No. 6 Syracuse (8-3, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) defeated No. 4 Notre Dame (9-2, 3-2), 12-11, on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Indiana, in what was arguably the Orange’s biggest win of the season.

Notre Dame’s Alex Dalton opened the scoring for the game just over seven minutes in. After the two teams traded tallies, Kayla Treanor scored to bring Syracuse within one. Then three straight UND goals opened up a 6-2 lead and forced a Syracuse timeout with 7:33 left in the first half.

But right before the break, goals from Taylor Gait and Nicole Levy sliced the lead down to 6-4.

The Orange and the Fighting Irish took turns scoring to make it 7-5 at the start of the second stanza. Then a three-goal run of Syracuse’s own gave the Orange its first lead of the game, 8-7 with 19:56 remaining. The back and forth wore on, and the with just over 11 minutes left an Erica Bodt goal tied the game at 10-10. UND took a quick timeout.

The timeout didn’t have the desired effect.  Three minutes after it was called, Levy scored her fourth goal of the game to give SU the 11-10 lead. A goal from Treanor then made it a two-goal advantage with just over six minutes to play.

But the Fighting Irish refused to go away. Cortney Fortunato scored with just over four minutes left to slice the lead down to one. But that’s when SU goalkeeper Allie Murray, making her first trip to South Bend since playing as a member of the Fighting Irish, made her mark.

Syracuse turned the ball over with 1:23 left and it led to a UND timeout 18 seconds later. With 24 seconds left in the game, Fortunato shot it wide. Then, with 15 seconds left, Casey Pearsall shot towards the net, and Murray made the save. Fortunato picked up the ground ball but shot it high. Syracuse held on for the 12-11 victory.

Syracuse has a quick turnaround as it returns home to play Connecticut (7-1, 1-0 American Athletic) on Tuesday night in the Carrier Dome.

Published on March 26, 2016 at 5:02 pm

Contact Tomer: [email protected] | @tomer_langer