NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Freshman Madison Ahern collected a game-high five points (3G, 2A) and eight different players scored as seventh-ranked Notre Dame opened the 2020 campaign with an 18-3 victory over Marquette on Sunday afternoon inside Loftus Sports Center.
Junior Maddie Howe netted four goals, including her 100th career marker, while Samantha Lynch also netted a hat trick. Notre Dame also received two-goal efforts from Kasey Choma, Jessi Masinko and Savannah Buchanan. Erin McBride and Jackie Wolak rounded out the Irish scoring.
Bridget Deehan finished with eight saves to earn the victory in goal for Notre Dame. Grace Steffens relieved Deehan in goal for the final 6:02.
As a team, the Irish caused 17 Marquette turnovers. Makenna Pearsall recorded a game-high four caused turnovers while Kathleen Roe and Meaghan Scutaro each added three.
Buchanan also paced Notre Dame with four draw controls with Andie Aldave adding three draw controls.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish came out strong, scoring the game’s first seven goals in the opening 16:44 of play.
Lynch finished a feed from Masinko just 37 seconds into play before Howe buried a free-position shot at 25:47 for her 100th career goal.
A pair of freshmen, Ahern and Choma, netted their first career goals at 24:44 and 23:55 to extend the Irish lead to 4-0.
Buchanan and Masinko scored just 11 seconds apart, at 14:24 and 14:13 of play, to extend the Irish advantage to 6-0.
Choma netted her second from Aldave at 13:16 of the half to make it a 7-0 contest.
After Marquette got on the board at 12:13, Howe buried her second with 9:40 remaining in the stanza to give the Irish an 8-1 lead.
The Golden Eagles made it 8-2 before Notre Dame scored the final three goals of the half to take an 11-2 lead into the break.
Lynch tallied again with 3:44 left in the frame before Howe completed her hat trick with 1:17 left. Then, Lynch completed her own hat trick with a buzzer-beating shot after a slick feed from Ahern.
Masinko gave the Irish a 10-goal lead with her second just 1:40 into the second half before Marquette made it 12-3 with 23:29 to play.
The Irish responded with the final six goals by Ahern (2), Buchanan, Wolak, McBride and Howe to make the final 18-3.
NOTABLE NUMBERS
- The Irish now own a 7-2 mark in season openers under head coach Christine Halfpenny.
- Notre Dame is now 20-4 all-time in its first game of the season.
- Notre Dame improves to 8-0 all-time against Marquette.
- Maddie Howe’s first goal today was her 100th career marker.
- Freshman Madison Ahern, Kasey Choma and Jackie Wolak each scored their first collegiate goals in the victory.
- Eight different Irish scored goals in the win and six different players earned multi-goal efforts.
UP NEXT
#7 Notre Dame heads to Evanston, Illinois, to take on third-ranked Northwestern next Friday (Feb. 14) at 8 p.m. ET. That matchup is a rematch of last season’s NCAA Second Round contest, which also took place in Evanston.
—ND—