Irish lose in triple overtime
By CHRIS COLEMAN
Sports Writer
When down 8-6 with 1:40 left, the ninth-ranked Irish could have given up and gone home. The No. 7 Blue Devils would have been happy to take the win. But the Irish refused to give up and took the Blue Devils to triple overtime before falling 10-9.
The game was pushed into overtime by a free position score from Maureen Henwood followed by Meredith Simon's wrap around goal with 19 seconds left.
"The Duke game was unbelievable, unfortunately we didn't come out with a win," White said. "As a team we did the best we've ever done. Defensively, I've never been more proud of them."
Duke scored the first goal in overtime but Shearer responded for the Irish and evened the game at nine. In the third overtime period — sudden death — Notre Dame's Natalie Loftus beat the entire Duke team and the goalie, but her shot clanged off the post.
Duke marched downfield and found a seam to steal the game from the Irish, 10-9.
Duke had jumped out to an early lead, 3-0, by capitalizing on several turnovers by the Irish, especially on the offensive end.
Loftus, who was constantly running around Duke defenders, opened the Irish scoring to make the game 3-1.
When Duke scored again the Irish closed off defensively and started winning more balls. Senior captain Alissa Moser then took things into her own hands.
Despite being double teamed, she spun off her defenders, scored and brought the game back to within two. Then Moser found teammate Anne Riley streaking toward the net for an easy put-in to make the score 4-3.
The Irish defensive four, Tina Fedarcyk, Kathryn Lam, Henwood and Kelly McCardell, took control of the game and lessened some of the pressure off Irish keeper Jen White who had a career-high 15 saves.
Henwood made an end-to-end run to almost score a third goal on the day, but the Irish didn't convert and entered halftime trailing by one.
Duke opened the half with a quick goal, but Loftus and Danielle Shearer both responded to tie the game 5-5.
Eleanor Willie, trying to even the game again at six after another Duke goal, ran over her defender and caught a pass from Shearer which she quickly dumped in the net to tie it again.
The scoring then slowed down with the game tied, and neither team could find the net.
Gallagher finally broke through the Irish defense and scored with eight minutes left. Duke then scored again to take an 8-6 lead with six minutes left.
Shearer, the Irish leading scorer, got a yellow card with 3:14 left. Duke controlled the ball well after the penalty and it appeared that its two-goal lead was unbreakable. The Irish finally forced a turnover and with 1:40 to play, Maureen Henwood got fouled and scored on the free position chance.
The Irish got the ball again and with 27 seconds left, Simon hustled for the loose ball and circled around the net to tie the game at eight.
Both teams scored one goal in the first overtime to force a second, and no one scored in the second.
In the third sudden death overtime, after Loftus' near game-winning shot rang off the post, Megan Miller scored her second goal of the game to end the 72-minute contest, 10-9.
The hard-fought comeback gave the Irish momentum heading into their game with No. 12 Yale as the Irish won 11-8.
"We came off the loss from Duke, and we were pumped," said Irish assistant coach Danielle Gallagher. "Somebody had to pay for it — it was Yale."
"I knew we were going to win against Yale," said Simon, who had three goals against the Bulldogs. "There was no way we were going to let that happen to us twice."
The effort against Yale was led by Simon but was helped out by performances off the bench from Kassen Delano, Eleanor Weille and Elizabeth Knight. Loftus and Moser both scored twice in the victory.
The Irish let Yale open the scoring, but Delano came back and scored quickly. Defenses picked up and nobody scored until Katie Sargent weaved through the Irish to score her first of three for the Bulldogs. After Yale scored another, the Irish went on a run.
Simon started the run using the same move that put the Irish in overtime against Duke, a run around the back on the net, then Loftus scored off a free position chance.
Simon then burned the goalie again using her crease spin move to give the Irish the lead.
McCardell got her first goal of the year off a pass from classmate Shearer. Anne Riley, also a junior, got the final goal for the Irish in the half, putting them up 6-3.
Sargent then responded for Yale, making it 6-4 in the half.
The Irish would not let the Bulldogs get any closer, getting second-half goals from Simon, Fischer, Loftus and two from Moser with the Irish ending up on top 11-8.
The Irish face Georgetown Saturday in Washington in a game that will decide the fate of the Big East.
All Sports Stories for Monday, April 15, 2002
