March 30, 1999

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team dropped its home opener 15-12 to Ohio State on Friday but beat Connecticut 18-6 on Sunday at Moose Krause Stadium. The 4-2 Irish will return to action with a pair of road games in the Delaware Valley, at Villanova on Sat., April 3, and at Penn on Mon., April 5.

UP NEXT FOR THE IRISH: Notre Dame will take on two new opponents this weekend with road games at Villanova and Penn this weekend. Notre Dame will take on Villanova on Sat., April 3, at 12:00 p.m. at Villanova Stadium. The Wildcats enter the week with a 3-3 record and will play Lehigh before facing the Irish. Villanova has posted wins over Drexel, Duquesne and Bucknell and dropped games to Colgate, Davidson and Monmouth.

The Irish conclude the weekend with a 7:00 p.m. tilt at Penn’s Franklin Field on Mon., April 5. The Quakers are still searching for their first win at 0-4 and will play Lafayette and Temple prior to playing host to Notre Dame. Penn has opened the season with losses to Yale, Stanford, Cornell and Boston College.

DOYLE SISTERS TO SQUARE OFF: The Notre Dame-Villanova game will mark a Doyle family reunion. Irish sophomore Maura Doyle (Cockeysville, Md.) will compete against her older sister Meghan Doyle, a senior for Villanova. The older Doyle led the Wildcats last year with 51 goals and 10 assists. Maura Doyle has scored four goals and has five assists this year.

OHIO STATE RECAP: Notre Dame failed to convert on numerous scoring opportunities throughout the game and could never complete a comeback as Ohio State handed the Irish their second consecutive loss with a 15-12 win on Friday at Moose Krause Stadium. Erin Anderson scored four goals and added five assists to lead the Buckeyes. Kerry Callahan (Churchville, Pa.) had three goals to lead the Irish. Megan Barnett made 14 saves in net for Ohio State, while Carrie Marshall (Colorado Springs, Colo.) have 12 saves for Notre Dame, whose only lead came at 1-0 on a goal by freshman Maureen Henwood (Doylestown, Pa.) at 29:24. The Buckeyes scored the final two goals of the first half to a 6-4 lead at halftime and never trailed again. Twice the Irish cut the lead to one goal in the second half but never scored an equalizer. With the Buckeyes ahead 14-10 for their largest lead of the game, Callahan netted back-to-back goals to cut lead to 14-12. Notre Dame won 10-9 at Ohio State last year by scoring the game’s final three goals in the final 6:11 of the game.

CONNECTICUT RECAP: The Irish used a 13-0 run after trailing 3-2 early on for an 18-6 win over visiting Connecticut on Sunday at Moose Krause Stadium. The Irish defense held the Huskies without a goal for 35 minutes during the game. Irish sophomore Lael O’Shaughnessy (Alexandria, Va.) led all scorers with six goals and three assists and sparked Notre Dame early in the game. With the scored tied 3-3, O’Shaughnessy scored three of the next four goals and assisted on the fifth to help the Irish pull away with an 8-3 lead. Notre Dame would score three more goals, including two in the final 24 seconds, to take an 11-3 lead into halftime. Sophomore Kathryn Perrella (Valley Cottage, N.Y.) opened the second half with two of her four goals in the first five minutes. After O’Shaughnessy scored her fifth goal for a 15-3 lead to complete the 13-0 run, Megan Campbell scored back-to-back goals and Heather Levins scored to help Connecticut pull within 15-6. Notre Dame then held the Huskies scoreless for the final 14:25 and added three more tallies for the 18-6 win. Marshall made 14 saves in allowing the fewest goals by a Notre Dame opponent this season.

O’SHAUGHNESSY HAS NINE-POINT GAME: Irish sophomore attack Lael O’Shaughnessy, who scored five goals in each of the first four games, scored six goals and had three assists against Connecticut to tie Kerry Callahan for most points ever in an Irish women’s lacrosse game. With 26 goals through six games, she is set to surpass her 1998 goal total of 27 goals in the 12 games she played. O’Shaughnessy leads the team in scoring with 26 goals and seven assists for 33 points.

CALLAHAN SCORING STREAK CONTINUES: Senior two-time captain Kerry Callahan scored three goals against Ohio State and one goal against Connecticut to extend her goal-scoring streak to 20 games. A starter all three years of the program, Callahan has scored at least one goal in 27 of the 28 varsity women’s lacrosse games played at Notre Dame. Since being held scoreless in the 11-7 loss to Ohio State on April 6, 1997, Callahan scored in the final game of 1997 and in all 13 games in 1998. She has started off her senior year with two goals against both Boston College and Richmond and three against Gannon, Syracuse and Ohio State and one against Connecticut, bringing the streak to 20 games.

COYNE AT THE HELM: Irish head coach Tracy Coyne is in her third season as head coach of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team and in her 12th season overall after coaching Roanoke for seven years and at Denison for two years. In 11-plus seasons as a head coach, her lacrosse teams have a combined 130-38 record (.774), qualified for the NCAA championship six years, won seven conference titles and won 10-plus games in nine of those seasons. She has led Notre Dame to two winning seasons and has a 16-12 (.571) record during her time with the Irish.

COYNE COMMENTS: “We were disappointed with the loss to Ohio State but really happy to get back on track against Connecticut. We played very fundamentally sound in all aspects of the game. Our defense held Connecticut scoreless for 35 minutes and we converted the opportunities that we created in the defensive end. We are really looking forward to this weekend and to two challenging games. Villanova and Penn are both solid teams and we want to have a strong showing this weekend.”