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Regy Thorpe threw the clipboard out the window.

At this point, he and his staff had tried every trick in the book.

Thorpe, normally seen holding signs with numbers and symbols, hid them. Assistant coach Nicole Levy, who bakes behind-the-back contorts or hidden ball tricks, used every strategy umpteen overtimes ago.

There was no plan. Just hope for Thorpe and Notre Dame head coach Christine Halfpenny.

Knotted at nine, SU and ND pirouetted the 12-meter arcs for their zillionth tries. Why not flip it speculatively to Ashlee Volpe on the right flank.

The ball rolled with 17 seconds left in quadruple overtime. Courtney Maclay didn’t know where it was. Mayhem. Without timeouts on either side, Mileena Cotter sent her shot too far.

Glance at the time.

Five, four seconds.

Gracie Britton scooped up a ball laying out of bounds. In the back of her eye, the silhouette of Caroline Trinkaus emerged. She didn’t know if she could get set.

Two, one. Blackout.

Without a blueprint, No. 3 Syracuse (12-3, 7-2 Atlantic Coast) emerged with a 10-9 quadruple-overtime rout of No. 15 Notre Dame (11-4, 5-4 ACC) in its longest game in program history. Trinkaus’ game-winning goal came after 22 and a half scoreless minutes to punctuate her third hat trick in five games. The Orange weathered Kate Timarky amid their worst draw performance of the season, as the defense extended its single-digit goals allowed streak to 10.

“You just try to get something drawn up on the fly,” Thorpe said postgame.

He couldn’t. SU needed a florid fire, and it took eons to scratch the matchbox anyway. But in the dying embers, Trinkaus produced a spark, and that was the coup de grâce.

For the third consecutive game, the Orange didn’t strike first. The result was a 4-3 halftime deficit, the fewest goals in a half since their season-opener. A factor leading to the low-scoring start was draw struggles. SU went 1-for-7.

Slotting Joely Caramelli at the center circle was the spirit Syracuse needed to get back in the game, winning the third quarter’s opening three draws.

“I’m really proud of Joely for coming in, and she gave us a spark in the third quarter,” Thorpe said.

The spark didn’t come immediately, as ND extended the advantage to two with Timarky’s free-position peg about four and a half minutes into play.

Cotter responded, pummeling a lefty to bring things to 5-4 less than two minutes after. Then, Volpe oscillated the Fighting Irish’s back line, causing Ceci Patterson’s benching for Isabel Pithie. Whether it was an ND lead or tie, SU couldn’t claim an advantage, with Grace Maroney converting the ensuing woman-up opportunity.

Bri Peters stormed back, sidestepping the 12-meter fan for a lefty strike. The Orange nabbed their first lead, as Mackenzie Rich coasted at X and dunked a high-to-low barrel.

Entering the final quarter, Trinkaus fired a soft, low finish between Pithie’s legs. Halfway through, she clinked the ball off the post to give SU a three-goal lead, surely putting things out of reach.

It was uncharacteristic of the Orange, who are normally in the driver’s seat. There was no expectation that SU could rely on a late, four-goal surge to ignite its fire when Molly Guzik didn’t score, for the first time all season.

“We have a chance to put the nail in, and we make a mistake,” Thorpe said. “They go out, they bring someone off the bench, and she hits a big 8-meter and momentum swings.

That was Emma Murphy, whose low-to-high strike cut things to two. It snowballed to one, as Mackenzie Conley scored out of free position with six minutes left.

The minute column on the scoreboard dwindled, and for three and a half minutes, nothing happened. Not until Murphy slotted a free-position shot to knot things at nine.

It was the most precarious position the Orange have been in since they dropped their third loss to then-No. 3 Stanford. Throughout the win streak, SU’s led in the final two minutes every time.

With a minute and a half left, jaws dropped, as Maroney’s free-position chance recoiled over Daniella Guyette’s knee out of play. A couple more chances, including one ricocheting the football crossbar, saw ND nearly taste victory.

SU’s final chance came with 24 seconds left, when it couldn’t formulate a play. The squads exchanged so few possessions in the first overtime that you could count them on a hand, leading to several shot-clock violations.

“Coach Nicole hit the marker board and had a couple good looks,” Thorpe said. “We didn’t quite connect.”

It was the same truth in the second one, when the Orange passed up multiple shots. Volpe got close twice, one on a wide free-position chance and one halted via a crease violation.

“Their defense had been obviously making a lot of stops, so we just had to finish it there,” Trinkaus said.

It seemed Notre Dame turned a corner two minutes into the third stoppage time, but Guyette’s highlight-reel save on Meghan O’Hare kept the Orange afloat.

Syracuse ran out of steam. Rotating the ball around, there was only one player to whom the ball could go to. The Fighting Irish guessed Guzik. They were wrong.

Trinkaus. Uncorked shot. Bulge the net. Ballgame. Thorpe picks up the clipboard and rejoices.

“Gross,” Emma Muchnick said of the goal.

“Never been in a game like that,” Trinkaus added.

Published on April 11, 2026 at 3:14 pm
Contact Jason: jaglick@syr.edu | @jason_glick