After suffering their first loss of the season against Michigan in South Bend last Thursday, the Irish were not hitting the road for another loss. Instead, the Notre Dame women’s soccer team secured a 3-0 win against Bowling Green on Sunday ahead of starting ACC play.
The Falcons, coming off of a tough 5-1 loss against No. 22 Pittsburgh, were ready to take on No. 11 Notre Dame at Cochrane Stadium. Only averaging 1.2 goals per game, Bowling Green had struggled to score coming in.
The Irish endured a slow start to the first half. While the Falcons faced the pressure of Notre Dame’s fourteen shots, Bowling Green’s senior goalkeeper Lili Berg successfully snagged three of four shots on goal. Opposite her, goalkeeper Atlee Olofson made two total saves for the Irish. One of the freshman’s impressive saves denied Ellie Pool’s low left shot, keeping Bowling Green scoreless in the first half.
At the 35th-minute mark, senior defender Eva Gaetino assisted graduate forward Maddie Mercado’s third goal of the season. Mercado's further-out, well-strung ball put the Irish on the board. Graduate and freshman midfielders Kiki Van Zanten and Morgan Roy attacked in both the first and second periods, but both struggled to execute. Their facilitation on offense, however, opened the field for their teammates to find the back of the net.
Out of the halftime break, the coaching staffs on both sides made substitutions. For the Falcons, redshirt sophomore Madison Vukas stepped into the goal for the second half of the match, while junior defender Isabelle Gilmore remained in the backline for the Falcons. The captain, who has played every minute for the Falcons this season, remained consistent. But Bowling Green’s offense struggled, only tallying two shots on goal for the entire match.
Mercado was not the only one to score her third goal of the season. Freshman forward Meg Mrowicki also tallied her third goal of the season, a high left goal assisted by sophomore midfielder Leah Klenke. The goal pushed Notre Dame ahead 2-0 against the Falcons in the 53rd minute.
Three seemed to have been the lucky number for the Irish. Vukas saved graduate midfielder Kristina Lynch’s second shot of the day, but Lynch remained determined. Immediately after, she took her shot high center over the head of Vukas for Notre Dame’s third and final goal of the game.
The Irish are scheduled to take on Wake Forest Friday night at Alumni Stadium. The Demon Deacons, with a 6-0-1 record in 2023, are 3-0 on the road and have only allowed two goals.
Irish defeat Bowling Green ahead of ACC play
Irish graduate midfielder Kristina Lynch changes direction during Notre Dame's 4-1 defeat of Butler at Alumni Stadium on Aug. 24, 2023.
