Time of possession favored Notre Dame. So did corner kicks, as well as dangerous opportunities in the box.
But the place where all games are won and lost – the scoreboard – showed no favor at all between the third-ranked Lady Irish and fourth-ranked Chattanooga Christian.
The two teams battled to a scoreless tie Thursday at CCS. Notre Dame finished with nine shots on goal, compared to three for the Lady Chargers. The Lady Irish also had five corner-kick opportunities while working their way into the box on five occasions.
With all district competition complete, the Lady Irish lead the standings with a 2-0-1 mark, while CCS moved to 1-1-1 with eighth-ranked Signal Mountain 2-1.
CCS likely will travel back to Signal Mountain for a district-tournament semifinal match, while Notre Dame (4-7 overall) would host Sequatchie County, which forfeited their regular-season matchup.
Notre Dame’s Kathryn Healy moved all over the field, working with teammates to create opportunities, but chances were usually turned away by lead passes shot too far, winding up out of bounds or in the hands of CCS keeper Taylor Thurman.
“I felt that we had good opportunities, but not really good chances,” Notre Dame coach Jim Schermerhorn said. “It was a typical Notre Dame/CCS battle, back and forth with not many chances to score.
“I did think we played better in the second half and created more, so I’m happy with that.”
CCS had a solid attack in the first half and put Notre Dame on its heals. Tiffany Sullivan had a shot opportunity from outside the 18 that sailed just over the crossbar, but the final 40 minutes belonged to the Lady Irish.
“It is good to have not had a loss against a good team,” CCS coach Cal Sneller said. “It would have been nice to have a win and build more, but Notre Dame came at us hard and we had a hard time thinking.
“We could have moved better, but we earned a shutout with good team defense. They had a few scary opportunities, but it was a good effort to keep them off the scoreboard.”