South Bend, Indiana – Virginia Tech trailed 15-7 with 8:52 to play and reeled off the final six goals of the game to cut the deficit to two, but could not overcome another slow start, fall at No. 4 Notre Dame 15-13 Sunday afternoon from Arlotta Stadium.
The Hokies fall to 8-7 on the season and 1-4 in the ACC with two games remaining in the regular season.
Notre Dame moves to 11-2, 4-2 in the league.
The Irish scored the game's first five goals before the Hokies could get on the board through Paige Petty at the 19:39 mark. From there, Tech settled in and battled the rest of the half to head into the locker room down four, 9-5.
In the second, after Tech closed the gap to three with an Emma Crooks goal, before Notre Dame distanced itself with a five-goal run.
Crooks, Taylor Caskey and Sarah Lubnow spearheaded the late comeback, with all three players recording goals.
Emma Harden added two goals and Petty recorded her 12thhat trick of the season, moving her season tally to 55.
Elena Ricci led the Hokies on the draw circle with six and also had three ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Morgan Berman came up with 12 saves in goal.
For Notre Dame
- Maddie Howe led all scorers with seven points (4 goals, 3 assists)
- Madison Mote had three goals, and one assist
- Nikki Ortega recorded four points (2 goals, 2 assists)
- Andie Aldave secured 12 draw controls, breaking her own single season program record with 102 in 2019.
- In goal, Samantha Giacolon made 12 saves.
Quoting Coach Sung
- You can't spot a team like this five goals and expect to get a result and that's what we did today. I didn't like the way we defended (Maddie Howe) she got some points for them in there.
- Once we got it going there in the second half I thought it was pretty good. To go on a six-goal run there was exciting and I thought we might have had a chance
- I thought the difference was the draw controls in the first half. When we couldn't get the possession there, Notre Dame really hurt us and that made it hard to come back from.
- Sarah Lubnow had three goals on three shots, that's very good, I liked how she played today.
What's next
- Tech will have an open date during the week, before hosting No. 1 Boston College on Saturday, April 13 at noon at Thompson Field.
- The Hokies will close the regular season on Saturday, April 20 at Virginia.