SOUTH BEND, IN. – The #18 Fighting Irish met with new lacrosse ACC foe, the Pittsburgh Panthers. The Irish fought hard on senior day taking a win 19-7.
Kasey Choma led the Irish with five goals on the day. Madison Ahern and Maddie Howe both had four.
Kelly Denes took control of the draw circle with 13 draw controls. This gave her a new career-high and season high for draws. Diana Kelly dominated on the defensive end of the field with four caused turnovers.
Bridget Deehan had six saves during the contest before Lilly Callahan entered the game and had one stop.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish kicked off the game with a quick six goals in the first quarter. Ahern had the first Notre Dame goal off an assist from Howe. The scoring kept going when Howe dished out another assist to give Madison Mote her first goal of the day. Keelin Schlageter put the ball in the back of the net on a free position shot. Choma followed up with a goal off an assist from Mary Kelly Doherty. Choma and Howe both converted their free position shots for a 6-4 lead in the first.
The second quarter opened with Howe converting a free position shot for the Notre Dame seventh goal. Choma scored again on an assist from Schlageter followed right up by a free-position goal from Mote. Howe tallied another free position goal to give the Irish a 10-5 lead going into halftime.
The Irish came out strong in the second half when Choma and Wolak connected twice for Irish goals bringing the lead to 12-5. Madison Mote and Madison Ahern tallied goals 13 and 14 for Notre Dame. Mote found the goal right off the draw, and Ahern scored off a caused turnover. Wolak found the net right off the draw, and then Howe scored on a man up opportunity after a yellow card was issued to the Panthers. Doherty connected with Wolak for the final Irish goal of the quarter making the score 17-6. The final quarter of the game had Ahern scoring the two Notre Dame goals of the quarter. Pittsburgh responded with a goal of their own for an eventual final score of 19-7.
The Irish hit the road for a Monday matchup at Marquette University. There will be live stats available as well as a live stream via YouTube.
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