April 2, 2009
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format 
• The Game: #10/#10 Notre Dame (9-2/2-1) vs. Cincinnati (5-5/0-2)
• Date/Time/Site: Friday, April 3, 2009 • 4:00 p.m. • Nippert Stadium • Cincinnati, Ohio
• The Game: #10/#10 Notre Dame (9-2/2-1) vs. Louisville (6-3/0-2)
• Date/Time/Site: Sunday, April 5, 2009 • 1:00 p.m. • U of L Lacrosse Complex • Louisville Ky.
• All Notre Dame home women’s lacrosse games will be available via Game Tracker at und.com. Selected games are available through live via video streaming at und.com. Notre Dame’s game at Cincinnati will have Gametracker available.
ROAD WARRIORS: The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team takes to the road for the first time since March 10 when the Fighting Irish visit the two newest BIG EAST women’s lacrosse teams this weekend. On Friday, April 3, Notre Dame will play the Cincinnati Bearcats in a 4:00 p.m. game at Nippert Stadium. From Cincinnati, the Irish go south to Louisville, Ky., to face the University of Louisville on Sunday, April 5 in a 1:00 p.m. game. Notre Dame is coming off a five-game homestand that saw the Irish go 4-1. The lone loss came on Friday, March 27 to #6/#8 Georgetown, a 14-12 decision, that snapped a seven-game Irish winning streak. Two days later, on Sunday, March 29, Notre Dame rebounded with a come-from-behind win over Loyola (Md.) by a 16-13 score. The Irish bring a 9-2 record into this weekend’s road games and are 2-1 in BIG EAST play. The Cincinnati game is the first of four consecutive games on the road for Notre Dame. The Irish are ranked 10th in both the IWLCA coaches’ poll and the Inside Lacrosse.com media poll. Following this weekend’s games, the Irish travel to Syracuse on April 11 to face the Orange in a game that will be televised by CBS College Sports.
IRISH VERSUS THE BEARCATS: Notre Dame and Cincinnati meet for the first time in the all-time series. The Bearcats are 5-5 overall and 0-2 in BIG EAST play. Friday’s game starts a four-game homestand for Cincinnati as the Bearcats look to get on the winning side of the ledger in the conference. Last weekend, Cincinnati dropped its first two BIG EAST conference games, losing at Connecticut, 11-9, on Friday, March 27. On Sunday, March 29, the Bearcats dropped a 23-7 decision at Syracuse. The 2008 season was the first for Cincinnati and coach Lellie Swords. The Bearcats were 2-14 in their inaugural season.
IRISH VERSUS CARDINALS: Notre Dame and Louisville meet for the first time in this series. The Cardinals bring a 7-3 overall record into the weekend and are 0-2 in BIG EAST play. They started the season with four straight wins and wins in seven of their first eight games before losing at Syracuse last Friday, 15-4, and at Connecticut, 8-7 last Sunday. In the program’s first season during 2008, Coach Kellie Young’s team was 12-4 for the season.
LOOKING BACK AT LAST WEEK: Notre Dame saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end on March 27 when the Irish dropped a 14-12 decision to sixth-ranked Georgetown at the Loftus Sports Center. With the score tied 4-4 in the first half, Notre Dame scored four of the last five goals over the final 12:36 of the first half to take an 8-5 lead at the intermission. The Hoyas regrouped at halftime and scored the first six goals of the second half over an 11:08 span to take an 11-8 lead. From there the teams traded goals for the final of 14-12 in favor of the Hoyas. Jillian Byers (Sr., Northport, N.Y.) paced the Notre Dame attack with four goals and one assist. Gina Scioscia (Jr., Summit, N.J.) had three goals and an assist for a four-point night. Shaylyn Blaney (So., Stony Brook, N.Y.) and Kailene Abt (So., Huntington, N.Y.) scored twice each and Ansley Stewart (So., Alexandria, Va.) added one goal in the game. Erin Goodman (Sr., Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) finished with eight saves. Notre Dame rebounded on Sunday afternoon against Loyola, coming from behind to beat the 13th-ranked Greyhounds, 16-13. The Irish trailed 6-2 and 7-3 in the first half before cutting the Loyola lead to 8-7 at halftime. After the Greyhounds scored the first goal of the second half, the Irish answered with five consecutive goals to take a 12-9 advantage. Scioscia led the way, scoring three of her career-high six goals in a 2:25 span to put the Irish in front to stay on the way to the 16-13 win. Scioscia’s six goals led Notre Dame. Byers and Blaney scored three goals each, while Abt had two goals and Kaitlin Keena (So., Vienna, Va.) and Ansley Stewart had one goal each. Goodman made 11 saves in the game and picked up her ninth win of the year, setting an Irish women’s lacrosse record with her 32nd career win.
NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN: Senior goalkeeper Erin Goodman became Notre Dame’s all-time winningest goalkeeper in the 16-13 win over Loyola. The win, the 32nd of her career, moved her past Jen White `03, who recorded 31 in three seasons as the starting goalkeeper. Since becoming the number one netminder in 2007, Goodman has started 47 consecutive games and has a 32-15 record (.681). Besides the win mark, Goodman also ranks among the top goalkeepers in several different categories:
Single SeasonGP - t1st (19) - 2008dWins - t3rd (12) - 200s8Minutes - 1st (1,117:21) - 2008Saves - 4th (172) - 2008SV% - 9th (.454) - 2008GAVG - 7th (10.74) - 2008
CareerGP - 3rd (49)Wins - 1st (32)Minutes - 2nd (2,807:21)Saves - 3rd (402)GAVG - 3rd (10.60)
STREAKY IRISH: Five members of the Notre Dame lineup go into this weekend at Cincinnati and Louisville with point-scoring streaks:
Jillian Byers - 11 games (40g, 9a, 49 pts)Shaylyn Blaney - 11 games (28g, 2a, 30 pts)Gina Scioscia - 9 games (29g, 18a, 47 pts)Ansley Stewart - 9 games (13g, 6a, 19 pts)Kailene Abt - 4 games (9g, 3a, 12 pts)Byers has nine games this season with three or more goals while Scioscia has seven with three or more and Blaney has six.
EN FUEGO: Junior attack standout Gina Scioscia has been “on fire” this season as she comes into this weekend needing just one point to equal her career high in points with 55. As a freshman in 2007, Scioscia had eight points on four goals and four assists for eight points. Last year, as a sophomore, the Summit, N.J., native scored 20 goals with 35 assists for 55 points in 19 games. The 47-point improvement was the most ever for a Notre Dame player from from one season to the next. Through 11 games this season, the play-making wizard has 33 goals and 21 assists for 54 points to lead the team. 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, two games with four points, two games with five points, three with six points, one seven-point game and one with eight this season.
SCORING BARRAGE: Through the first 11 games of the season, Notre Dame has scored 173 goals for an average of 15.73 per game. Prior to this season, Notre Dame’s top scoring season came in 2006 when the Irish averaged 13.84 goals per game.
FAST START: Notre Dame’s 9-2 start is the best for the Irish since starting the 2006 campaign with a 10-1 record. Notre Dame saw its seven-game winning streak stopped on March 27 with the loss to Georgetown. The longest Irish win streak is 14 games and was set between the end of the 2003 season and the start of 2004.
BAD NEWS BURKE: Defensive standout Shannon Burke (Timonium, Md.) continues to be a dominant force for the Irish in the defensive midfield. The senior captain grabbed two ground balls, had three draw controls and one caused turnover in the loss to Georgetown before getting one ground ball, one caused turnover and one draw control in the win versus Loyola. In 11 games this season, the preseason all-BIG EAST selection has scored three goals with two assists for five points. On the defensive side, Burke is second on the team with 24 ground balls, is fifth with 21 draw controls and leads the team with 18 caused turnovers. She is among the school’s all-time leaders in all three categories:
Groundballs1. Kathryn Lam (1999-02) 1932. Tina Fedarcyk (1999-02 ) 1773. Maureen Henwood (1999-02) 1264. Andrea Kinnik (2001-04) 123 Meredith Simon (2001-04) 1236. Danielle Shearer (2000-03) 1207. Carol Dixon (2003-06) 1178. Natalie Loftus (199-02) 116 Alissa Moser (1999-02) 11510. Erin Goodman (2006- ) 105 -- Shannon Burke (2006- ) 103
Caused Turnovers1. Tina Fedarcyk (1999-02) 1072. Becky Ranck (2005-08) 83 Kathryn Lam (1999-02) 834. Shannon Burke (2006-) 805. Maureen Henwood (1999-02) 756. Kelly McCardell (2000-03) 667. Andrea Kinnik (2001-04) 638. Caitlin McKinney (2005-08) 609. Heather Ferguson (2005-08) 54 Lael O'Shaughnessy (1998-01) 54
KARDIAC KIDS: 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. This time it happened versus Loyola (Md.) on March 29. 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:
3/3 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.
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.
HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 13th season at Notre Dame and her 22nd year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 233-105 (.689) career record into this weekend with Cincinnati and Louisville. 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 119-79 (.601). 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 115-78 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 will face both Cincinnati and Louisville for the first time this weekend.
SUPER SOPHOMORES: The Irish have gotten strong play from their sophomore scorers this season. The group of five – Shaylyn Blaney (26g, 2a), Kailene Abt (22g, 4a), Ansley Stewart (16g, 7a), Jackie Doherty (5g, 7a) and Kaitlin Keena (8g, 8a) have accounted for 77 goals and 28 assists for 105 points. They five have 77 of the team’s 173 goals, 28 of 74 assists and 105 of 247 points this season.
SHE’S ABT TO SCORE: Sophomore midfielder Kailene Abt is quickly becoming a major scoring threat for the Irish in her second season. Already this year, the Huntington, N.Y., native is fourth on the team in scoring with career highs in goals (22), assists (4) and points (26). She recorded a career-high six-point game in Notre Dame’s 20-4 win over California, scoring four goals and two assists. The four-goal game tied a career high set earlier this season against Ohio State. Over the last four games, Abt has nine goals and three assists for 12 points.
MIDFIELD MASTER: Sophomore midfielder Shaylyn Blaney has gotten her second season off to a fast start, scoring at least one goal in each of the first 11 games, including five last weekend against Georgetown and Loyola (Md.). She ranks third on the team in scoring with 28 points and third with 26 goals scored. 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 69 goals and 11 assists for 80 points in her career.
RAPID IMPROVEMENT: As a freshman, Ansley Stewart, now a sophomore, saw action in just two games for the Irish. This season, the Alexandria, Va., native has started all 11 gamed and ranks fifth in team scoring with 16 goals and seven assists for 23 points. She teams with senior Jillian Byers (40-9) and junior Gina Scioscia (33-21) for a potent Irish attack trio with 89 goals and 37 assists this season.
THE IRISH ALL-TIME: The 2008-09 season is the 13th campaign for the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse program. The Irish (9-2 this year) come into the weekend with a 119-79 (.601) all-time record. That includes a 60-29 (.674) home mark and a 46-43 (.517) road record. Notre Dame is 14-7 all-time on neutral fields. The win in the season opener at Duquesne gives the Irish an 11-2 mark in season-opening games.
PREMIER PLAYMAKER: Gina Scioscia’s eight-point game versus Rutgers was a career best for the Irish playmaker. Her previous best was a seven-point game last season set against Rutgers (4/20/08) where she had two goals and five assists. She also had a seven-point game this season versus Duquesne in the season opener, scoring four goals with three assists. Her six-assists were the most in a game since Kerry Callahan `99, had six assists in a 20-10 win over Gannon on March 17, 1999. Callahan had nine points in that game.
DOUBLE-DIGIT WINS: With one more win, the Irish will have their fourth consecutive season with 10 or more wins, the first time that’s happened in the program’s history. Notre Dame had 15 wins in 2006, 11 in 2007 and 12 last year. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Irish are 47-19 (.712).
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST: Two members of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team have been named to the Tewaaraton Trophy “Watch List” for the 2009 season. Senior Jillian Byers and sophomore Shaylyn Blaney were among the 45 players selected to the watch list. That group will be cut down later in the season to a candidates list followed by a list of finalists. For Byers, this is her third year on the watch list while Blaney is making her first apperarance. She is the sixth Notre Dame player to be named to the Watch List in the 13-year history of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse program.
FEARSOME FRESHMAN: Freshman midfield/attack Maggie Tamasitis (Boyertown, Pa.) has contributed to the Irish attack in a big way during her rookie year. The Boyertown, Pa., native is sixth in scoring with 17 points on six goals and 11 assists in 11 games off the Notre Dame bench. In the win against California, Tamasitis had a career-high four-point game, scoring once and adding a career-high three assists in the contest.
GOAL-SCORING MACHINE: With 40 goals in the first 11 games of the season, senior Jillian Byers becomes the first player in the program’s history to score 40 or more goals in each of her four years at Notre Dame. Byers had 54 goals as a freshman, 58 as a junior and 67 as a junior in 2008.