April 14, 2009
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format 
• The Game: #9/#9 Notre Dame (11-3/4-2) at #12/#12 Vanderbilt (8-4/2-2)
• Date/Time/Site: Wed., April 15, 2009 • 3:30 p.m. (CT) • VU Lacrosse Complex • Nashville, Tenn.
• Internet: Follow the Notre Dame – Vanderbilt women’s lacrosse game via live video streaming and Game Tracker on the Vanderbilt website at vucommodores.cstv.com.
• The Game: #9/#9 Notre Dame (11-3/4-2) vs. Connecticut (2-12/2-4)
• Date/Time/Site: Sat., April 18, 2009 • 12:00 noon • Alumni Field • Notre Dame, Ind.
• Internet: Follow the Notre Dame – Connecticut women’s lacrosse game via live video streaming and Game Tracker at the Notre Dame website at und.com.
INTO THE HOME STRETCH: Notre Dame closes out its four-game road swing on Wed., April 15 when the Irish travel to Nashville, Tenn., to face Vanderbilt in a 3:30 p.m. (CT) contest at the Vanderbilt Lacrosse Complex. Notre Dame is 2-1 in the first three games of the current road trip that will end in Nashville. The Irish then close out the regular-season BIG EAST schedule on Sat., April 18 when they play host to the University of Connecticut in a 12:00 noon game. That game will be played outdoors at Alumni Field. Notre Dame will be looking to bounce back from a tough, 14-13 loss at Syracuse last Saturday. The #9/#9 Irish are 11-3 overall and 4-2 in BIG EAST play, good for third-place in the BIG EAST standings. Vanderbilt comes into Wednesday’s game ranked 12th in both the IWLCA coaches’ poll and the Inside Lacrosse.com polls as the Commodores are 8-4 overall and 2-2 in the American Lacrosse Conference. Vanderbilt is coming off a 15-13 loss at Ohio State on April 12. Connecticut starts the week with a 2-12 overall mark and is 2-4 in BIG EAST play. The Huskies play host to the Holy Cross Crusaders on Wednesday evening before traveling to Notre Dame for Saturday’s game. UConn is coming off an 11-6 loss versus Rutgers at home last weekend and is in the midst of a three-game losing streak. Following Saturday’s game, Notre Dame will participate in the BIG EAST Tournament at Georgetown with the semifinals set for Friday, April 24.
SENIOR DAY: Notre Dame will celebrate Senior Day prior to the start of Saturday’s game with the University of Connecticut. The Irish will honor its graduating senior class of Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.), Shannon Burke (Timonium, Md.), Erin Goodman (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) and Beth Koloup (Phoenix, Md.). The “fabulous foursome” have been on three BIG EAST Tournament teams and have been to a pair of NCAA Tournaments, including the Final Four, as freshmen in 2006. They go into this week with a career record of 49-20, the best four-year mark for any class of players at Notre Dame.
BIG EAST BOUND: Three BIG EAST teams have clinched berths in the 2009 BIG EAST Championship that will be held at Georgetown in Washington, D.C., April 24 and 26. Georgetown, Syracuse and Notre Dame have clinched a spot in the tournament while Rutgers, Loyola (Md.), Connecticut and Louisville all have a shot at the final spot. The Irish have clinched third place in the tournament while Georgetown has the edge on second-place Syracuse.
IRISH VERSUS COMMODORES: Notre Dame and Vanderbilt have met 12 times in the all-time series with the Commodores holding an 8-4 edge in those games. At Nashville, Tenn., Notre Dame is 1-5 in six meetings while the teams are 3-3 at Notre Dame. Last season, Vanderbilt came North and handed the Irish a 9-6 loss with the Commodores now owning a two-game winning streak in the series. Notre Dame’s only win at Vanderbilt came on May 1, 2003, when the Irish took a 22-11 decision in that season’s regular-season finale.
IRISH VERSUS HUSKIES: Notre Dame and Connecticut will meet for the 11th time in the all-time series when the two school’s battle at Alumni Field on April 18. The Irish go into that contest with an 8-2 mark versus UConn. At Notre Dame, the Irish are 4-1 against the Huskies and also are 4-1 at Storrs, Conn. A year ago, the two teams met on March 29 at UConn with Notre Dame taking an 18-11 win. The Huskies lone win versus the Irish at Notre Dame came on April 1, 2005 when they handed the Irish a 13-10 loss.
ROAD LOSS: Notre Dame’s 14-13 loss at Syracuse on April 11 was the first road loss of the season for Notre Dame. The Irish are 4-1 on the road, 6-2 at home and 1-0 on neutral fields.
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: Notre Dame saw its three-game winning streak snapped on Sat., April 11, when the Irish dropped a 14-13 decision at Syracuse versus the Orange. The game was actually a tale of two games as Syracuse dominated the first half, leading 11-1 on the way to a 12-3 halftme advantage. In the second half, it was all Notre Dame as the Irish outscored the Orange by a 10-2 margin, only to run out of time in the one-goal loss. Sophomore Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) scored four goals in the game, including three in the second period rally, to lead the Irish attack. Jillian Byers had four points (3g, 1a) and was followed by Kaitlin Keena (So., Vienna, Va.) and Kailene Abt (So., Huntington, N.Y.) who had two goals each. Ansley Stewart (So., Alexandria, Va.) and Gina Scioscia (Jr., Summit, N.J.) had one goal each with Stewart adding a pair of assists and Scioscia one in the game. Katie Rowan lead Syracuse with six points (4g, 2a) followed by Halley Quillinan and Christina Dove with three goals each. The two teams split a pair of goals to open the game before the Orange went on a 10-goal run for an 11-1 lead with 11:05 left in the first half. A pair of goals by Byers cut it to 11-3 before Rowan scored with four seconds left to make it 12-3 at halftime. In the second half, the Irish ran off eight of the first nine goals to make it 13-11 with 7:21 left in the game. With Syracuse stalling in the final two minutes, Rowan scored into an open net with 1:55 left to make it 14-11. Notre Dame was not done though as Byers got her third of the game with 1:08 left and Keena scored with 53 seconds on the clock to make it 14-13. The Irish won the final draw of the game with Blaney streaking down the right side only to be robbed by goalkeeper Liz Hogan with 31 seconds left on the final shot of the game. Notre Dame out shot the Orange, 30-27, in the game. Erin Goodman made seven saves for Notre Dame while Hogan finished with eight stops in the game.
OH-FOR-THE DOME: Notre Dame’s loss to Syracuse dropped the Irish record to 0-7 at the Carrier Dome in the 13-year history of the program. Since 1997, Notre Dame is 0-6 against Syracuse at the Dome. The seventh loss came to Georgetown in 2007 when Syracuse hosted the BIG EAST Tournament at the Carrier Dome.
KARDIAC KIDS: Trailing 11-1 with 11:05 left in the first half, thoughts of a Notre Dame comeback for a win weren’t out of the question in the April 11 loss at Syracuse. Prior to that game, Notre Dame trailed by as many as six goals in a game and rallied in the second half for a come-from-behind win. Although they came up one goal short in the loss at Syracuse, the Irish have lived on the edge all season.
3/29 vs. Loyola (MD): For the third time this season, Notre Dame fell behind in a game during the first half, trailed at halftime and then went on to win the game in the second half against Loyola (Md.). In the game the Irish fell behind by four goals in the first half at 6-2 and 7-3 before rallying to cut the lead to 8-7 at halftime in favor of the Greyhounds. After giving up the first goal of the second half, to trail 9-7, the Irish scored five consecutive goals for a 12-9 lead on the way to the 16-13 win. Other come-from-behind wins include:
3/10 vs. James Madison (at Orlando, Fla.): The Irish trailed 5-2 with over 18 minutes left in the first half before they rallied to trail just 9-7 at halftime. They then opened the second half with four consecutive goals for an 11-9 lead. The closest that the Dukes would get was 11-10 as Notre Dame pulled out a second close win.
3/3 at Dartmouth: Irish gave up the first six goals of the contest and trailed 8-2 late in the first half before coming alive. They scored three late goals in the opening half and then rolled off eight more in the second before Dartmouth responded for a total of 11 consecutive goals. Bouncing back from the six-goal deficit was the largest deficit that the Irish have ever recovered from.
BLANEY-MANIA: Sophomore midfielder Shaylyn Blaney did her best to bring the Irish back against Syracuse, equaling a season best with four goals in the game. Included in the four-goal game were three goals in Notre Dame’s unanswered six-goal run in the second half that cut the lead from 13-5 to 13-11 with 7:21 left in the game. She has now scored at least one goal in all 14 games for the Irish, including three four-goal games on the year. She ranks third on the team in scoring with 36 points and third with 34 goals scored. Thirteen of her 34 goals this season have come off free-position shots. Blaney is coming off a freshman year that saw her score 43 goals with nine assists for 52 points. That was the second- best total for a Notre Dame freshman, trailing just Jill Byers 78-point campaign (52g, 24a) in 2006. Her 43 goals were the eighth best single-season output for the Irish. She already has 77 goals and 11 assists for 88 points in her career. The 77 goals rank her eighth all-time at Notre Dame.
STREAKY IRISH: Seven members of the Notre Dame lineup go into this week’s games with Vanderbilt and Connecticut with point-scoring streaks:
Jillian Byers - 14 games (53g, 13a, 66 pts)Shaylyn Blaney - 14 games (36g, 2a, 38 pts)Gina Scioscia - 12 games (35g, 23a, 58 pts)Ansley Stewart - 12 games (20g, 8a, 28 pts)Kailene Abt - 7 games (14g, 5a, 19 pts)Maggie Tamasitis - 3 games (5g, 4a, 9 pts)Kaitlin Keena - 2 games (2g, 3a, 5 pts)
Byers has 12 games this season with three or more goals while Scioscia has eight with three or more and Blaney has eight.
SCORING BARRAGE: Through the first 14 games of the season, Notre Dame has scored 222 goals for an average of 15.86 per game. That leads the BIG EAST and is third in the nation. Prior to this season, Notre Dame’s top scoring season came in 2006 when the Irish averaged 13.84 goals per game. The Irish scored 263 goals that season.
HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 13th season at Notre Dame and her 22nd year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 235-106 (.689) career record into this week’s games. On Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008, she recorded her 100th career win at Notre Dame with a 16-4 win over Duquesne. As the only head coach in the Notre Dame program’s history, Coyne is 121-80 (.602). A 1983 Ohio University graduate, Coyne recorded her 200th career win at the end of the 2006 season with a 16-8 win over Cornell in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. She has guided Notre Dame to four NCAA tournament appearances (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008) in the last seven seasons, including the school’s first-ever NCAA finals appearance in 2006. In her first 22 years of coaching, Coyne was 23-5 in two seasons at Denison (1988-89), 91-21 in seven years at Roanoke (1990-96) and 121-79 in this, her 13th season at Notre Dame. The Pittsburgh, Pa., native led Denison (1988) and Roanoke (1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996) to the NCAA Division III tournament during stops at those schools. Coyne also has coached on the international level as the head coach for the Canadian women’s lacrosse national team from 1999-2005. In June of 2005, she led Team Canada to a fourth-place finish at the 2005 World Cup, her second, fourth-place finish (2001) as Canada’s field boss. Coyne is 4-8 all-time versus Vanderbilt and 8-2 in her 10 meetings with Connecticut.
CAREER YEARS: Through the first 14 games of the season, several Irish players have already achieved career seasons. Kailene Abt has career bests with 27 goals, six assists and 33 points after a getting seven goals with two assists for nine points as a freshman. Sophomore Ansley Stewart has career bests in goals (23), assists (9) and points (32). Sophomore Kaitlin Keena has moved past her career bests of nine goals and nine assists set last season as she now has 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points. Jackie Doherty (Ellicott City, Md.) has career highs in assists (8) and points (13) after getting six goals and one assist for seven points in 2008. Maggie Zentgraf has career highs with five goals and six points after getting one goal and two assists last season.
SUPER SOPHOMORES: The Irish have gotten strong play from their sophomore scorers this season. The group of five – Shaylyn Blaney (34g, 2a), Kailene Abt (27g, 6a), Ansley Stewart (23g, 9a), Jackie Doherty (5g, 8a) and Kaitlin Keena (10g, 11a) have accounted for 99 goals and 36 assists for 135 points. The five have 99 of the team’s 222 goals, 36 of 96 assists and 135 of 318 points this season.
50 HERE, 50 THERE: All-American and Tewaaraton Award candidate Jillian Byers recorded 10 goals and three assists for 13 points in Notre Dame’s wins over Cincinnati and Louisville on April 3 and 5. The 10 goals gave her 50 goals in the first 13 games and she added three more last weekend versus Syracuse for 53 on the season. The 50-goal campaign marks the fourth consecutive year that she has had 50 or more goals (54 in `06, 58 in `07 and 67 in `08). She is the only player in the 13-year history of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse program to have 50 goals in each of her four seasons with the Irish.
BIG EAST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior defender Rachel Guerrera (Wantagh, N.Y.) was named the BIG EAST defensive player of the week for the week ending April 5. During the week, Guerrera’s play helped limit Cincinnati and Louisville to just 13 goals in two BIG EAST wins. The junior recorded nine ground balls, two draw controls and six caused turnovers. In the 16-5 victory at Cincinnati, Guerrera had four ground balls and one caused turnover. She followed that with a career-high afternoon in the 20-8 win at Louisville, getting a career-high five ground balls, two draw controls and five caused turnovers. The five caused turnovers equaled a season-high for the Irish as Shannon Burke (Sr., Timonium, Md.) had five caused turnovers versus California earlier this season.
NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN: Senior goalkeeper Erin Goodman became Notre Dame’s all-time winningest goalkeeper in the 16-13 win over Loyola on March 29. The win was the 32nd of her career and moved her past Jen White `03, who recorded 31 in three seasons as the starting goalkeeper. Goodman has now started 50 consecutive games in her career and owns a 34-16 record for a .680 winning percentage. Besides the win mark, Goodman also ranks among the top goalkeepers in several different categories:
Single SeasonGP - t1st (19) - 2008Wins - t3rd (12) - 2008Minutes - 1st (1,117:21) - 2008Saves - 4th (172) - 2008SV% - 9th (.454) - 2008GAVG - 7th (10.74) - 2008
CareerGP - 3rd (52)Wins - 1st (34)Minutes - 2nd (2,959:50)Saves - 3rd (427)GAVG - 3rd (10.52)
SECRET WEAPON: Freshman midfield/attack Maggie Tamasitis (Boyertown, Pa.) turned in the best week of her young career with a pair of four-point contests versus Cincinnati and Louisville. In the win over the Bearcats, Tamasitis had two goals and two assists for four points. Versus the Cardinals, she had a career-high three-goal game with an assist for four points. She already has seven games this season with three or more points. Tamasitis has played in all 14 games, coming off the bench to provide a spark for the Irish offense either at attack or midfield. Without starting a game this season, she is sixth in scoring with 11 goals and 15 assists for 26 points. Her 15 assists are second on the team.
EN FUEGO: Junior attack standout Gina Scioscia has been “on fire” this season as she surpassed her career high in points last weekend and now has 65 (39g, 26a) on the season to rank second on the team in scoring. She is third in the BIG EAST in scoring, one behind teammate Jill Byers (66) and six behind Syracuse’s Katie Rowan who has 71 points in 13 games. In 2008, Scioscia had 20 goals and 35 assists for 55 points, all career highs at the time. That came after a freshman year that saw her get just eight points on four goals and four assists. The 47-point improvement was the most ever for a Notre Dame player from from one season to the next. On March 17 versus Rutgers, Scioscia had a career-high eight-point game, scoring twice with six assists. The six assists tied a Notre Dame single-game record. On March 29 versus Loyola, she had a career-high six-goal game in the 16-13 win over the Greyhounds. Scioscia has one three-point game, three games with four points, three games with five points, three with six points, one seven-point game and one with eight this season.