Notre Dame falls by 1 to Ohio State
By CHRIS COLEMAN
Sports Writer
With just 56 seconds left in the game, the Irish women's lacrosse team still had a chance. But Ohio State's Shannon Wilson ended Notre Dame's comeback by scoring her second goal in four minutes to defeat No. 9 Notre Dame 12-11.
Both of the losses for the 8-2 Irish have been by one goal.
In their loss to Ohio State, the Irish fell behind early. The No. 15 Buckeyes scored six consecutive goals to make it 7-2. The Irish came out of their slump quickly and rallied to take an 8-7 lead.
Anne Riley and Lauren Fischer, who both had three goals on the day, countered the second Ohio State run to make the game 10-10. Wilson's two unassisted goals in the last 4:42 put the game out of reach for the Irish.
The game was one of individual offensive achievement, with six players scoring 20 of the 23 goals. Ohio State's Megan Mirick scored six, while Notre Dame's Danielle Shearer finished with four. In addition to Shearer, Riley and Fischer, Meredith Simon recorded an Irish goal and two assists, and Natalie Loftus had two assists.
Fischer started the scoring on a pass from fellow sophomore Simon just 25 seconds into the game.
Mirick responded with her first of the day, making the game 1-1. Riley, who has steadily shown improvement this year after switching positions, countered the goal and reclaimed the lead for the Irish.
Then OSU went on a scoring tear, netting six goals in 11 minutes, with three coming from Mirick.
Simon finally stopped the scoring run with 10 minutes left in the first half.
Shearer, not to be outdone by Mirick, put in two quick goals and combined with Riley's second of the day to bring the Irish within one, 7-6, at the end of the half.
The first 10 minutes of the second half was dominated by stingy defense, but Shearer scored two goals to give the Irish the lead 8-7.
Mirick struck again on a free position goal, and Ohio State got two more goals to retake the lead.
With the score 10-8, Fischer and Riley scored off passes from Loftus and Simon to tie the game at 10.
The game was scoreless for five minutes until Wilson scored her first goal of the day to put the Buckeyes up one. Wilson did it again with 56 seconds left to finish off the Irish.
Fischer's goal with 36 seconds to play gave a flash of hope, but the Irish could not find the net again before time expired.
The Irish face two more ranked opponents this weekend, No. 6 Duke Friday and No. 12 Yale Sunday.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, April 10, 2002
