Freshman Elizabeth Tucker is Notre Dame’s third-leading scorer.
CARY, N.C. -- There was a moment this fall when Elizabeth Tucker realized she didn’t belong in her new surroundings at Notre Dame. The unheralded freshman, who hadn’t been on the recruiting radar for the Fighting Irish, who had to pitch herself to one of the most successful programs in college soccer, looked around and understood she had gone to the wrong place.
And so she did what anyone in such a state of dawning panic might. She ran -- down the hallway, to the right room for her calculus exam.
"I’d heard all these horror stories about people missing their first test," Tucker said, a touch of chagrin still evident 2½ months after her more-exhilarating-than-planned first college test. "I was so confident that I had taken every precaution that wouldn’t happen to me."
Having realized midway through the test that it was for the wrong level of calculus, a predicament helped along when a substitute professor announced he would be administering the proceedings, she raced to the right room. Then she raced to make the team bus as it departed for a game at DePaul -- a game in which she scored both goals in a 2-0 win.
As it turns out, there has never been any doubt that the third-leading scorer for the Notre Dame squad playing for the national championship Sunday (ESPN2, noon ET), the person who scored both goals in the team’s quarterfinal win on the road against Oklahoma State, is in the right place when it comes to soccer.
Fighting Irish coach Randy Waldrum didn’t know exactly what he was getting in giving the daughter of Notre Dame alums the chance she wanted, but some good deeds are rewarded.
"For us, it was more of giving her an opportunity," Waldrum said. "We thought she had enough talent to help our program, and with the family legacy at Notre Dame, we certainly wanted to give her the opportunity. But she’s completely exceeded everything we expected out of her."
