SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish put up a thrilling 12-9 win against the Clemson Tigers in their first ACC matchup of the season.
Kasey Choma and Jackie Wolak both led the Irish with each tallying a hat trick. Kelly Denes registered two goals of her own, while Madison Ahern and Kristin Shanahan each scored one.
Denes dominated the draw circle as usual when she picked up seven draw controls. Emma Schettig helped on the draw control front when she picked up five.
“When I look at what we did today, it took everybody. This is our lowest turnover game, and we knew that was going to be important. We thought that was an edge that we would get. Clemson turned the ball over at like a fifteen turnover clip, and they did again. We were able to turn them over, and they turned us over, but we only had four unforced errors and I think that is a game change for us,” said head coach Chris Halfpenny.
On the defensive end, the Irish caused 14 turnovers. Julia Carr led the Irish with three of her own establishing a career high. She was followed by Schettig and Hannah Dorney having two each.
“So, top to bottom it was awesome to see how we were able to come in as a team, and start to gel as a team when we needed to the most.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
The matchup against the Tigers was even as could be in the first half. The first quarter was an even 3-3 as the Irish tallied goals from Ahern, Denes and Dorney. The second quarter was much of the same story despite the Tigers taking a 6-4 advantage. The second quarter had goals from Choma as she converted on a free position attempt.
The Irish came out of halftime firing on all cylinders as they put up the first goal of the half. Jackie Wolak took it herself, rolled around her defender and fired past the goalie to cut the lead to one. Early in the third quarter, Wolak hit the back of the cage and Choma had another free position attempt where she went low and tied the score at 6-6. The Tigers extended on their lead again pushing the score to 8-6. Wolak cut the deficit again with a goal with 15 seconds remaining in the quarter.
The fourth quarter was where the Irish amped things up even more when they put two unanswered goals in the back of the cage. Notre Dame tied things again at nine when Choma and Shanahan managed to get the ball past the goalie. A goal from Abby Maichin put the Irish in front 10-9 with six minutes remaining in the game. Wolak continued to build on the Irish lead after with an assist from Ahern. The Irish sealed their win when Wolak scored again with under two minutes remaining, and then Kelly Denes put one in the back of the net with only two seconds on the clock for a 12-9 win.
NOTRE DAME NOTES
- Choma tallied her fourth hat trick of the season, now scoring a hat trick in every game of the 2023 season.
- Wolak tallied her tenth hat trick of her career, with this being the second in a row.
- The Irish dominated on the draw circle again winning by a margin of 16-8.
- Denes led the Irish on the draw circle with seven draw controls.
- The Irish hand the Tigers their first loss in program history.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame travels to take on Duke on March 4, 2023. Live stats will be available during the matchup and the stream will be available on ACCNX.