomore Lila O’Brien also tied her career-best with six caused turnovers and three ground balls on the night. Fellow defenders Julia Carr and Franny O’Brien recorded four ground balls a piece, while causing one and two turnovers, respectively.
The Irish defensive presence was strong from the start as the Irish held the Cardinals scoreless through the entirety of the first period. The Irish offense was ready to go as well as they posted an 8-0 advantage after the first 15 minutes of play. In fact, Murphy had the hot hand to start as she recorded a first-quarter hat trick.
Louisville scored their first goal of the night at the 10:10 mark of the second period to make it 9-1. To follow, Rassas and Maroney would fire off two more goals to give the Irish the 10-goal lead at halftime at 11-1 as Maroney capped off her first-half hat trick.
Notre Dame’s run continued as they scored the first two goals of the second half, but the run was broken up by Louisville’s second goal of the day at 7:17 in the third. With two more goals from Rassas and Maroney, the Irish lead 15-2 heading into the final quarter.
Lyons scored the first goal of the fourth as she took it coast-to-coast on a Cardinal turnover to extend the Irish lead. She was followed by Maroney and O’Hare, whose back-to-back goals made it 18-2.
The Cardinals would find the back of the night one last time to make it 18-3 as Notre Dame secured their final regular season win before heading into the ACC Tournament in Charlotte, NC next week.