April 3, 2008
Durham, N.C. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team extended their winning streak to four games on Thursday afternoon at rainy and cold Koskinen Stadium as the Fighting Irish upset seventh-ranked Duke, 12-8.
Freshman Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) paced the Notre Dame offensive attack with four goals in the game and Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) added three goals in the win. Junior goalkeeper Erin Goodman (Courtlandt Manor, N.Y.) turned in a strong performance in goal, making 11 saves while limiting Duke’s high-power offense to just eight goals in the game.
Senior Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) had a pair of goals and three points in the game and sophomore Gina Scioscia (Summit, N.J.) continued her strong second season with a goal and three assists on the afternoon. Jane Stoeckert (Mendham, N.J.) and Shannon Burke (Jr., Baltimore, Md.) had single goals for Notre Dame.
Sarah Bullard and Emma Hamm led the Duke offense with a pair of goals while Carolyn Davis, Megan Del Monte, Lindsay Gilbride and Jess Adam had one goal each for the Blue Devils.
The win improves 12th-ranked Notre Dame to 9-3 on the season while Duke falls to 7-4 overall. The win was just the second ever for the Irish versus the Blue Devils in 11 all-time meetings.
The afternoon didn’t start too well for the Irish as Hamm scored her first of the game for Duke just 33 seconds into the game off an assist from Davis for a 1-0 lead. It would be over 25 minutes before the Blue Devils would score again.
McKinney tied the game at 1-1 at 23:43 to start the Irish on a five-goal run over a 17-minute period of play.
Scioscia put Notre Dame ahead for good at 19:32 when she converted a feed from McKinney. Stoeckert followed with a free-position goal at 15:03 to make it 3-1 before Blaney (14:06) and McKinney (6:34) ran the score to 5-1.
The Blue Devils would get back in the game, cutting the lead to 5-3 with goals less than a minute a part by Jess Adam (4:13) and Lindsay Gilbride (3:15), only to see the Irish answer with goals by Blaney (2:45) and Burke (1:29) for a 7-3 lead at halftime. Goodman made five of her 11 saves in the opening 30 minutes of play.
With a four-goal lead entering the second half, Notre Dame looked to build on the lead. Duke had other ideas as the Blue Devils got the first goal of the second half when Del Monte scored at 24:04 to make it 7-4. From there, the Irish scored three of the next four goals.
Blaney picked up her third of the game with a free-position goal at 23:31 to rebuild the four-goal lead at 8-4. Her fourth of the afternoon at 20:46 gave Notre Dame a 9-4 lead and proved to be the game-winning goal.
Davis, who led the Blue Devils with 10 shots on goal, scored her only goal of the game at 17:07 to make it a 9-5 game.
Up until that point, Duke had done a great job of shutting down the nation’s top goal scorer as the Blue Devils had kept Notre Dame’s Jillian Byers off the scoresheet. That would change over the final 14:21 of the game.
Byers and Scioscia teamed up at 14:21 for Byers’ 50th of the season to make it 10-5. The goal also made the Irish attack standout the leading goal scorer in Irish women’s lacrosse history as she passed Crysti Foote `06 with her 162nd career goal.
Bullard got her first of two in the game with 13:05 only to see Byers and Scioscia combine for the second time in the game at 11:01 for an 11-6 Notre Dame lead.
Bullard and Hamm scored for Duke at 9:36 and 4:37 to cut the Irish lead to three goals at 11-8. Byers would close out the scoring with 1:58 left for the final of 12-8.
The Irish were out shot in the game by a 25-22 margin. Kim Imbesi finished with eight saves in the game.
Notre Dame continues its five-game road swing on Wednesday, April 9 when the Irish travel to No. 1 ranked Northwestern for a 6:00 p.m. (CDT) game against the Wildcats.
IRISH NOTES:
** Jillian Byers now has 164 career goals for the Irish to move ahead of Crysti Foote `06 with 161. Caitlin McKinney is third with 144 career goals. Foote is still tops on the all-time points list with 237. McKinney is second with 216 and Byes is third with 207.
** With three goals in the game, Jillian Byers now has 52 this season. She is the first player in the program’s history to score 50 goals in three different seasons.
** After getting just one point in a three-game span from Mar. 6-13, freshman Shaylyn Blaney now has 15 goals and four assists for 19 points in the last five games.
** The win for the Irish over Duke was the first this season for Notre Dame against a ranked team. The Irish are 1-1 versus ranked teams this season.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 - F#12 Notre Dame (9-3) 7 5 - 12#7 Duke 3 5 - 8
First HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist29:27 DU 0-1 Emma Hamm Carolyn Davis23:43 ND 1-1 Caitlin McKinney19:32 ND 2-1 Gina Scioscia Caitlin McKinney15:03 ND 3-1 Jane Stoeckert Free-Position Goal14:06 ND 4-1 Shaylyn Blaney 6:34 ND 5-1 Caitlin McKinney 4:13 DU 5-2 Jess Adam 3:15 DU 5-3 Lindsay Gilbride 2:45 ND 6-3 Shaylyn Blaney 1:29 ND 7-3 Shannon Burke
Second HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist24:04 DU 7-4 Megan Del Monte23:31 ND 8-4 Shaylyn Blaney Free-Position Shot20:46 ND 9-4 Shaylyn Blaney17:07 DU 9-5 Carolyn Davis Free-Position Shot14:21 ND 10-5 Jillian Byers Gina Scioscia13:15 DU 10-6 Sarah Bullard Free-Position Shot11:01 ND 11-6 Jillian Byers Gina Scioscia 9:36 DU 11-7 Sarah Bullard 4:37 DU 11-8 Emma Hamm Megan Del Monte 1:58 ND 12-8 Jillian Byers Gina Scioscia
Goalkeepers:Notre Dame: (Erin Goodman; 60:00 min; 8 goals, 11 saves)Duke: (Kim Imbesi; 60:00 min; 12 goals, 8 saves)
Total Shots: ND - 22; DU - 25Groundballs: ND - 15; DU - 16Draw Controls: ND - 11; DU - 11Caused Turnovers: ND - 7; DU - 10