Notre Dame trumps Mercy in the water

The Tigers (2-3) opened the first period with a hard push forward and dominated possession. Sink slipped in front of the goal and nudged the first point in within the first 60 seconds of play.

She was followed in short order by DeMarchena, who planted a power shot in the far corner less than a minute later.

After Thompson got her team's third point on the board, Mercy (2-4) began showing more signs of offense. Several rushes on goal finally resulted in a point, with Andrea Warren hurling the ball in from five yards out with 53 seconds left.

A shift in Mercy's defensive strategy in the second managed to finally quiet down the Notre Dame girls. Playing what head coach George Lynch described as more of a pressing game, the Crusaders held the Tigers more to the outer edges of the goal zone. Despite this strategy, however, Notre Dame managed to sneak one shot by midway through the period.

Notre Dame was not about to let the Crusaders gain a scoring edge, however. After allowing four shots on goal in the first period, the defense, led by goalie Christine Wilkins, held Mercy to only three shots over the next two periods. One of these was blocked by Wilkins directly in an amazing jump.

After a quiet third, the girls on both teams played more aggressively as the final seven minutes ticked down.

Mercy seemed to hold the edge, pushing five shots toward the net. One of these connected via a Rhonda Shean throw with two minutes of play left. Shean also had two other shots which missed.

With the score now 4-2, Notre Dame sought to collect an insurance point. This came via Jennifer Stoltz who, with a little over a minute of play left, drove a shot out of a crowd of players and past Crusaders goalie Laura Harwood.

Both coaches shared admiration for each other's teams afterwards, stating they would look forward to a rematch.

"My girls came out strong today," said Notre Dame Belmont head coach Kelly Lynch. "We were focusing on reacting a lot to the shot clock."

On the Mercy side, George Lynch felt his girls hung right in there with the Tigers throughout the match.

"We played fairly smart," said George Lynch. "Our defense did a good job in the hole."

George Lynch gave special kudos to Amanda Masetti, Warren and Shean for their performance during the match.

League play for both teams starts next week, with Notre Dame opening Sacred Heart Prep in the West Catholic Athletic League. Mercy, playing their first season in the Peninsula Athletic League, will be away at Mills.