The Independent Collegian

Issue date: 11/17/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jason Mack Senior defender Rachel White fights for a loose ball with a Notre Dame player in Friday's 5-2 loss in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. White had one shot in the game.

SOUTH BEND - The UT women's soccer team's season ended with a 5-2 loss to No. 1 Notre Dame on Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Fighting Irish advanced with a 1-0 win over Michigan State yesterday. They outshot the Spartans 29 to three and improved to 23-0-0 with the win.

UT finished the season with a 16-5-1 record. They won a third consecutive Mid-American Conference Tournament title, had a third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and won the MAC regular-season title for the first time in school history.

Notre Dame took control early in the match. They scored three goals in the first 16:34 of play.

"Notre Dame is No. 1 for a reason," Head Coach Brad Evans said. "They are a very talented team. That being said, I think we gave up some uncharacteristically easy goals, but overall, I thought we played very well."

Notre Dame opened the scoring 7:14 into the match. Freshman goalie Vicki Traven blocked a shot by Kerri Hanks but Carrie Dew fired the rebound into the net.

Rose Augustin stole the ball and scored an unassisted goal 13:05 into the game. She gave the Irish a 3-0 lead 3:29 later with assists from Michel Weissenhofer and Hanks.

Junior forward Molly Cornwell scored on a free kick with 22:01 remaining in the half for her eighth goal of the season.

"I knew that if we got any shots within 30 yards I would be shooting it straight in," Cornwell said.

Melissa Henderson scored on a header from six yards out on a pass from Courtney Barg to give Notre Dame a 4-1 lead heading into the half.

The Rockets came back strong in the second half. After being outshot 22-4 in the first half, UT matched Notre Dame with 12 shots in the second half.

"We knew we were in a three-goal hole, but we knew we had 45 minutes to play and we were going to give it everything we had until the last whistle," senior midfielder Tara Witt said. "We have big hearts out there. We play for each other. We were going to fight until the end."

Erica Iantorno scored on a pass from Taylor Knaack for a 5-1 lead with 12:32 remaining in the game.

The five goals scored by the Irish matched the total number of goals that Traven and the Rockets allowed in the 11 games leading up to the NCAA match.

"[Traven] did great considering the pressure that was on her, a freshman facing the number-one team in the country," Witt said. "She made some great saves. We couldn't be more proud of her."

Traven faced 17 shots on goal and made 12 saves. The MAC Freshman of the Year finished the season at 14-3-0 with 13 goals against and had nine shutouts with 71 saves.

Senior goalie Andrea Plewes played the final 4:30 of the game.

Freshman Kristen Lynn scored on a pass from Witt with 34 seconds left in the game.

"We didn't quit," Evans said. "We kept after it and created some chances. It says something that we scored in the last minute of the game."

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