Irish Fall To #9 Syracuse On The Road

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-5, 1-4) fell 11-12 to the No. 9 Syracuse Orange (7-4, 3-2) in a close battle on the road on Sunday afternoon. 

Kristen Shanahan led the Irish with a career-high five goals, netting a hat trick in the first half of play. She also dished out an assist for a career-high six points. 

Six other Irish players netted one goal on the day as Madison Rassas, Kathryn Morrissey, Emma Murphy, Meghan O’Hare, Kate Timarky and Katie Mallaber each scored. 

Morrissey also dished out a team-best and career-high four assists for five points on the day. 

Isabel Pithie was in goal for the Irish as she finished with 12 saves and a .500 save percentage.

While the Orange offense struck first, Shanahan answered with her first goal of the day to make it an even 1-all but the Orange would go on to take a 4-1 advantage heading into the second period. 

Notre Dame turned it up as they scored four straight goals within a four-minute span in the second quarter. O’Hare started the run on a pass from Morrissey as she was followed by Shanahan’s second goal of the day to make it 4-3. 

Timarky scored at 5:55 to tie it up at 4-all before the Irish went on to take the lead for the first time as Shanahan completed the hat trick to put Notre Dame in front 5-4 with 5:07 left in the half. Syracuse answered with two more goals to close out the second period and take the lead 6-5 heading into the third. 

The game continued to go back-and-forth as the Irish opened the half with two goals from Rassas and Murphy, regaining the lead 7-6 at 9:39. Shortly after, the Orange netted two more goals of their own to make it 8-7 in favor of Syracuse. 

Morrissey dished it to Shanahan for one last Irish goal in the quarter to tie it up at 8-all going into the fourth. Syracuse struck first as they went on a 3-0 run to take an 11-8 advantage with 10:40 remaining. Mallaber and Shanahan followed with two Irish goals to close the gap to one, but Syracuse scored again at 2:33 to make it a two-goal game yet again. 

Shanahan found Morrissey to score one last Irish goal and cut the deficit to one with just 30 seconds left, but the Irish would come up just short in the battle on the road as the Orange took it home 12-11. 

UP NEXT 

The Irish are back in action at home on Sunday, March 30 to take on No. 2 North Carolina at Arlotta.