Sept. 27, 2002
Final Stats
VILLANOVA, PA. - The Villanova women's soccer team rallied from a one goal second half deficit to defeat the No. 9 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 2-1, on Friday, Sept. 27 at the Villanova Soccer Complex. The Wildcats scored both their goals just over a minute apart in the second half, as senior Julie Battista and sophomore Laura Johnson found the back of the net. In goal for Villanova, junior Chrissy Dolan stopped the high-powered Irish attack with a career-high 16 saves.
With the Friday's victory over national power Notre Dame, the Wildcats improve to 6-1-3 overall on the season and 2-1-1 in the Big East. The Irish fall to 6-3-0 overall and 2-1-0 on conference play.
The first half was a tight-knit defensive struggle with the game going into intermission scoreless. Notre Dame had a slim 7-6 advantage in the shot totals at the half, but it was Villanova who got the better of the chances in the first half. The Wildcats' best opportunity came at the 33:15 mark when Regina Villari arched a perfectly placed shot towards the right post, but Irish keeper Erika Bohn knocked the ball away to keep the game scoreless.
Notre Dame came out firing in the second half. Irish forward Amanda Guertin hit the post with a shot at the 48:10 mark, but came back 2:35 later to score the contest's first goal. Candice Chapman found Guertin with a touch pass in the middle of the box and Guertin beat Dolan with a shot into the lower left corner of net.
Notre Dame just missed another opportunity at the 59:33 mark when a shot by Chapman deflected off of the post.
At the 64:03 mark, the Wildcat offense got on track. Johnson took a free kick off of a foul and had the ball deflect high in the air off of an Irish defender. The ball bounced in front of the Notre Dame goal to Villanova freshman Brittany Hunsaker. Hunsaker dumped a pass away from goal to Battista 10 yards from the net, and Battista drilled the ball into the left of the net to tie the game at 1-1.
Just over a minute later, the Wildcat offense found the net again. Battista sent a corner kick into the box. Junior Candice MacDonald gained control and sent a dump pass to Johnson in the left of the box and Johnson snuck a shot past Bohn from 15 yards out to give the `Cats their first lead at 2-1.
Dolan sent back several Notre Dame shots down the stretch and the Villanova defensive contingient of Michelle Biehl, Jennifer Carrigan and Patricia Misciagna held off the Irish attack as the Wildcats went on for the 2-1 victory.
In net for the `Cats, Dolan picked up the win with a career-high 16 saves. She came into the came tops in the Big East in goals against average (0.40).
Taking the loss in goal for Notre Dame was Bohn, who stopped seven shots on the afternoon.
Battista's goal for the Wildcats was her second of the season, while Johnson netted her team-high fourth goal of the season.
Villanova will get back into action on Sunday, Sept. 29, hosting Saint Joseph's at 4:00 p.m.
