TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Marta Bakowska-Mathews’ diving header in double overtime gave No. 3 Florida State (15-1-3, 10-1-2 ACC) a thrilling 2-1 come-from-behind victory over No. 19 Notre Dame (11-6-1, 7-5-1 ACC) Thursday night inside the Seminole Soccer Complex.

The Fighting Irish clinked to a one-goal lead late before Bakowska-Mathews’ broke through with the equalizer with two minutes and 35 seconds left in regulation. Carson Pickett began the scoring play as she looked to put a shot on frame but the ball deflected off the foot of Michaela Hahn and right to Bakowska-Mathews, who buried the shot into the upper right corner from about 20 yards out for the goal.

“I’m excited for the team and myself,” said Bakowska-Mathews on coming through with both goals on Thursday night. “I’m really happy we could win the last home game for the seniors; it’s just great.”

“It’s awesome stepping on the field with these girls because I know even if we go down, there’s four-minutes left, we know this is our prime time,” said senior captain Kassey Kallman. “It brings a lot of composure to our team and we all know that we have that in us (to fight back). Tonight, we were able to keep playing our game. We’ve gotten that result a ton of times (this year) and tonight it just helped us have more confidence.”

The goal was FSU’s 12th of the season after the 80th minute of play which has resulted in either a tie score or a game-winner. Bakowska-Mathews’ golden goal in double overtime made it goal No. 13 after the 80th minute.

“The resiliency of this team is really good,” Florida State head coach Mark Krikorian said. “We’ve see it a number of times through the course of the season and as a coach it’s a great feeling – even in the 90th minute that last tick on the clock to give yourself a chance, to have that kind of fight.

“It wasn’t easy tonight. We were playing without Dagny (Brynjarsdottir) and Nikki Driesse had a bit of a stomach problem and she wasn’t able to continue. But some of our kids that came off the bench made a great impression and influenced the outcome of the game.”

Notre Dame threatened to retake the lead a minute and 19 seconds later but Kelsey Wys came through with a huge save on a blast from Morgan Andrews. Wys made the save with her forearms allowing the ball to bounce around inside the 6-yard box before Megan Campbell was able to clear the ball out of harm’s way and push the game to extra time.   

In double overtime, Campbell made a nice run down the left side of the pitch freeing up enough room to send a cross into a wide open space in the middle of the 18-yard box.  Bakowska-Mathews timed her run perfectly finishing with an all-out diving header that found the inside of the left post just passed a diving Kaela Little for the Seminoles’ third golden goal of the season.

It was FSU’s seventh overtime match of the season as the Seminoles improved to 3-1-3 on the year. 

Bakowska-Mathews finished the evening with her first career multi-goal game as the native from Herne Bay, England now has a career-high six goals on the season. The game-winning assist for Campbell was her third in 2013.

With the win, Florida State extended the nation’s longest active home unbeaten streak to 30 games (29-0-1), while the Seminoles completed the regular season unbeaten at home (11-0-1) for the second year in a row and third time in school history.

Notre Dame went on top early thanks to a beautiful goal by Anna Gilbertson. The sophomore forward bent a shot from the top right corner of the 18-yard box inside the left post for her fourth goal of the season.

The Irish came within inches of pushing their lead to 2-0 just minutes into the second half but a long range shot by Andrews caromed off the crossbar.

The Fighting Irish finished the game with a 17-16 advantage in shots as Andrews led all players on Thursday night with five. Bakowska-Mathews and Berglind Thorvaldsdottir paced the Seminoles with a team-high three shots each. 

On Senior Night at the Plex, Wys played the entire time in goal finishing the game with six saves. Kallman had two shots including one on goal in the first half. The one shot on goal came in the 25th minute off one of nine Florida State corner kicks on the evening. Bakowska-Mathews sent a great bending ball on the corner to the far post where Kallman’s header looked as though it was going to find the back of the net but the shot ricocheted off teammate Kirsten Crowley allowing the Irish to clear the ball and keep the match knotted at zero.

“Notre Dame gave us all that we could handle,” said Krikorian. “I’m proud of the effort that our people put forth. Notre Dame is a very good team. I have all the respect in the world for their group and we walk away feeling happy that we were able to get this win. It’s another quality win and now we get ready for the ACC Tournament.”

With the regular season in the books, Florida State will now turn its attention to the ACC Tournament as the Seminoles will host a first round match on Sunday, November 3 at 1:00 p.m. against seventh-seeded Duke. 

Tickets for Sunday’s match will be $8 for adults, $5 for children (ages 4-18), students and seniors (above 55). All ACC students with a valid school ID are admitted FREE.

Live stats for the match will be available via gametracker. As always Seminole fans can follow the Noles on twitter @FSU_Soccer and remember to like the Seminoles on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FSUSoccer) and Instagram (NoleSoccer).

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