Notre Dame women’s lacrosse was back in Arlotta Stadium over the weekend for yet another top-25 matchup. The No. 21 Irish welcomed No. 9 Stanford to South Bend on Saturday afternoon for a pivotal ACC showdown for both sides, which also doubled as Notre Dame’s senior day.
Head coach Christine Halfpenny’s Irish entered the day at 6-6 and just 1-5 in the ACC, which had them in ninth place and on the outside looking in at the eight-team ACC tournament field with just a few games remaining. Saturday’s contest with the Cardinal was the eighth game against a ranked opponent for Notre Dame this season. The Irish were 1-6 in their previous seven games against ranked opponents, and would need to pick up a marquee win to solidify their spot in the postseason despite holding the NCAA’s toughest strength of schedule.
For Stanford, the transition into the ACC had been smooth sailing as the Cardinal cruised to a 10-3 overall mark and 4-2 conference record entering their seventh top-25 affair of the year. A win against Notre Dame would clinch their spot in the ACC tournament, which will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina. at the end of April.
After the Irish program honored its seven seniors, along with Stanford’s graduating class, it was a back-and-forth start to a chilly afternoon that saw the score level at 2-2 10 minutes in. After the Cardinal swiftly netted the first two goals of the game, freshman attack Katie Mallaber got the Irish on the board before sophomore attack Kate Timarky tied the match off a nice feed from junior midfielder Franny O’Brien.
That spark would develop into a 5-0 Irish run, as sophomore midfielder Kathryn Morrissey found graduate captain midfielder Kristen Shanahan for the first Irish lead of the day, before scoring herself as the first quarter buzzer sounded. Morrissey found sophomore midfielder Meghan O’Hare on the other side of the quarter break to put Notre Dame up 5-2. Sophomore attack Aliya Polisky, Stanford’s leading scorer, recorded her second goal of the match and 44th of the season to draw one back for the Cardinal prior to the intermission.
Right on the other side of halftime, the pass-first O’Hare extended the Irish lead to 6-3 with her second goal of the day just 17 seconds after the draw. The Irish sputtered from there, however, as they found the back of the net just one more time over the final nearly 30 minutes.
Five Cardinal goals would bookend Morrissey’s 20th goal of the season, which came off a beautiful dime from Shanahan early in the fourth quarter to make the lead 7-5. Stanford closed the match on a deciding 3-0 run, with the game-winner coming with just under nine minutes remaining.
Junior midfielder Rylee Bouvier was set up in the middle of the cage by sophomore attack Elise Murphy, where the game-winner was initially waved off due to a charge, before instant review overturned the call, allowing the goal to stand.
The Irish would continue to attack over the closing stages, but the Cardinal defense, which had been stout all year long in the final frame, held true and denied Notre Dame a game-tying and season-saving goal to win the battle 8-7.
The Cardinal will now spend the remainder of the regular season back on the Pacific Coast, as they welcome No. 15 Clemson and Denver to Palo Alto before wrapping things up with a rivalry showdown in Berkeley against California.
Now sitting with a losing record, the Irish will battle Pittsburgh and Louisville over the next two weeks, with all three teams tied for ninth place in the ACC at 1-6. Notre Dame will need to collect both wins to leapfrog 2-5 Virginia Tech, who currently clings to the final spot in the field. The Irish get back in action on Saturday, April 12, at Pittsburgh before closing out the regular season at Arlotta the following Thursday with the Cardinals. Saturday’s must-win game in Pittsburgh is set for a noon opening draw with streaming available on ACCNX.
