STILLWATER, Okla. – Oklahoma State’s record-setting season came to an end in the Elite Eight Friday night as the No. 6 Cowgirls dropped a 2-0 contest to No. 7 Notre Dame in front of a record crowd at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex.

Oklahoma State, a No. 3 national seed, ended its season with a 20-4-2 mark, while No. 4 national seed Notre Dame (19-2-2) got a pair of second-half goals from Elizabeth Tucker to propel the Fighting Irish into the NCAA Women’s College Cup for the 12th time in school history.

"The better team won tonight," said OSU head coach Colin Carmichael. "Notre Dame is a great team with great individual players, very well coached. You could tell they’ve been there, done that. They walked on the field with a lot of confidence in themselves and maybe we were a little bit timid early.

"Our kids came back in the second half and did a better job, fought very, very hard as we did all year. We just weren’t able to break down a really good team."

A crowd of 2,660 fans saw OSU lose for the first time in 13 games on its home field this season. The overflow crowd passed the 2003 Bedlam crowd of 2,307 as the largest in program history.

"It’s amazing the support we’ve gotten at these games," OSU junior defender Melinda Mercado said. "Usually we get a pretty good fan base, but just the support that Stillwater has given us these last few games has really made a difference."

It wouldn’t be enough on Friday, however, as OSU’s bid for its first-ever trip to the Women’s College Cup came up just short.

Notre Dame controlled the offensive attack in the opening half, outshooting the Cowgirls by a 10-1 margin. But a pair of saves by OSU goalie AD Franch kept the Irish off the scoreboard before intermission.

"I was happy with the way we defended Notre Dame," Carmichael said. "In the first half, they had quite a lot of the ball without really having too many chances at goal. My regret at halftime was I felt we didn’t cause them enough trouble from an attacking standpoint. In the second half, we did a little better. We created some chances. But we knew it was going to be very difficult. Their front three is as good as anybody in the country, and we knew it was going to be hard to contain them."

The Irish came out strong again in the second half, getting a pair of close-range headers in the 48th minute that the OSU defense was able to stop.

After a slow first half, OSU got a solid scoring opportunity in the 51st minute, but a shot by Krista Lopez was blocked by a Notre Dame defender.

The Irish finally broke the scoreless tie in the 63rd minute. Lauran Fowlkes sent a cross from the near side into the box where Tucker was there to send it to the back of the net to give UND a 1-0 advantage.

OSU’s offense would create several scoring opportunities down the stretch, one of the best of which came in the 73rd minute on a shot by Katie Richardson that was blocked by a UND defender.

However, the Cowgirls could not find the back of the net, and Tucker put the game away on a goal with just 20 seconds remaining in the match.

"For us to win tonight, we would have had to have a special performance," Carmichael said. "I thought we played well, but probably just not quite well enough to cause them enough problems."