April 30, 2005
Syracuse, N.Y. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team closed out its regular-season road and BIG EAST schedule on Saturday afternoon with a 14-9 loss at No. 13 Syracuse.
The Irish struggled to get their offense untracked in the opening 30 minutes, falling behind 3-0 in the first eight minutes and 9-4 at halftime on the way to their fifth straight loss. Monica Joines and Caitlyn Dragon paced the Syracuse attack with four goals each in the game. Crysti Foote (Jr., Suffern, N.Y.) collected four goals and an assist in the game to lead Notre Dame. Freshman Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) added three goals for the Irish.
Notre Dame falls to 3-11 overall and 1-4 in BIG EAST play, the worst finish for the team in five seasons of conference play. Syracuse goes to 11-4 overall and clinched second place in the BIG EAST with a 4-1 mark.
Syracuse wasted little time in taking control of the game and putting the Irish away early. Joines staked the Orange to a 3-0 lead by scoring the first three goals of the contest in a 7:50 span. Foote, who’s four goals give her a single-season, career-best of 31, snapped Joines’ offensive run at 10:03 of the opening half to make it 3-1.
Courtney Palladino scored her first of two goals 48 second later at 11:37 to restore the three-goal Syracuse lead at 4-1. Foote answered back at 11:37 with her second goal of the game to cut the Orange lead to 4-2.
From there though, Syracuse ran off four straight goals to 8-2. Dragon scored her first of the day at 13:20 and Meghan O’Connell followed 29 seconds later at 13:49. O’Connell made it two in a row at 17:22 and Palladino recorded her second score 12 seconds later at 17:34 to give the Orange the six goal lead.
Foote halted the Syracuse run with her third of the first half with 10 minutes left before Dragon and Mary Carpenter (Fr., Rochester, N.Y.) traded goals for the 9-4 Orange halftime lead.
Syracuse came out fast in the second half with Dragon recording her third goal of the game just 22 seconds into the final stanza. Foote scored her fourth goal (of five for the Irish) to make it 10-5 at 2:11 of the second half, before the Orange put the game away by scoring four of the next five goals.
Joines (12:03) got her fourth of the game and Allison Furstenburg scored on a free-position shot at 15:47 to make it 12-5. Foote then set up McKinney’s first goal of the game at 16:50 before Dragon (18:15) and Jill DePetris (24:50) closed the Syracuse scoring for a 14-6 lead with 5:10 left to play.
McKinney would score twice in the final five minutes around a goal by Brittany Fox (Jr., Annapolis, Md.) for the final margin of 14-9. With the three goals in the game, McKinney now has 36 points (25g, 11a) for the fourth-best point total by a freshman at Notre Dame.
Syracuse out shot the Irish 30-25 in the game, including 21-9 in the first half. Irish goalkeeper Carol Dixon (Sr., Pennsauken, N.J.) made eight saves in the game while Jen Kasel had eight for the Orange.
Notre Dame closes out the regular season at home on Saturday, May 7 when the Irish play host to the Ohio State Buckeyes at Moose Krause Stadium. Game time is 12:00 noon for Senior Day. The game will be televised live by College Sports Television (CSTV).
Game Summary: 1 2 - FNotre Dame (3-11/1-4) 4 5 - 9#13 Syracuse (11-4/4-1) 9 5 - 14
SCORINGNOTRE DAME:GOALS: Crysti Foote (4), Caitlin McKinney (3), Brittany Fox, Mary Carpenter.ASSISTS: Heather Ferguson (2), Crysti Foote, Lena Zentgraf.
SYRACUSE:GOALS: Monica Joines (4), Caitlyn Dragon (4), Courtney Palladino (2), Meghan O'Connell (2), Allison Furstenburg, Jill DePetris.ASSISTS: Melody Agnew (2), Jill DePetris, Allison Furstenburg.
First Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistSU 2:13 * 0-1 Monica Joines Free-position shotSU 4:49 0-2 Monica Joines (2)SU 7:50 0-3 Monica Joines (3)ND 10:03 1-3 Crysti FooteSU 10:51 1-4 Courtney PalladinoND 11:37 2-4 Crysti Foote (2)SU 13:20 2-5 Caitlyn Dragon Melody AgnewSU 13:49 2-6 Meghan O'Connell Melody AgnewSU 17:22 2-7 Meghan O'Connell (2) Jill DePetrisSU 17:34 2-8 Courtney Palladino (2)ND 19:59 3-8 Crysti Foote (3) Heather FergusonSU 20:42 3-9 Caitlyn Dragon (2) Allison FurstenburgND 26:44 4-9 Mary Carpenter
Second Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistSU 0:22 4-10 Caitlyn Dragon (3)ND 2:11 5-10 Crysti Foote (4) Lena ZentgrafSU 12:03 5-11 Monica Joines (4)SU 15:47 * 5-12 Allison Furstenburg Free-position goalND 16:50 6-12 Caitlin McKinney Crysti FooteSU 18:15 6-13 Caitlyn Dragon (4)SU 24:50 6-14 Jill DePetrisND 25:00 7-14 Caitlyn McKinney (2)ND 25:28 8-14 Brittany FoxND 26:32 9-14 Caitlin McKinney (3) Heather Ferguson (2)
* denotes free position goal
GoalkeepersND: Carol Dixon (60:00 min; 14 goals against; 8 saves)SU: Jen Kasel (60:00 min; 9 goals against; 8 saves)
Shots On Goal: ND - 25; SU - 30
Ground balls: ND - 10; SU - 18
Draw Controls: ND - 12; SU - 13
Caused Turnovers: ND - 4; SU - 7