Nov. 15, 2013
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The University of Iowa soccer team jumped out to a 1-0 lead before No. 23 Notre Dame scored the final four goals to down the Hawkeyes, 4-1, in the first round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament Friday night at Alumni Stadium.
“This hurts right now because we were up 1-0 on Notre Dame, on their home field, and maybe had a repetition in there that led to a penalty kick,” said UI head coach Ron Rainey. “If we could stop that before there is a foul or the whistle blows, maybe the game is able to wear on a little more and we keep them off the scoreboard.”
Iowa grabbed the game’s momentum in the fifth minute when junior Cloe Lacasse was clipped in the box, setting up a penalty kick attempt. Junior Melanie Pickert drilled the shot into the lower left corner past Fighting Irish goalkeeper Kaela Little to give the Hawkeyes the 1-0 lead. It was Pickert’s team-leading seventh goal of the season.
Notre Dame then went on the offensive, pelting shot-after-shot at the Iowa defense and in the 38th minute, the Irish evened the contest on the game’s second penalty kick. After junior Caitlin Brown got a handful of Lauren Bohaboy’s jersey, forward Morgan Andrews fired her shot past UI goalkeeper Hannah Clark to even the game at one.
Nearly seven minutes later, Notre Dame took the lead for good when Elizabeth Tucker fed Andrews for a finish in front of goal from eight yards out to make the score 2-1.
“To jump out to that early lead and defend like we did early on was great,” said Rainey. “Notre Dame is a team that measures itself by championships, and they showed that. There wasn’t any panic in them and that lead to a couple of goals in the first half.”
After out-shooting Iowa, 19-2, in the first half, Notre Dame pushed its lead to 3-1 courtesy of a strike by Tucker at the 52:44 mark. Tucker ran up on the left wing and found the back of the net from 13-yards out.
The Fighting Irish tacked on a fourth goal in the 87th minute. Brittany Von Rueden sent a corner kick into the box where Katie Naughton’s header pushed the lead to 4-1.
Notre Dame out-shot the Hawkeyes, 32-4 in the game, including 13 shots on goal, and had a 12-3 advantage in corner kicks. Clark finished with a career-high nine saves in the defeat.
Iowa concludes the 2013 season with a 15-7-1 overall record. The 15 victories are the most in a single season in program history.
“I think the experience of being in the NCAA Tournament and being here is something that I hope our kids get a little greedy and they strive to do this year-after-year,” said Rainey.