Irish Suffer First Defeat Of Season At #4 Syracuse, 10-9

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — No. 12/8 Notre Dame (9-1, 2-1 ACC) dropped its first game of the season on Sunday afternoon in a 10-9 defeat to No. 4/4 Syracuse at Christian Brothers Academy.

With eight saves in the contest, senior goaltender Samantha Giacolone passed Ellie Hilling for the most career saves in program history. Giacolone now sits at 529 stops in her career in an Irish uniform.

Sophomore Maddie Howe paced the Irish offense with seven points, including four goals and three assists. Senior Samantha Lynch also collected a hat trick.

Sophomore Andie Aldave had a game-high nine draw controls while also causing three turnovers and collecting two ground balls. Offensively, she notched a goal and an assist.

Junior Savannah Buchanan led Notre Dame with four caused turnovers in addition to three ground balls and a draw control.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Howe powered the Irish to an 8-5 halftime lead with six points (3G, 3A) in the first 30 minutes of play. Howe and Lynch each netted first-half hat tricks, with the other two Irish markers of the frame coming from Aldave and freshman Hannah Dorney.

Howe’s fourth goal gave Notre Dame a 9-6 lead with 10:17 to play, but the Orange closed the contest with four straight goals to earn the 10-9 victory.

As a team, the Irish outshot Syracuse 26-24 and had an 11-10 advantage on draw controls. Both sides collected 18 ground balls.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

  • Maddie Howe recorded seven points (4G, 3A) against Syracuse and has now recorded five or more points in four games this season.

  • Samantha Giacolone now sits at 529 career saves, passing Ellie Hilling (528) for the all-time program mark.

  • Andie Aldave has now recorded nine draw controls in back-to-back games and leads the Irish with 82 on the season. She set the program single-season record with 98 last year as a freshman.

UP NEXT

The Irish return home to take on North Carolina this Sunday, March 31st in their fifth annual Daughters For Dads campaign. That matchup is set for 1 p.m. ET and is slated to be played outside at Arlotta Stadium. For complete details on our Daughters For Dad’s initiative, click here.

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