Feb. 24, 2018
By Matt Paras
NOTRE DAME, Indiana – Following Notre Dame’s tough 11-8 loss to No. 7/6 USC Friday night, head coach Christine Halfpenny mentioned the team will have a short-term memory on the loss because their next game is right around the corner. The Irish welcome Elon to South Bend for a Sunday afternoon game set to start at 1 pm.
DATE: Feb. 25, 2018
TIME: 1 p.m. (ET)
LOCATION: Loftus Sports Center (Notre Dame, Indiana)
BROADCAST: ACC Network Extra
LIVE STATS:
TWITTER: @NDWomensLax
Last Time Out
The Irish faced their second top-10 opponent of the season Friday night when No. 7/6 USC came to town. Defense ruled the first half as just seven goals were scored in the first 30 minutes. The Irish went on a 4-0 run with goals coming from Savannah Buchanan, Jessi Masinko, Maddie Howe and Katherine Enrietto. USC would close the gap, scoring the final two goals of the half and the Irish had a 4-3 lead at the break.
In the second half, USC continued to build momentum thanks to Kerrigan Miller. The Trojans scored the first four goals of the second half with three coming from Miller to build a 7-4 lead. The Irish would stop the run and score two of the next three goals from Nikki Ortega and Enrietto to make it 8-6 with over 18 minutes left. USC would answer once again, using a 3-0 spurt over a nine-minute span to build their largest lead of the night, 11-6. Andie Aldave and Ortega scored the final two goals but it was not enough as USC would win 11-8.
Scouting the Phoenix
Elon enters Sunday’s game 0-2 after dropping their first two games to top-20 opponents. The Phoenix lost to No. 20 Duke 17-9 to open the year and then fell 17-4 to No. 14 Virginia last weekend. Stephanie Asher leads the way for Elon with five goals and six points on the year.
This will be the second all-time meeting between the Irish and Phoenix. Notre Dame defeated Elon 16-7 on the road to win their fifth straight game last season. Casey Pearsall led the way for Notre Dame with seven points in the game.
–ND–
Matt Paras, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since January 2018. In his role, he coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse and cross country/track & field programs. A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Paras is a graduate of the University of Louisville where he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sport Administration. Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, he worked at Vanderbilt University as the sports information contact for the women’s soccer and lacrosse programs.