The sixth-seeded Notre Dame women’s soccer team couldn’t get past third-seeded Florida State in Sunday’s opening round of the ACC Tournament. The Seminoles downed the Irish by a 2-1 score in Tallahassee, eliminating Notre Dame from the bracket and into the waiting game ahead of next Monday’s NCAA Tournament selection show. Now 11-3-4 on the season, the Irish have not lost three consecutive conference tournament matches dating back to 2022.
The defending national champions put pressure on the Irish right away, firing off a pair of point-blank shots just 90 seconds into the match. First, Jordynn Dudley ran onto a cross at the left corner of the 6-yard box, swinging into a shot that Notre Dame blocked. The ricochet came out to the other side of the 6, where another Irish defender put herself on the goal line and denied an effort from Solai Washington.
After the second rejection, Notre Dame would clear the ball out of bounds near the corner flag, setting up a Florida State throw-in deep inside the attacking third. The lengthy heave careened off of Irish defenders before landing at the feet of Marianyela Jimenez in the right portion of the 18-yard box. Shooting from a sharp angle, Jimenez threaded her strike past Notre Dame freshman goalkeeper Sonoma Kasica and into the far side of the net, getting the Seminoles on the board in the second minute.
Moments later, Washington nearly scored again from the right side of the 18, but Kasica’s diving save nullified her left-footed attack. Florida State kept its foot on the gas from there, with Carissa Boeckmann sending a pair of quality looks just wide of the right post from 20 yards out. In the final four minutes of the first half, Kasica made an even more impressive diving stop, pushing Wrianna Hudson’s 25-yard thump away with a lunge to her left.
Florida State would go into halftime having taken each of the night’s first 10 shots. However, with seven of those attempts having missed the target and Kasica having come up with saves on two more, the Seminole lead remained capped at 1-0.
The early moments of the second half changed little to nothing about the game’s flow, as Florida State marched right back into Notre Dame’s end. A 47th-minute bouncing ball from a defended Seminole service landed near the right corner of the 6, where Jimenez smashed a volley right on goal. Kasica, with no time to react, squared up the heat-seeking shot and bodied it away for another save.
Five minutes later, Notre Dame would finally generate something substantive on the field’s opposite end. An Irish cross found freshman forward Annabelle Chukwu on the right side of the 6 and her header pointed toward the upper right corner of the goal. Called upon to make her save of the night, Florida State keeper Addie Todd reached up with her right hand, pushing the equalizing opportunity above the crossbar. Chukwu would challenge Todd again in the 59th minute, but her rolling strike from 20 yards away trickled by the right post.
Growing more comfortable by the minute, Notre Dame would continue threatening into the final 21 minutes. With 20 and a half to play, freshman forward Ellie Hodsden carved through Seminoles into a shooting position at the left corner of the 6. There, she tried to go up top with a right-footed scoop, but Todd leapt high to knock the ball over the goal again.
Seven minutes later, the Seminoles would reward the efforts of their keeper with a second goal. Notre Dame nearly intercepted a Florida State passing play outside the 18, but Sophia Nguyen used her burst to jump in front of a defender and keep the play alive for the home side. She would then skip into an open space, pummeling a 20-yard strike, that zipped past Kasica and inside the far post. With 13 minutes remaining, Florida State led 2-0.
Notre Dame wasted no time pressing for offense, intensifying their attack in the game’s final moments to challenge Florida State’s lead. With eight and a half to play, a long Irish free kick came right on goal for Todd, who came 6 yards off her line to make the catch. However, traffic flashing in front of her jarred the ball free and knocked her to the grass, leaving Notre Dame a chance to pounce on the rebound. With the ball bouncing after the collision, freshman forward Izzy Engle wisely looped her shot over Florida State’s defensive reinforcements, dropping it into the goal’s upper left corner. The fabulous freshman’s 16th goal of the season put Notre Dame right back in the match with plenty of time for an equalizer.
That equalizer, however, would never come to fruition. In fact, Florida State had the best chance to score in the time between Notre Dame’s breakthrough and the final whistle, with Peyton McGovern going in for an 84th-minute breakaway that Kasica shut down. Despite Notre Dame’s 10-5 shooting advantage in the second half and six corner kicks in the final 45 minutes, Florida State would hang on to win 2-1.
The Seminoles will face second-seeded Wake Forest in Thursday’s semifinals, while the Irish will rest up for a week before learning their NCAA Tournament position on Monday, Nov. 11.
