Madison Rassas did it again, recording four goals for her third straight hat trick and sixth hat trick of the season. She leads the Irish with 28 goals and 32 points this season.
Kathryn Morrissey, Kristen Shanahan, Emma Murphy, and Kate Timarky each tallied one goal a piece for the Irish. Shanahan also dished out two assists for three points on the day, with Angie Conley, Fran Frieri, and Morrissey dishing out Notre Dame’s three additional assists.
Defensively, Grace Weigand and Meghan O’Hare each caused two turnovers, with the Irish forcing nine turnovers as a team.
Isabel Pithie finished with an impressive career-high 14 saves, surpassing her 12 saves against #2 Northwestern in the season opener.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Crimson offense struck first, knocking down a pair of goals to take a 2-0 lead with 11:39 left in the first. The Irish had a few looks to score, but Harvard knocked down another at 5:50 for a 3-0 advantage.
Heading into the second period trailing by three, a huge 5-0 quarter lifted the Irish to a two-point lead.
Conley found Rassas on a cut to the goal to put Notre Dame on the board at 12:37 for the first Irish goal of the day.
Morrissey dished it to Shanahan to bring the Irish within one at 3:25, but Rassas would find the back of the net yet again shortly after to tie it up at 3-all at 3:11.
The scoring frenzy continued as Timarky netted a goal at 2:20 to finally put the Irish in front 4-3. The Irish weren’t done yet as Shanahan dished out another assist with Murphy knocking it down to put the Irish up 5-3 heading into the second half.
The Crimson netted the first goal of the third period to bring it within one at 5-4 and continued their run as they scored two more goals to regain the lead 6-5 after the 3-0 run concluded at 2:39.
Morrissey scored on the free position to make it an even 6-all as they went into fourth period tied up.
It remained an even ballgame through most of the fourth until Rassas completed her hat trick on free position goal to put the Irish in front 7-6 with 5:13 remaining.
The Irish continued to hold the Crimson scoreless as they were able to force a late turnover and maintain possession to run out the clock, but not before Rassas sent home one last goal with one second left to secure the 8-6 victory.
UP NEXT
The Irish resume ACC play at No. 9 Syracuse on Sunday, March 23 at noon on ACCNX at the JMA Wireless Dome.