Sept. 10, 2004
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TEMPE, Ariz. -- In front of a record crowd of 1,505, the 11th-ranked Arizona State soccer team (2-2) came up just short by a 2-1 score to second-ranked Notre Dame (5-0) on a hot Friday at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
In a hard fought game that had four yellow cards -- two by each team -- both teams featured a lot of up and down action early in the first half. As it happened in the game last year in South Bend, the Sun Devils broke on top first. Katie Leahy notched her team-leading fourth goal of the year when she broke away from the Irish defense and shot the ball pass goalkeeper Lauren Karas at the 22:11 mark.
ASU looked to push the lead to 2-0 in the 27th minute when Manya Makoski's shot from 25 yards out hit the top of the cross bar and ricochet down, appearing to cross the line, but was not called.
Notre Dame then started to control the tempo and possessions and evened the score at one when Candance Chapman got a lose ball from a scramble in front of the box and scored at 34:15. Notre Dame then looked to go up 2-1 with 40 seconds left in the half off an excellent scoring chance when Jen Buczkowski passed to Katie Thorlakson who drilled the shot, but ASU goalkeeper Kim Bingham made an outstanding diving safe nearly at point blank.
In the second half both teams again tried to gain the upper hand as the action went back and forth. But in the 59th minute, the Fighting Irish took the lead for good. Thorlakson nailed a free kick from about 20 yards out to Melissa Tancredi who collected the ball and scored from the right wing.
Notre Dame held a 15-7 advantage in shots and a 5-0 lead in corner kicks. Bingham made four saves on the night, while Karas made two.
Up next, the Devils will continue their home stand as they host the Sun Devil Invitational next weekend. ASU will face Dartmouth on Friday, September 17 at 7:00 p.m., while Oklahoma will take on San Diego State prior to the ASU match at 4:30 p.m.