ND reigns in the rain

FENTON, Mo. -- Notre Dame keeper Katie Palmer enjoyed her position for the first 65 minutes of Tuesday's Class 1 quarterfinal contest at the Anheuser-Busch Center.

The last 15 minutes were a little more hectic around the Notre Dame goal. Palmer came up with two saves in the final minutes, as the Bulldogs defeated Bishop DuBourg 2-1 and earned their second straight trip to the state's final four.

Sierra Ellis and Megan Holloway had the goals for Notre Dame, assisting on each other's tallies early in the second half.

Notre Dame (19-4-2) plays 6 p.m. Friday against Springfield Catholic (22-5-1), a 3-2, double-overtime winner against Wentzville Timberland. Kansas City O'Hara (25-4) will play Visitation (10-16-1) in the other semifinal. Visitation reached the final four with a 1-0 upset of defending champion John Burroughs.

Once Notre Dame's match with DuBourg started, it played out in three parts.

A thunderstorm delayed the start by 40 minutes, and Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley called the first portion of the game a chance to work out some nervous energy.

"We were so excited and pumped up, we overplayed everything," Worley said. "We were kicking a lot of balls too far.

"We talked about settling the ball and using our skill. We did that well for the final 10 minutes of the first half and the first part of the second half."

The talk came during a 15-minute delay with 9 minutes remaining in the first half, when lightning forced the teams from the field.

Returning to the field in a heavy deluge, Notre Dame kept the pressure on. With about six minutes remaining in the half, Ellis and DuBourg keeper Heather Yackey collided going for a bouncing ball in the box. Both players were down for several minutes and Yackey did not return to action.

"That changed the complexion of the game," DuBourg coach Kent Hediger said.

The Bulldogs took four corner kicks in the closing 5 1/2 minutes and finished the first half with seven to DuBourg's one.

After an abbreviated intermission, Notre Dame struck less than five minutes into the second half, when Megan Holloway sent the ball along the crease of an open net and Ellis pounded it in.

"With our team," said Holloway, "when we put in one goal, it pumps us up, and we usually put in another one." Sure enough, Notre Dame scored again less than three minutes later when Holloway took a pass from Ellis and sent it over the keeper's head and into the net from the right wing.

"Holloway gave us a big lift in this game," Worley said. "She made some dangerous crosses from the wing." Considering Palmer had touched the ball just once in the first 60 minutes while Notre Dame continued to pressure, the Bulldogs seemed in good shape.

But DuBourg's Meghan Gaffney, moved up from sweeper, scored in the 67th minute on an assist from Katie Donnelly to make it 2-1.

"The pressure should've been there the entire game," Hediger said. "Notre Dame did an excellent job moving the ball around and working the ball wide."

But DuBourg did have its chances to tie in the last 10 minutes. Palmer broke up another run by Donnelly and Gaffney, saved a header, made a diving save on a shot by Donnelly and in the final minute grabbed a dangerous ball in the box. The diving save forced Palmer to fall to her left on an injured shoulder.

"We do a good job of keeping me out of work," said Palmer. "We do well marking up on the other teams' better players. On the next to last save, I knew it was going to hurt when I fell, but I just had to dive for it. It felt good to stop them."

Notre Dame avenged a regular-season loss for the second straight game. The Bulldogs had lost 1-0 in the I-55 tournament to DuBourg, and had lost by the same score to sectional opponent St. Pius.

The state runner-up a year ago, Notre Dame wouldn't mind finishing up some leftover work from last year.

"We've worked all season to be here," Holloway said. "We've worked four years. We're ready to go out on top."