Feb. 21, 2015
STANFORD, Calif. – Paced by a career-high five goals by Rachel Sexton and a hat trick by Kiera McMullan, the No. 12 Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team pushed hard but could not claim a victory on Friday night at No. 19 Stanford, falling to the Cardinal, 12-10.
Notre Dame outshot the Cardinal 37-16 but a six for six conversion rate on its free position opportunities and eight saves by Allie DeCar in the Stanford goal helped the Cardinal improve to 2-0 on the young season while the Irish slipped to 2-1. Rachel Ozer scored four times for Stanford while Kelsey Murray had a three-point game with a goal and two assists.
The Irish notched the game’s first two goals, including a strike from Grace Muller, set up by Casey Pearsall, just 38 seconds into the game. Sexton got the first of her quintet of goals just 4:37 into the game off of another Pearsall feed. The two helpers were just a part of a career-high matching three-assist game from Pearsall.
Unfortunately, Stanford would score seven of the opening half’s remaining nine goals to take a 7-4 lead at intermission. Sexton scored both of Notre Dame’s goals during this span, one of which was set up by Cortney Fortunato and the other was unassisted. Five of Stanford’s goals during this run were scored on free position tries.
After intermission, the Irish came back to the field with fire. McMullan scored both of the second half’s first two goals, each unassisted, to cut Notre Dame’s deficit to 7-6 with 23:30 left to play. But, Stanford scored five of the game’s next six goals to extend its advantage to 12-7 with just 12:21 remaining in regulation. The Irish controlled the ensuing draw and scored 18 seconds later as Sexton tallied on a free position shot.
Sexton’s goal got the Irish back their momentum as Notre Dame ended the game on a 3-0 run, including goals by McMullan and Stephanie Toy, but the game would end with Stanford prevailing 12-10.
The Irish continue their west coast trip on Sunday at 2 p.m. EST with a contest against the Golden Bears of California.