For the first time in over two seasons the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame lost at home. The loss was handed to the Irish by the fifth ranked Huskies of Connecticut. The game was a 5-4 overtime thriller. "It was just a great effort by two teams that showed the fight and determination beyond belief," said Irish Head Coach Chris Petrucelli. "I couldn't be prouder of the way we came back four times against one of the finest teams in the country."
The Huskies opened the scoring when Ginny Woodward took a feed from Kerry Connors at the top of the box and beat Irish Goaltender Jen Renola. The goal was not only the first one of the game but it was the also the first one by an Irish opponent at Alumni Field this season. With the Irish down and still unable to mount a serious attack Petrucelli subbed in Ashely Scharff into the sweeper position. Ashley had been recovering from a sprained ankle from the Rutgers game. With Asheley leadership at defense the Irish began mounting offense and held the Huskies scoreless for the rest of the half.
Just over six minutes into the second half the Irish scored on a corner kick. Holly Manthei took the corner and All-American Cindy Daws headed the ball in to tie the game at one a piece. The Huskies again took the lead on a direct free kick. Holly Manthei tied the game at two with a blast at the top of the box. Conneticut again took the lead putting one in from the upper left corner of the box. With ten minutes to go in regulation Freshman Monica Gerardo took a feed from Holly Manthei to send the game into overtime.
The first overtime was dominated by the Irish but they failed to find the back of the net. Conneticut came alive in the second overtime and scored with just over one minute played Carabino scored to put the huskies up 4-3. Roughly, ten minutes later Carabino scored again to put U.C up 5-3. The Irish not willing to give up continued to attack with just under 1 minute to play Holly Manthei was taken down in the box which gave the Irish a penalty kick. Freshman Monica Gerardo took the kick and found the back of the Huskies net to narrow the the lead to 1. However, with just 50 seconds to play there was not enough time for the Irish to find the Huskies goal again and the final score of the thriller was 5-4.
|
