March 29, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. –
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• The Game: #11/#9 Notre Dame (7-2/1-1) vs. #19/#20 Connecticut (5-2/0-1)
• Date/Time/Site: Fri., March 30, 2007 • 7:00 p.m. • Moose Krause Stadium • Notre Dame, Ind..
• The Game: #11/#9 Notre Dame (7-2/1-1) vs. Duquesne University (4-3/0-0)
• Date/Time/Site: Sun., April 1, 2007 • 1:00 p.m. • Moose Krause Stadium • Notre Dame, Ind.
• Video Streaming: All remaining Notre Dame women’s lacrosse home games will be streamed live via Fighting Irish All-Access on the Notre Dame website at und.com. To view the game, the viewer will need to be using Internet Explorer 6 with Windows Media Player 9 or higher.
FIVE-GAME HOMESTAND: The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team opens a five-game homestand this weekend when the Irish play host to the Connecticut Huskies on Friday, March 30 in a 7:00 p.m. game at Moose Krause Stadium. On Sunday, April 1, the Irish will entertain the Duquesne University Dukes in a 1:00 p.m. game. Notre Dame is in the midst of a two-game winning streak after wins last week against Ohio State (16-9) and at Loyola (11-1). The Irish are 7-2 overall and 1-1 in BIG EAST play and are ranked 11th in the IWLCA coaches poll and ninth by Inside Lacrosse.com. Connecticut will be the third BIG EAST game of the season for the Irish and the Huskies visit Notre Dame with a 5-2 overall record and an 0-1 mark in conference action. The Huskies are ranked 19th in the IWLCA poll and 20th in the Inside Lacrosse.com poll for this week. They will travel to Evanston, Ill., on Sunday, April 1 to face the top-ranked Northwestern Huskies. Duquesne University brings a 4-3 record into the week and will host the University of Denver on Friday afternoon in Pittsburgh. The Dukes and Irish were not on the original schedule, but are playing after Ohio University dropped its program and each team lost a game against the Bobcats. This will be the first meeting between the two schools since the 1998 season.
LIVE VIDEO STREAMING: With the Irish moving outdoors to Moose Krause Stadium, Notre Dame’s website, und.com, will begin providing live video streaming of the remaining women’s home games on the women’s lacrosse schedule. To watch the game on your computer, go to Fighting Irish All-Access on und.com. To view the game, the viewer will need to be using Internet Explorer 6 with Windows Media Player 9 or higher while watching on an IBM computer.
IRISH AND THE HUSKIES: The Irish and Huskies will meet for the ninth time in the all-time series on March 30 with Notre Dame holding a 6-2 edge in the first eight contests. The Irish are 3-1 against Connecticut at Notre Dame and 3-1 at Storrs, Conn. Last season, the two teams played in Connecticut with the Irish winning 13-9. The last time the two teams played at Moose Krause Stadium was April 1, 2005 with UConn taking a 13-10 win. Six of the eight meetings between the two schools have come in BIG EAST play. The two teams played in 1999 and 2000 before the start of the BIG EAST Conference with the teams going 1-1 in those games.
IRISH AND DUKES: Notre Dame and Duquesne have met twice in the program’s lacrosse history with the Irish winning both games. At Notre Dame, the Irish are 1-0 and at Duquesne, the Irish are 1-0. The two teams first met in the first season of the women’s lacrossse program, on March 29, 1997 at Duquesne with Notre Dame winning a 15-4 decision. The following season, the teams played in South Bend on March 24, 1998 with the Irish taking a 17-9 victory.
HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 11th season at Notre Dame and 20th year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 208-92 (.693) career record into the week against Connecticut and Duquesne and is 94-66 (.588) in her career. The 1983 graduate of Ohio University recorded her 200th career win last season in the first round of the NCAA tournament with a 16-8 victory against Cornell. She has guided Notre Dame to three NCAA tournament appearances (2002, 2004, 2006), including last year’s first-ever trip to the NCAA finals. In her first 19 years of coaching, Coyne was 23-5 in two seasons at Denison (1988-89), 91-21 in seven years at Roanoke (1990-96) and 87-64 in 10 seasons 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 6-2 all-time against Connecticut and 2-0 versus Duquesne.
RECORD-SETTING GAME: When the Irish held Loyola (Md.) to just one goal on March 25 in the 11-1 win, it set a Notre Dame and BIG EAST record for the fewest goals allowed in a game. The previous mark of two goals had been set by the Irish in a 9-2 win at Rutgers on April 28, 2002. Four times in the program’s history, the Irish had limited their opponent to just two goals in a game.
NOTRE DAME-LOYOLA RECAP: Notre Dame’s goalkeeping and defense took over in the 11-1 win against Loyola on March 25 in Baltimore. Sophomore goalkeeper Erin Goodman (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) equaled a career high with 14 saves while setting BIG EAST and Irish records for allowing the fewest goals in a game. Goodman got all the offense she would need from junior Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette HIll, Pa.) who paced the Notre Dame attack with four goals in the game. Senior midfielder Lena Zentgraf (Charlottesville, Va.) added four points on two goals and two assists and Jillian Byers (So., Northport, N.Y.) had three points on two goals and an assist. Jane Stoeckert (So., Mendham, N.J.), Meghan Murphy (Sr., Centennial, Colo.) and Heather Ferguson (Jr., Newtown Square, Pa.) added single goals in the game. The Irish jumped out to a 7-0 halftime lead before making it 8-0 in the second half. Loyola’s Kate McHarg, followed with the lone Greyhound goal on a free-position shot before the Irish scored the final three goals of the game for the 11-1 win. The win was the first for the Irish in BIG EAST play and evened the record at 1-1.
BOUNCING THE BUCKEYES: Notre Dame got back on the winning track when they played host to Ohio State on March 21 at the Loftus Sports Center. Coming off a 16-13 loss at Syracuse the previous weekend, the Irish offense got this game off to a fast start, scoring the first five goals of the night over the first 12 minutes on the way to a 16-9 win over the Buckeyes. Nine different players registered goals for the Irish with senior Meghan Murphy (one goal, three assists) and sophomore Jane Stoeckert (two goals, two assists leading the scoring. Caitlin McKinney and Lena Zentgraf each netted three goals while Alicia Billings (So., Potomac, Md.), Jillian Byers and Mary Carpenter (Jr., Rochester, N.Y.) each netting two. Kaki Orr (Sr., Darien, Conn.) rounded out the list of Irish goal scorers with a solo goal in the game. After building a 5-0 lead in the first 12 minutes, the Irish made it a 9-1 lead at halftime. In the second half, Ohio State scored the first four goals, cutting the lead to 9-5 before an Irish timeout righted the ship on the way to the seven-goal win. For the night, Notre Dame out shot the Buckeyes by a 33-14 margin in the game. Goalkeeper Erin Goodman made just two saves while giving up nine goals in the game.
THE CENTURY MARK: With four goals in the win over Loyola on March 25, junior Caitlin McKinney scored her 30th goal of the season and the 100th of her career on her fourth goal of the game. With 100 career goals, McKinney now ranks fifth on the all-time goal list. Her 10 assists in the first nine games give her 44 for her career and that ranks her sixth on that list. The junior attack standout’s 144 career points is sixth best at Notre Dame.
NOT FAR BEHIND: Sophomore Jillian Byers ranks second on the Irish in scoring through nine games with 30 goals and five assists for 35 points this season. She is not far behind McKinney on the all-time scoring lists. Byers now has 84 career goals to rank sixth on the all-time list. Her 29 career assists are eighth all-time while her 113 career points are seventh on the all-time points list.
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST: Sophomore Jillian Byers and junior Caitlin McKinney have been named to the 2007 Tewaaraton “Watch List.” They are among 34 Division I players, selected by a panel of coaches from around the country, eligible for women’s collegiate lacrosse’s top player award. The current duo join Crysti Foote `06, Meredith Simon `04 and Danielle Shearer `03 as Irish players previously named to the “Watch List.” Shearer was the fist player named to the list, Simon was the first selected as a nominee for the award and Foote was the first to be named a finalist.
CAREER YEAR: Senior midfielder Lena Zentgraf has already put together a career year for the Irish with seven regular-season games left to play. Zentgraf goes into this week’s action with career highs in goals (12), assists (10) and points (22) to rank third on the team in scoring. Zentgraf’s previous best season came in 2005 when she had 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points.
STEADY STOECKERT: Sophomore Jane Stoeckert is quietly becoming an offensive force for the Irish at midfield. She has scored at least two points in six of her last seven games and owns a seven-game point streak going into the Connecticut game. During the seven-game streak, Stoeckert has eight goals and seven assists for 15 points and is fifth on the team in scoring.
MAKING THE STOPS: Sophomore goaltender Erin Goodman improved her overall record to 7-2 with a 9.52 goals-against average and a .485 goals-against average after wins over Ohio State and Loyola. Against Loyola, Goodman had her third game this season with 14 saves, this time leading the Irish to an 11-1 win over the Greyhounds. The one goal that she surrenedered against Loyola gives Goodman the Notre Dame and BIG EAST record for fewest goals allowed in a game. The previous Irish mark of two goals against had occured four times in the program’s history. The record in BIG EAST play came on April 28, 2002, in a 9-2 win at Rutgers with Irish All-American Jen White `03, getting the win.Over the last six games, Goodman owns a 5-1 record with an 8.33 goals-against average and a .550 save percentage.
MURPHY MADNESS: Senior Meghan Murphy (Centennial, Colo.) has become an offensive force for the Irish in the last three weeks as she has 15 points (8g, 7a) in her last five games, including a pair of four-point games (1g, 3a) at Canisius and versus Ohio State. Murphy is currently fourth on the team in scoring with 11 goals and 10 assists for 21 points and isn’t far off her career high of 14 goals and nine assists set last season.
MOVER AND SHAKER: The ink wasn’t even dry on the 2007 Notre Dame women’s lacrosse media guide and already sophomore Jillian Byers has broken a record. With 21 goals and four assists through the first five games, Byers became the quickest player in Irish history to reach 100 points in her career with 75 goals and 28 assists for 103 points in her first 24 games. She breaks the record set last season by Caitlin McKinney who scored 100 points in her first 33 games. Byers has now played in 26 games and has 80 goals and 28 assists for 108 career points.
IRISH STREAKS: Six Notre Dame players bring point streaks into the game with Connecticut. They are:
Caitlin McKinney -31-game streak (80-33-113)Jillian Byers - 9 games (30-5-35)Lena Zentgraf - 9 games (12-10-22)Meghan Murphy - 7 games (9-9-18)Jane Stoeckert - 7 games (8-7-15)Heather Ferguson - 2 games (1-2-3
GOOD FOR GAUDREAU: After seeing action in just two games as a freshman, sophomore attacker Kelly Gaudreau (Annapolis, Md.) wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in her first action of 2007. She scored twice in the second half for her first goal and first two-goal game of her career in the same contest at Cansisius on March 10th.
HOME RECORD: Notre Dame saw its 10-game home-winning streak snapped on March 1 when Northwestern handed the Irish an 18-10 loss at the Loftus Center. The streak included a 9-0 mark in 2006, the best home record the Irish have ever had. Notre Dame’s 16-9 win over Ohio State got them back on track at home. The Irish are 2-1 at home this season and 11-1 at home over the last two years.
CONTROLLING THE DRAW: The Irish tied a school record by winning 20 draws in the 13-9 win at Cornell on March 4. The 20 draws did set a school mark for draw controls in an away game. The previous mark of 20 was set versus Virginia Tech on March 26, 2004. The previous road mark was 19 and was done three times. Kaki Orr and Lena Zentgraf each had five in the game while Jillian Byers had four to lead the team. Individually, Orr is Notre Dame’s top player on the draw as she has 24 controls in the first nine games this season, followed by Zentgraf with 20 and Shannon Burke (So., Baltimore, Md.) with 16. As a team, the Irish have won 124 draw controls while losing 98 for a 55.8% success rate in the first nine games of the season.
TRADING CARDS: In Notre Dame’s game with Stanford, the two teams combined for 10 yellow cards, one green card and one red card. Notre Dame was called for seven yellow cards while Stanford had three yellows, one red and had a green card for delay of game assessed. The two teams were called for 40 fouls, Notre Dame 17 and Stanford 23.
BIG EAST SCHOLARSHIP: Senior Meghan Murphy along with Irish swimmer Ted Brown, has been selected as one of Notre Dame’s two BIG EAST post-graduate scholarship winners. The $2,000 scholarship goes toward post-graduate studies. Murphy has already been accepted to medical school. She was the women’s lacrosse team’s 2006 Rockne Scholar-Athlete and was also selected to the 2006 IWLCA Academic honor roll with a 3.74 grade-point average in her double major in anthropology and pre-professional studies. She was a third team ESPN The Magazine/CoSida Academic All-American on the spring at-large team in 2006. Murphy was also selected as one of Notre Dame’s Christopher Zorich Award winners for her involvement in community service work in the Notre Dame community and her home town of Denver, Colo.
DRAWING IT UP: Senior midfielder Kaki Orr (Darien, Conn.) set a Notre Dame single-game record with nine draw controls in the win over Vanderbilt on May 7 of 2006. She was second on the team with 41 draw controls in 2006, the second-best single-season total at Notre Dame. In nine games this season, she leads the team with 24 draw controls (2.67 per game) and for her career now has 83 to rank sixth on the all-time list. Orr has also been finding the back of the net as she has seven goals and three assists for 10 points in nine games this season.
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: Three members of the 2007 Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team have been selected to the Inside Lacrosse Magazine preseason All-American team. Attack standouts Jillian Byers and Caitlin McKinney have been selected to the preseason second team while defender Meaghan Fitzpatrick (Sr., Farmingdale, N.Y.) was a third team selection. Byers and McKinney were both selected as third team All-Americans at the end of the 2006 season by Inside Lacrosse.
PRESEASON HONORS: Three members of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team have been selected to the preseason all-BIG EAST team. Senior defender Meaghan Fitzpatrick, junior midfielder/attack Caitlin McKinney and sophomore attack Jillian Byers were named to the 2007 team with McKinney and Byers being unanimous selections. Fitzpatrick, a 2006 second team all-BIG EAST selection, is a three-year starter on defense who started all 19 games last season, grabbing 39 ground balls while causing 20 turnovers. McKinney was a first team all-BIG EAST selection last year and a third team IWLCA All-American after scoring 42 goals with 22 assists for 64 points. Byers also was a first team all-BIG EAST choice and a second team IWLCA All-American while scoring 54 goals and 24 assists for 78 points, the second-best single-season totals and freshman records at Notre Dame.