MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Notre Dame women’s soccer team (3-0-1) capped off the perfect road trip with a 1-0 victory over Marquette (1-1-0) on Sunday afternoon. Freshman midfielder Sophia Fisher was the difference-maker in the contest, scoring her first career goal in the 28th minute.
With the victory, Notre Dame has now gone unbeaten through its first four games for the second time in three years under Doug & Lisa Jones Family Head Coach Nate Norman.
How It Happened
There’s just something about this year’s team and striking immediately after weather delays. In the season opener, the Irish struck within two minutes of restarting and on Sunday, after a brief weather delay, the Irish did it again within that two-minute window.
This time, it was freshman Sophia Fisher who worked the ball up the middle of the field, dished to Maddie Mercado, who then dumped the ball back to Fisher in the middle of the box for the putaway and score. It marked Fisher’s first career goal in an Irish uniform.
Notre Dame then rode its 1-0 lead into the half, boasting a then 7-4 shot advantage.
Kiki Van Zanten almost got an assist in the 76th minute. A through ball to the feet of Audrey Weiss almost resulted in a goal but the ball sailed just wide and high to the left.
Unfortunately for the Irish there was a good news/bad news scenario in the 84th minute. Interian came out to stop a breakaway shot attempt from Marquette and made the initial save but immediately went down. Erin Hohnstein then came up big by outracing a Marquette attacker before making a goal-saving clearance; however, Interian had to exit the game with an injury.
Ultimately, Notre Dame outshot Marquette 18-8 and boasted a 5-2 corner kick advantage. Van Zanten led with four shots, followed by three from Maddie Mercado.
Up Next
The Irish return home for a Thursday night clash with yet another B1G opponent. This time around, Notre Dame takes on Purdue at 7 p.m. ET, inside Alumni Stadium.
— ND —