Many of the Eastern women’s soccer players remained hunched over or rested on a knee as the final seconds counted down the end of the Panthers’ match with Notre Dame and their season this past Friday.

Throughout the week leading up to their match with Notre Dame, the Panthers looked optimistically to their match up with the Fighting Irish. Head Coach Steve Ballard stressed to his team that the belief in each other and in the idea that they can defeat the Fighting Irish was crucial.

But when it came down to it, Notre Dame remained the superior team in its 4-0 victory over the Panthers at Alumni Field.

“Notre Dame is one of the two or three best teams in the nation, and I still believe that,” Ballard said. “I would not be surprised to see them go on to win the national championship this year.”

The four Fighting Irish goals came in flurries, as they scored two sets of goals in relatively short amounts of time between each other.

The first goal for Notre Dame came only about six minutes into the game, when the ball came back down to Amanda Cinalli’s foot after it was deflected off of a corner kick. The second goal came nearly eight minutes later, when Katie Thorlakson scored her 20th goal of the year.

The next flurry of Irish goals came in the second half when Kim Lorenzen and Candace Chapman scored back-to-back goals within a minute of each other.

“Their attacks are very well planned and executed,” junior defender Morgan Frericks said. “They are always moving, constantly adding numbers and making things complicated.”

Eastern couldn’t manage much offensively, as the team could only get three shots off against the vaunted Notre Dame defense that includes world-class defender Candace Chapman.

The best scoring chance for Eastern came off of junior midfielder Sharyne Connell’s foot. Connell was able to get free for a moment and had an open look at the goal but a Notre Dame defender deflected the ball before it could reach the net. In fact, the Fighting Irish’s starting goalkeeper Erika Bohn did not record a save in the match.

“In the first half, I thought we were really good on both the offensive and defensive sides of the field,” Notre Dame coach Randy Waldrum said. “In the second half I thought we were a little lackadaisical until we got our rhythm back and then we were solid again.”

As the game went along the effort level and intensity level increased to the point that it got fairly physical between the two teams.

Injuries struck the Panthers as sophomore Abby Bohnenstiehl was forced to leave the game with a leg injury and Frericks was hurt as well but returned to play.

“I thought it as a physical game, but it was physical on both sides,” Ballard said. “Overall, it was a fair-played tough match that brought hard play out of both teams.”

The game turned out to be the last in an Eastern uniform for departing seniors Audra Frericks, Rachel Dorfman, Lindsay Dechert and Lynne Goehler.

The end of these players’ careers marks the departure of a senior class that has tasted NCAA tournament action in each of their four years at Eastern.

“This is a sad time but a happy time,” Ballard said. “The four seniors who are leaving just mean so much to the team and the program. It’s disappointing we couldn’t win this for them.”

Notre Dame went on to defeat Wisconsin in their second round match that took place Sunday afternoon. The Fighting Irish scored late in the game to win by a score of 1-0.