Season ends after second-round loss

With a 5-0 loss to Notre Dame, the USF women’s soccer season ended Sunday in the single-elimination Big East tournament.

Notre Dame (15-3-1, 10-0-1), which has won the Big East tournament three of the past four years, scored early and often against the Bulls (9-8-3, 5-2-2).

Sophomore Melissa Henderson had a hat trick in an 18-minute span to begin the match, while the Irish also had goals from Lauren Fowlkes and Ellen Jantsch in the 34th and 39th, respectively, to take
a 5-0 lead at halftime. The Bulls made it into Sunday’s match because they defeated DePaul 1-0 in the opening round Thursday.

USF was without four starters – Taylor Patterson, Bahar Sansar, Gina Pacheco and Rehana Murani – who were trying out for the U-20 Canadian National team in El Paso, Texas.

“I think the girls that played in their place have been playing all season, and I was confident they could do it,” said coach Denise Schilte-Brown on Thursday.

With just over six minutes left in regulation, USF’s leading goal scorer Chelsea Klotz found the back of the net for her ninth goal of the season.

USF ends the 2009 season with a school best five wins in the Big East, as well as its first win in the Big East tournament.