CLEMSON, S.C. – The No. 6/7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-2, 2-2) fell 9-13 on the road to the No. 11/15 Clemson Tigers (4-4, 1-3) on Sunday afternoon.
One of the latest Tewaaraton Watch List additions, junior Kate Timarky, led the Irish with three goals with her fourth hat trick of the season. She was followed by fellow Tewaaraton Watch List player Madison Rassas with two goals.
Charley Bacigalupo, Grace Maroney, Angie Conley, and Emma Murphy each scored one goal for the Irish. Murphy and Maura Irish each dished out a team-best two assists apiece.
The Irish won the draw control battle 15-9 with Uma Kowalski finishing with six draw controls and Meghan O’Hare finishing with a stat line of five draw controls, two ground balls, and a caused turnover. Sloane Ginevan led the Irish with three ground balls.
Timarky put Notre Dame on the board first at 12:09 of the first period. While the Clemson Tigers would strike right back to even the slate, Timarky picked up her second goal of the day shortly after to make it 2-1.
The Tigers responded with a 3-0 run to give them an early 4-2 edge over the Irish with 4:08 remaining in the quarter.
Notre Dame cut into the deficit as Murphy scored on the free position opportunity to make it 3-4. Shortly after, O’Hare found Maroney as the freshman had the equalizer to make it 4-all at the end of the first quarter.
The back-and-forth action picked right back in the second quarter as the Tigers struck first, but were quickly followed with a Rassas goal to even the slate yet again at 5-all.
Momentum started to shift, however, as back-to-back Clemson goals in just 54 seconds time put the Tigers in front 7-5. This would give Clemson a two-goal advantage at halftime.
Clemson’s run continued into the second half as they scored three straight goals to open the third to make it 10-5. Looking to chip away at the deficit, Conley capitalized on a big-time free-position goal to cut it to four.
It became a five-goal game yet again after another Tiger goal, but Bacigalupo found the back of the net as the Irish scored in transition to make it 7-11 with 1:58 remaining in the third quarter.
Trailing by four heading into the fourth, Rassas took advantage of the man-up opportunity as she scored her second goal of the day to make it 8-11 at 11:05 in the final quarter.
Two more Clemson goals would follow and while Timarky was able to cap off her hat trick in the closing minutes, the Irish would fall 9-13 to the Tigers on the road.
UP NEXT
The Irish will remain on the east coast as they head to North Carolina to take on Elon on Tuesday, March 10 at 1:00 p.m.