For 53 minutes, the Penn State women's soccer team kept its national title hopes alive against the No. 1 team in the country.
A span of 12 minutes and 37 seconds was all it took for Notre Dame to derail those aspirations.
Thanks to a significant advantage in shots and corner kicks, and four goals in the second half, the top-seeded Fighting Irish soundly defeated the No. 2-seeded Nittany Lions, 4-0, in the NCAA quarterfinals on Friday night in South Bend.
The loss not only ended the Lions' season one win short of a return to the College Cup, but also matched their worst margin of defeat since a 4-0 loss to Michigan in 2002.
"Notre Dame has a very good team and a very good program. They just physically dominated us and were very good on set pieces, and that was the difference in the game," said Penn State head coach Paula Wilkins, now 0-2 in her career against Notre Dame.
The Irish (24-0-1) fed off of Alumni Field's rowdy crowd of 1,668 from the opening whistle and showed why they are the only undefeated team remaining in Division I.
According to Wilkins, they used their unrelenting aggressiveness to dominate the midfield, which allowed their explosive offense to control the game.
After both teams traded shots in the first seven minutes, Notre Dame's fifth-ranked offense consistently pressured Penn State's heralded defense. By halftime, it held a 13-2 edge in shots and led 4-1 in corner kicks.
But four saves from redshirt-freshman goalkeeper Kate Milstead maintained the scoreless tie and kept the Lions (18-5-3) in contention.
"Obviously, we were happy to keep the score 0-0 at halftime," Wilkins said. "We looked to change some things for the second half and get some more opportunities for us."
Despite its adjustments, Penn State mustered only one shot in the final 45 minutes, while Notre Dame continued its suffocating attack and scored in the 54th minute.
Irish freshman forward Michele Weissenhofer tallied her 16th goal of the season when she beat Milstead on a pass from sophomore forward Kerri Hanks.
Weissenhofer scored two more times to complete the hat trick and become the third Notre Dame freshman ever to score three goals in an NCAA tournament game. Hanks went on to add two more assists, including one on junior forward Amanda Cinalli's goal at the 71:55 mark that capped the Irish's scoring.
Notre Dame finished the rout with a 27-3 lead in total shots (all of Penn State's shots came from redshirt freshman Ashley Myers) and a 9-1 advantage in corner kicks.
"Their front six attackers are very dynamic and very dangerous. They put good pressure on the ball and won a lot of first and second balls." Wilkins said.
"[Notre Dame] is one of the best teams we have seen this year, definitely."
