ND Womens Lacrosse: Lackluster first half too much for Irish to overcome
BY ANDY TROEGER
Sports Writer
Forced to play from behind after trailing 3-0 six minutes into the game, Notre Dame was unable to pick up its first win over a ranked team this season in falling to No. 17 Ohio State 12-9 this afternoon at Moose Krause Stadium.
Despite a number of valiant tries to catch the Buckeyes, the Irish fell just short of a ranked foe for the second straight game.
"I think we kept kind of pushing it," Irish coach Tracy Coyne said. "We had our chances, the goalie made some good saves and that's just the way it goes sometimes."
After the early deficit, the Irish came back to within one goal on three different occasions, the last of which came in the middle of the second half when a goal from Anne Riley pulled the Irish within 9-8. Consecutive goals from the Buckeyes pushed the lead back to three at 11-8 with only a few minutes remaining.
"There were a lot of aspects of our game that I was pleased with," Coyne said. "It's just a matter of putting it together for 60 minutes. We had spurts today where we played very well. It's just a matter of starting out strong and maintaining."
Ohio State was led by sophomore midfielder Regina Oliver, who scored four first half goals to push the Buckeyes out to the early lead.
"Regina is a very good player, she's very athletic and has very good speed and quickness," Coyne said. "I think we did a better job in the second half of containing her, but a player like Regina is difficult to completely shut down."
The Irish offensive effort was paced by senior Danielle Shearer who registered two goals and an assist, while junior Lauren Fischer added two first half goals.
After being down 3-0 after six minutes, the Irish responded with two goals to cut the deficit to 3-2. Ohio State pushed the lead back to 7-4 on Oliver's third goal of the first half, before Shearer and Meredith Simon scored to get the Irish within one at 7-6. Oliver's fourth score put Ohio State up by two at the break at 8-6.
The Irish now have three consecutive Big East showdowns beginning with trips to Virginia Tech (1-7) and No. 8 Syracuse before coming home to face Connecticut.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, March 26, 2003
