Michigan Held Scoreless in Loss at No. 5 Notre Dame

Sunday, September 18

South Bend, Ind.

1:00 PM CT

Michigan

3-2-2

Notre Dame

7-1-0

Michigan

Notre Dame

9/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score PDF Boxscore

By: Matt Baumer

Site: South Bend, Ind. (Alumni Field)
Score: #5 Notre Dame 3, Michigan 0
Records: U-M (3-2-2), Notre Dame (7-1)
Next U-M Event: Friday, Sept. 23 -- vs. Ohio State (U-M Soccer Field), 7 p.m.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The University of Michigan women's soccer team dropped a 3-0 decision to the fifth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish Sunday (Sept. 18). The Wolverines were outshot 23-3 in the loss. Senior Megan Tuura (Tucker, Ga./St. Pius X Catholic) made six saves for the Wolverines.

The Michigan defense came up huge just 13 minutes into the game as Lindsey Cottrell (Kalamazoo, Mich./Central) cleared a crossing attempt to force a corner kick. Notre Dame's chance was headed wide. Just seconds later Tuura made a diving stop to preserve the scoreless game.

Tuura showed her experience once again at 26:35 as Notre Dame came in on a partial break. Tuura did not hesitate attacking Notre Dame forward Katie Thorlakson and blocked the low shot. Tuura nearly made an amazing stop on a Notre Dame corner-kick attempt. Tuura blocked the header by Fighting Irish midfielder Jen Buczkowski, but the ball bounced off of the crossbar and dropped in at 22:10 to move the score to 1-0.

Michigan's best chance in the first half came with just over 10 minutes left. Junior Judy Coffman (San Jose, Calif./Santa Theresa) crossed a free-kick attempt and the ball deflected through of the Notre Dame defense. The ball squirted around but the Notre Dame defense cleared the box before any of the Wolverine players could bury it.

Notre Dame took a 2-0 lead at 36:14 as senior Maggie Manning took through-ball and fired a shot high past Tuura. Tuura made five saves in the first half, and the Wolverines entered the second half down 2-0.

Notre Dame nearly went up 3-0 less than a minute into the second half, but Tuura cut down the angle on Notre Dame's breakaway and forced the shot wide. Tuura made another amazing save just over five minutes into the second half. Thorlakson snuck behind the Wolverine defense, but Tuura dove and denied the shot headed to the bottom right corner of the net. The Fighting Irish took 3-0 lead at 71:38 on a shot by sophomore Susan Pinnick that sailed to the top left corner of the net.

Michigan's best chance came with 28:20 left in the second half as sophomore Melissa Dobbyn (Livonia, Mich./Stevenson) created space with the dribble, but her shot from just outside the 18-yard box sailed high. The Wolverines were unable to create any more offense the rest of the game and left with a 3-0 loss.

The Wolverines return home to begin Big Ten Conference play as they face Ohio State next Friday (Sept. 23, 7 p.m.) at U-M Soccer Field.

GAME SUMMARY

Team	1	2	F
Michigan	0	0	0
Notre Dame	2	1	3

Scoring, Time (Assist)
1st -- UND, Jen Buczkowski, 22:10 (Christie Shaner, Katie Thorlakson)
1st -- UND, Maggie Manning, 36:14 (Thorlakson, Brittany Bock)
2nd -- UND, Susan Pinnick, 71:38 (Bock)

Shots: U-M 3, UND 23
Saves: U-M 6 (Megan Tuura), UND 2 (Lauren Karas)
Corner Kicks: U-M 0, UND 9
Fouls: U-M 9, UND 12
Cards: UND, Lauren Karas, 34:35 (yellow); UND, Kerri Hanks, 61:12 (yellow); UND, Christie Shaner, 85:53 (yellow); U-M, Judy Coffman, 85:53 (yellow)

NOTES

• Senior Therese Heaton played in her 78th game and made her 58th start of her career. She is Michigan's active leader in both career games played and career starts.

• Junior Megan Tuura made six saves against Notre Dame, which is her second highest total of the season. She made a career-high 12 saves at Kansas in the season opener.

• Michigan moved to 2-10 all-time against Notre Dame. After winning both meetings in 2003, including a 1-0 win in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Nov. 16, 2003, in South Bend, Ind. Michigan has dropped the last two meetings.

• Sophomore Melissa Dobbyn record one shot and has recorded a shot in every game this season. She had a season-high nine shots against Texas (Sept. 2) and leads the Wolverines with 30 shots this season.

• Junior Brenna Mulholland played in her 50th career game. She has started 38 of her 50 career games.

QUOTES

Michigan Head Coach Debbie Rademacher
On today's game ... "It was a good, physical game. They have balance all over the field and strong players. We didn't back down and really fought hard and had some shining moments so that is a good sign for us."

On learning from this game ... "Starting off a little bit nervous and really not getting into our game until the finish of the first half, in the second we frustrated Notre Dame a little bit. We were stopping some good chances for them. We really just played tough and the girls played for each other. They didn't let the emotions get them out of their game. The maturity showed up."

On the play of junior goalkeeper Megan Tuura ... "She had good hands and came up with some key saves on breakaways. Her punts today were well over midfield to really relieve the pressure. That is just what we needed."