Irish Fall to Michigan in NCAA Tournament

EVANSTON, ILL. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team held the Michigan Wolverines in a close NCAA Tournament first round game. The Irish ultimately fell 17-11 to the Wolverines ending their NCAA Tournament run. 

Kelly Denes had a standout night on the draw circle when she tallied seven draw controls getting her to 100 draw controls in a single season. 

Maddie Howe led the Irish with three goals on the evening. Kasey Choma was right behind with two goals of her own.

 

HOW IT HAPPENED

The first quarter of the matchup saw Michigan get on the board first with a 3-0 run. It was when Madison Mote fired on a free position attempt to give the Irish their first goal and go on a run themselves. Notre Dame then saw goals from Jackie Wolak on a free position attempt followed by a goal from Keelin Schlageter to tie things at three.

The second quarter opened with another Michigan 3-0 run. The Irish stopped the Wolverines when Kelly Denes took it herself and gave the Irish a goal to bring the score to 6-4. Maddie Howe slid in another Irish goal when she faked her way by a Wolverine defender to go low and take it one on one with the Michigan goalie. The Irish and Wolverines would trade points the rest of the quarter with Notre Dame tallying one more goal from Madison Ahern going into halftime at 9-6.

The Irish opened the third quarter looking for the comeback when Michigan scored first but Howe immediately responded. One more goal from Kasey Choma would bring the Irish tally to eight goals going into the fourth quarter from behind 12-8. The fourth quarter would see three late Irish goals but wouldn’t be enough to bring the back in front, eventually falling 17-11.