April 8, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format 
– The Game: #15/#16 Notre Dame (6-4/2-1) vs. Villanova (7-2/0-1)
– Date/Time/Site: Fri., April 9, 2010 – 4:30 p.m. – Arlotta Stadium – Notre Dame, Ind.
– The Game: #15/#16 Notre Dame (6-4/2-1) vs. #7/#9 Syracuse (6-3/1-0)
– Date/Time/Site: Sun., April 11, 2010 – 1:00 p.m. – Arlotta Stadium – Notre Dame, Ind.
– Internet: Fans can follow both games this weekend via live video streaming and Game Tracker by going to the Notre Dame website at und.com. The live video is free for both games at und.com.
BIG EAST HOME STAND: The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team returns home to start a three-game BIG EAST home stand over the next two weeks. This week, the Irish will play a pair at home, starting on Friday, April 9 when they play host to Villanova in a 4:30 p.m. game at Arlotta Stadium. Game two of the weekend will feature Syracuse on Sunday, April 11 at 1:00 p.m. Notre Dame returns home after playing the last three games on the road, going 1-2 away from home. The Irish are 6-4 overall and 2-1 in the BIG EAST. Last week, they dropped a 15-5 decision at Northwestern (March 30), lost at Georgetown, 12-10, on April 3 and then defeated Loyola, 11-10, on Monday in Baltmore, Md. The Villanova Wildcats will make their first-ever appearance in women’s lacrosse at Notre Dame as they are in their first year of BIG EAST action. The Wildcats are 7-2 on the year and have an 0-1 mark in conference play. The loss came to Georgetown on March 26 while the last win came on March 28, an 18-10 win at Wagner. Syracuse starts the week with a 6-3 overall record and is 1-0 in the BIG EAST. The Orange will travel to Connecticut on Friday, April 9 for a 4:00 p.m. game with the Huskies in Storrs, Conn. They have a two-game winning streak to start the week after picking up wins against Rutgers and Boston University in their last two games.
THE RANKINGS: Syracuse and Notre Dame enter the week ranked in both the IWLCA coaches’ poll and the Inside Lacrosse poll. The Orange opened the week ranked seventh in the IWLCA poll and are ninth in the Inside Lacrosse media poll. The Irish were ranked 15th in the coaches’ poll and 16th by Inside Lacrosse.
IRISH VERSUS THE WILDCATS: Notre Dame and Villanova have met once in the all-time series prior to the BIG EAST starting conference play. The teams met on April 3, 1999 in Philadelphia with the Irish taking a 15-9 win in the third season of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse program. The Irish would finish that year with a 9-6 overall record.
IRISH VERSUS THE ORANGE: Notre Dame and Syracuse have met 13 times in the all-time series with the Orange holding a 9-4 advantage in the games played to date. At Notre Dame, the Irish are 3-2 versus Syracuse. At Syracuse, the Irish are 0-6 and at neutral sites the teams are 1-1. Last season the teams met twice. In the regular season at the Carrier Dome, the Orange downed the Irish, 14-13. The teams then met in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament where Notre Dame took a 16-10 win on the way to its first-ever BIG EAST title.
A LOOK AT THE WILDCATS: Playing their first season in the conference, Villanova is off to a strong start with its 7-2 overall record while still looking for a first-ever conference win. The Wildcats are averaging 16.5 goals per game while surrendering 10.62 goals per contest. Leading the Villanova offensive attack are Justine Donodeo who has 36 goals with nine assists for 45 points. She is followed by Erica Rybinski (18g, 18a, 36 pts.) and Rachel Lasda (16 g, 6a, 22 pts.). The Wildcat lineup has five players with 12 or more goals. In goal, Maggie Langan is 7-2 with a 10.59 goals-against average and a .460 save percentage.
A LOOK AT SYRACUSE: The Orange also bring a high-powered attack to Arlotta Stadium this weekend. They average 15.44 goals per game while giving up 10.44. Christina Dove and Tee Ladouceur lead the offense with 50 points each. Dove has 38 goals and 12 assists while Ladouceur has 24 goals and 26 assists. Michelle Tumolo is third with 16 goals and 22 assists for 38 points. Goalkeeper Liz Hogan is 6-3 on the season with a 10.17 goals-against average and a .455 save percentage.
THE IRISH ALL-TIME: In this the 14th season of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse program, Notre Dame brings a 132-86 all-time record (.606) into the weekend versus Villanova and Syracuse. That record includes a 54-48 road record (.529). At home, the Irish are 64-31 (.674) with a 14-7 all-time ledger on neutral fields.
HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 14th season at Notre Dame and her 23rd year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 246-112 (.687) career record into this week’s games. As the only head coach in the Notre Dame program’s history, Coyne is 132-86 (.606) and has guided the Irish to five NCAA tournaments (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009) where her teams have advanced to the Final Four once (2006) and the quarterfinals twice (2002, 2009). The Irish have been in all three BIG EAST Tournaments to date, beginning in 2007 and they recorded their first BIG EAST title last season with wins over Syracuse (16-10) and Georgetown (12-10). A 1983 Ohio University graduate, Coyne was 23-5 in two seasons at Denison (1988-89), 91-21 in seven years at Roanoke (1990-96) and 132-86 in this, her 14th 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 1-0 all-time against Villanova and is 4-9 in her coaching career against Syracuse.
GEORGETOWN RECAP: The Irish started slowly against the Hoyas, fell behind by five goals in the first half then rallied to take the lead in the second half only to drop a tough, 12-10, decision at Georgetown on April 3. Notre Dame got five-point games from Kailene Abt (4g, 1a) and Gina Scioscia (2g, 3a) to lead the Irish attack. Megan Sullivan and Betsy Mastropieri each scored two goals in the game. The Hoyas got goals from nine different players with Molly Ford, Kathleen Dwyer and Sarah Seats getting two goals each. Georgetown led 6-1 in the game with 13:11 left in the opening half before the Irish got their offense in gear as they would run off the next five goals of the half with Scioscia and Abt pacing the comeback to make it 6-6 with 4:13 left in the half. A late goal by the Hoyas made it 7-6 at the break. In the second half, the Irish scored three of the first four goals with Abt scoring twice and Mastropieri getting her second to make it 9-8. The score was 10-10 with 11:27 left and Georgetown would get the final last goals of the game as Kelly Barnes (9:50) and Dina Jackson (5:11) made it 12-10 for the final score. Notre Dame was out shot, 32-21, in the game. Ellie Hilling made 10 saves for the Irish while Caitlin Formby had seven for the Hoyas.
LOYOLA REVIEW: Notre Dame closed out its three-game road sojourn at Loyola on April 5 and played the same kind of game as they did against Georgetown – fell behind early, rallied to tie and then go ahead in the second half – this time though, the Irish provided the heroics as junior Ansley Stewart scored with six seconds left in an 11-10 win. Notre Dame fell behind 6-2 with eight minutes left in the opening half. From there, the Irish ran off eight of the next 10 goals to take a 10-8 lead only to see Loyola get two goals late in the second half to tie the game at 10-10 with 4:38 left in the game. Instead of folding the Irish held off the Greyhounds and Stewart provided the offense for the important road win. Senior Gina Scioscia had her second consecutive five-point game (2g, 3a) to lead the Irish. Sophomore Maggie Tamasitis had three goals and an assist while Shaylyn Blaney added three goals, all in the second half comeback, of her own. Megan Sullivan, Betsy Mastropieri joined Stewart with single goals. Kailene Abt set up three first-half goals in the game. Grace Gavin led Loyola with five points (3g, 2a) while Abby Rehfuss added three and Cara Filippelli chipped in two. Ellie Hilling had four saves in the Notre Dame goal with the last one, a game saver with 1:49 left in the contest.
NAIL BITERS: No one ever said it would be easy. Just ask the Irish. In seven of their first 10 games this season, the Irish have gone to overtime in two of them and had five others decided by one or two goals. Notre Dame is 2-0 in overtime, 3-1 in games decided by one goal and 5-2 in games decided by two goals or less.
DEFENSIVE DYNAMO: Junior defensive midfielder Jackie Doherty is among the leaders in the BIG EAST in ground balls (35, 3.5 per game) and caused turnovers (25, 2.5 per game). She is first in ground balls and second in the conference in caused turnovers. Nationally, Doherty is ninth in ground balls and eighth in caused turnovers.
THE PLAYMAKER: Sophomore attack standout Maggie Tamasitis goes into the weekend leading Notre Dame in scoring with 11 goals and 17 assists for 28 points. As a freshman, the playmaker had 15 goals and 20 assists for 35 points. In just 31 career games, Tamasitis already has 37 career assists to rank ninth on Notre Dame’s all-time assist list.
STREAKY IRISH: Six different Notre Dame players bring scoring streaks into the weekend against Villanova and Syracuse. The list includes:
Gina Scioscia - 29 games (67g, 48a, 115 pts)Maggie Tamasitis - 10 games (11g, 17a, 28 pts)Betsy Mastropieri - 3 games (4g, 0a, 4 pts)Kailene Abt - 2 games (4g, 4a, 8 pts)Megan Sullivan - 2 games (3g, 0a, 3 pts)Ansley Stewart - 2 games (1g, 1a, 2 pts)
KEY CONTRIBUTOR: Sophomore Megan Sullivan has become a key contributor to the Irish offense this season. She already has career highs in goals (11), assists (2) and points (13). In the 11-9 win over Louisville on March 27, Sullivan had a career-high four goals versus the Cardinals.
CAREER LISTS: Senior Gina Scioscia has carried the hot hand for Notre Dame over the last three games. She scored a pair of goals in the loss at Northwestern (March 30) before turning in back-to-back five-point games (2g, 3a) versus Georgetown and Loyola. For her career, Scioscia now has 95 career goals with 90 assists for 185 career points. Her 90 assists rank her fifth among active NCAA players and her 185 points are 18th among active players. For the Irish all-time, Scioscia is eighth in goals, first in assists and sixth in points.
CLUTCH SCORING: Ansley Stewart’s game-winning goal versus Loyola on April 5 was her second of the season and the second of her career. She leads the Irish in that category this season.
ROAD WARRIORS: Through the first 10 games of the 2010 season, Notre Dame is 4-2 on the road. A year ago, the Irish were 6-3 away from home to equal the program’s all-time best road mark set in 2008. Over the last two-plus seasons, Notre Dame is 16-8 (.667) away from home.
GOT OUR NUMBER: Notre Dame’s 15-5 loss to Northwestern dropped the Irish to 2-9 all-time against the Wildcats. After winning the first two games of the all-time series, Notre Dame has now lost nine straight to Northwestern. The last time that the Irish defeated the Wildcats was April 26, 2003, a 13-9 win at Notre Dame. AN ARLOTTA FIRST: Notre Dame’s 11-9 win over Louisville (March 27) marked the first Irish win at their new Arlotta Stadium. They are now 1-2 in the new stadium after opening with losses (12-8) to Dartmouth and (10-9) to Vanderbilt. The opening game of the season was a 15-10 win over Duquesne in a game played at the Loftus Sports Center.
HITTING THE CENTURY MARK: Junior midfielder Shaylyn Blaney is the seventh player in the program’s history to score over 100 goals in her career. Blaney leads the Irish with 20 goals and is third in scoring with 21 points. Her two goals at Boston University on March 20 gave her 100 for her career. She now ranks seventh all-time with 107 career goals and ninth with 120 career points for the Irish. Blaney has now scored 20 or more goals in each of her three seasons at Notre Dame.
ABT TO SCORE: Junior midfielder Kailene Abt has picked up eight points in her last two games (4g, 4a) for the Irish. Versus Georgetown, she had four goals and one assist and then followed that with three assists in the win over Loyola. Abt is second on the team in scoring with 18 goals and nine assists for 27 points. Her nine assists ties her career high set last season.
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Freshman goalkeeper Ellie Hilling has been named the BIG EAST defensive player of the week twice this season, picking up the honor on March 22 and March 29. During the week that ended on March 28, Hilling made 18 saves in two games, including 12 in the 11-9 win over Louisville. The 12 saves were a career best for Hilling. In the two games, she was 1-1 with a 9.50 goals-against average and a .486 save percentage. On the season, Hilling is now 6-4 with 10.50 goals-against average and a .393 save percentage.
BIG EAST OPENERS: With the 11-9 win over Louisville on March 27, Notre Dame is now 7-3 all-time in BIG EAST season openers.
CLOSE ONES: The 11-10 win over Loyola on April 5 was the fourth, one-goal game of the season for the Irish. The win extended the team’s record to 3-1 in one-goal games. All-time, Notre Dame has been involved in 36 one-goal games in 14 seasons and is 18-18 overall. In 2006, the Irish played in six, one-goal games, going 4-2 in that season.
NEW FACES: Two different players scored their second career goals in the loss to Northwestern. Sophomore Kate Newall scored with just one second left in the first half, converting a feed from Maggie Tamasitis for her second of the year and freshman Betsy Mastropieri scored her second of the year in the second half.
COMMANDING COMMODORES: Vanderbilt has had Notre Dame’s number in recent seasons as the Irish have now lost four consecutive regular-season games to the Commodores. The streak started in 2007 and includes two losses at home and two in Nashville. The lone win in that span came on May 10, 2009, a 19-13 Irish win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Since the last win in 2006, the Irish are 1-4 against Vanderbilt and are now 5-10 all-time.
COAST-TO-COAST WINNING STREAK: Prior to the loss to Vanderbilt, Notre Dame had a two-game winning streak that got its start in Berkeley, Calif., and continued to Boston, Mass., on March 20th as the Irish won consecutive overtime games. On March 13, Notre Dame rallied from a 10-7 deficit versus California to tie, 10-10, in regulation before moving on to the 14-12 victory. Last Saturday in Boston, the Irish again rallied from a three-goal, second-half deficit to tie in regulation and win it in the third overtime. Notre Dame led 2-1 at halftime on goals by Maggie Tamasitis and freshman Jenny Granger. The Terriers ran off the first four goals of the second period to take a 5-2 lead.With 10:03 left in the game, Shaylyn Blaney scored a free-position goal and Kailene Abt scored 21 seconds later to make it 5-4. Traci Landy made it 6-4 for BU with 3:57 left before Blaney and Tamasitis scored in a 27-second span to make it 6-6 with 2:15 left on the clock. The teams would play 71:22 before Gina Scioscia got the game winner with 38 seconds left in the third overtime. Freshman goalkeeper made eight saves in goal for the Irish.
IRISH AND OVERTIME: Notre Dame has now played two overtime games this season and is 2-0 in those contests. In the 14-year history of the program, the Irish have played overtime 16 times and are now 8-8 in those games.
WORTH THE WAIT: Notre Dame’s 7-6 overtime win against Boston University is the second longest game ever played by Notre Dame. The 7-6 victory lasted 71:22 and trails only the April 13, 2003 game at home against Stanford. The Irish lost the game, 14-13, and played a full 72 minutes.
FIRST START: Freshman defender Emily Conner made her first start on defense against Northwestern and turned in a strong performance, getting a career-best six ground balls with a pair of caused turnovers in the game. Since then, she has started two more games versus Georgetown and Loyola. In the first 10 games, Conner has nine ground balls and five caused turnovers.
ARLOTTA STADIUM OPENER: The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team played its first-ever game at Arlotta Stadium on Sunday, March 7 and the final results weren’t quite what the Irish were looking for as they dropped a 12-8 decision to No. 20 Dartmouth. The state-of-the-art facility is named after Notre Dame graduate John Arlotta, president and chief executive officer of Denver-based Coram Inc. He and his wife, Bobbie, pledged the lead gift toward the stadium. The Arlotta children – Mindy, Andy and Jon – also have pledged an additional gift from The Arlotta Family Foundation toward the project. In addition to their generous donation, alumni and friends of the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs have made significant contributions. The stadium was dedicated on Oct. 17, 2009. The previous afternoon, the Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team defeated the Iroquois National Team, 14-8, in the first game played at Arlotta Stadium. The stadium features over 2,000 permanent seats, lights, an artificial-turf field, locker rooms, team lounges, restrooms and concession areas.
A WINNING LEGACY: Notre Dame’s 16 wins in 2009 are the most in a single season for the Irish, surpassing the mark of 15-4 set in 2006. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Irish are 60-26 (.698).
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST: Two members of the Notre Dame roster have been selected among a group of 52 players to the 2010 Tewaaraton Trophy Watch Lists. The duo – junior midfielder Shaylyn Blaney and senior Gina Scioscia – are two of eight players from the BIG EAST to be named to the Watch List. Blaney was selected to the Watch List last season while this is the first time for Scioscia. Both players were second team IWLCA All-Americans last year. Both were preseason all-BIG EAST selections for 2010 while Scioscia was named by the conference coaches as the preseason offensive player of the year.