LYNCHBURG, Va. – The No. 15/19 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11-3, 5-3) defeated the Liberty Flames (4-9, 2-2) in a dominant 21-7 victory on Monday afternoon as the Irish have now won five games in a row. This is the fourth time the Irish have scored 20 or more goals this season and the 11th time that they’ve held their opponent to single-digit goals.
Junior Kate Timarky has been playing exceptionally well the last couple of games and continued to have the hot hand in the win over the Flames. Timarky scored six goals and dished out four assists for a career-high 10 points. She finished the day shooting a perfect 6-6.
After scoring six goals and seven points in the win over Virginia Tech on Saturday, she has now recorded 12 goals and 17 points in the last two games. Timarky is second in the ACC and top-15 nationally with 52 goals this season. The junior attacker is also second in the conference in goals per game (3.71), third in points (68), and is third in points per game (4.85).
She was followed by sophomore Madison Rassas, who also recorded six goals and two assists in the win. With eight points on the day, Rassas was one point shy of her career-high nine points she scored earlier this season against Central Michigan. Rassas now has 46 goals and 56 points on the year. She’s third in the ACC in goals (46), third in goals per game (3.28), fifth in points (56), and fifth in points per game (4.00).
Meghan O’Hare recorded her first career hat trick in the win as she finished with an impressive stat line of three goals, two assists, five points, two draw controls, one ground ball, and one caused turnover.
The Irish won the draw control battle 23-6 with Uma Kowalski winning 15 draws. The freshman draw control specialist was just one shy from tying her career-high and program record of 16 draw controls. She is second in the ACC with 120 draw controls so far this season.
The Irish also saw goals from Maura Irish, Charley Bacigalupo, Emma Murphy, Grace Maroney, and Angie Conley, who all scored one goal apiece in the win.
Defensively, the Irish had several key performances. Defenders Abby Lyons and Julia Carr each finished with the same stat line of two ground balls and four caused turnovers. Sloane Ginevan recorded two caused turnovers and three ground balls and Lila O’Brien finished with a team-best four ground balls, two caused turnovers, and one draw control.
The Irish offense were relentless to start as they posted an early 6-0 lead over the flames in just over five minutes time. While Maroney put the Irish on the board first, Timarky had the hot hand as she scored three straight goals for a hat trick less than four minutes into the game.
Goals from O’Hare, Rassas, and another from Timarky gave Notre Dame an 8-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Flames would score the first two goals to start the second period, but goals from Rassas, O’Hare, Earley, and Irish would put Notre Dame up by 10 goals at 12-2 with just under six minutes left in the half. Notre Dame and Liberty each recorded one more goal to close out the first half as the Irish led 13-3 heading into the third.
While Liberty scored the first goal of the half, the Irish responded with four straight goals (Rassas, Timarky, O’Hare, Murphy) to extend their lead to 17-4.
The Flames answered with back-to-back goals, one to end the third period and one to start the fourth, as they cut the deficit to 11 goals at 17-6. Rassas found the back of the net for her sixth goal of the day shortly after, but the Liberty offense would strike once more.
Leading 18-7, the Irish closed out the game with another 3-0 run with goals from Conley, Timarky, and Bacigalupo to secure the 21-7 win.
UP NEXT
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will head to No. 3/3 Syracuse (11-3, 6-2) on Saturday, April 12 to play at 12 p.m. at the JMA Wireless Dome.