Feb. 25, 2011
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format
– The Game: #10/#11 Notre Dame (1-2) at Duquesne (1-1)
– Date/Time/Site: Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011 – 1:00 p.m. – Rooney Field – Pittsburgh, Pa. Game postponed from Saturday, Feb. 26 due to weather conditions in Pittsburgh.
– Internet: Gametracker will be available for the Notre Dame-Duquesne game at the Duquesne University website – goduquesne.com.
BACK ON TRACK: The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team takes to the road this weekend as the Irish travel to Pittsburgh, Pa., to face the Duquesne University Dukes. The game originally scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 26 at noon has been moved to Sunday, Feb. 27 at 1:00 p.m. due to weather conditions in Pittsburgh on Friday and Friday night. Notre Dame will be looking to snap a two-game losing streak that started on Feb. 13 at Stanford. The Irish fell, 13-12, to the Cardinal and then last Saturday dropped a 14-11 decision at home to No. 2 Northwestern. They enter Saturday’s game with a 1-2 overall record. Duquesne is 1-1 on the season after opening the season with an 18-9 win over St. Francis (Pa.) and then an 11-7 loss to Boston College in Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon. Notre Dame enters the weekend ranked 10th in the IWLCA rankings and 11th by Inside Lacrosse. After playing three of their first four games on the road in February, the Irish will not be in action again until Thur., March 10 when they play host to Ohio State. That game is set for 4:00 p.m. and weather permitting is expected to be played at Arlotta Stadium.
IRISH VERSUS THE DUKES: Notre Dame and Duquesne have met six times in the all-time series with the Irish winning all six meetings. At Pittsburgh, the Irish are 2-0, having last played there to open the 2009 season. Notre Dame won that game, 22-7. Last year, the two teams met at Notre Dame with the Irish taking a 15-10 win at the Loftus Center.
NORTHWESTERN RECAP: Notre Dame opened the home schedule versus the second-ranked Northwestern Wildcats on Feb. 19, dropping a 14-11 decision at the Loftus Sports Center. The Irish were led offensively by junior Maggie Tamasitis (Boyertown, Pa.), who had a goal and four assists for a five-point evening. Kaitlin Keena (Sr., Vienna, Va.), Jenny Granger (So., East Setauket, N.Y.), Shaylyn Blaney (Sr., Stony Brook, N.Y.) and Kaitlyn Brosco (Fr., Shoreham, N.Y.) each scored two goals in the game. Megan Sullivan (Jr., Winchester, Mass.) and Kailene Abt (Sr., Huntington, N.Y.) each had a single goal for the Irish. The Wildcats jumped out to an early 3-0 lead but goals by Keena, Blaney and Abt tied the score at 3-3 with 19:43 left in the first half. A four-goal run by Northwestern opened a 7-3 lead that the Irish never could recover from. Goals by Granger, Blaney and Brosco cut the lead to 8-6 at halftime. The teams traded goals in the second half with the Irish cutting the lead to two at 10-8, 12-10 and 13-11 but that was as close as they would get. Notre Dame out shot Northwestern in the game, 27-26. Sophomore goalkeeper Ellie Hilling (Rochester, N.Y.) made seven saves in the Irish goal. The key to this game was Northwestern’s ability to win the draw as the Wildcats won 22 draw controls to just five for the Irish.
THE IRISH ALL-TIME: Notre Dame enters its game with Duquesne on Saturday with an all-time record of 138-91 over the first 14-plus years of the program. That gives the Irish a .603 winning percentage. That record includes a 67-32 (.667) mark at home, a 57-51 (.528) record on the road and a 14-8 (.636) ledger on neutral fields.
FOR OPENERS: The Irish are now 13-2 all-time in season openers after defeating California, 20-6, on Feb. 11. Notre Dame is now 14-1 in road-opening games. The loss to Northwestern in the home opener on Feb. 19 dropped the Irish to 9-6 all-time in home openers.
FAST STARTERS: Sophomore midfielder Jenny Granger and junior attack Maggie Tamasitis have wasted little time in getting their 2011 seasons off to fast starts. Through three games, Granger already has scored eight goals with three assists for 11 points. As a freshman in 16 games last year, she had 12 goals and three assists for 15 points. Included in her fast start is a career-high four-goal, two-assist, career-best six-point game at California in the season opener. Granger is coming off a two-goal, one-assist game against Northwestern. Tamasitis leads the Irish in scoring through three games with four goals and nine assists for 13 points. Last season, she was second on the team with 18 goals and 26 assists for 44 points. The Notre Dame playmaker equalled career highs with four assists and five points in the loss to Northwestern. She is already eighth on the Irish all-time assist list with 55 for her career.
HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 15th season at Notre Dame and her 24th year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 252-117 (.683) career record into this week’s game. She recorded her 250th career win on April 22, 2010 in a 12-11 victory at Ohio State, making her just the ninth coach in NCAA history to have 250 or more wins in her career. As the only head coach in the Notre Dame program’s history, Coyne is 138-91 (.603) and has guided the Irish to six NCAA tournaments (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010) where her teams have advanced to the Final Four once (2006) and the quarterfinals twice (2002, 2009). The Irish have participated in all four BIG EAST Tournaments to date, beginning in 2007 and they recorded their first BIG EAST title in 2009 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 137-89 in this, her 15th 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. As a head coach, she is 6-0 all-time against Duquesne.
HOMECOMING: For three members of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team, the trip to Duquesne is a homecoming of sorts. Head coach Tracy Coyne is a Pittsburgh native and attended Canevin High School. Graduate student, Meredith Locasto (Mt. Lebanon, Pa.) attended Mt. Lebanon High School and scored her first career goal versus Duquesne on Feb. 14, 2009. Junior attack standout Maggie Tamasitis’ older sister, Courtney, played at Duquesne during her collegiate career.
THE CAPTAINS: Senior midfielder Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) and senior defender Jackie Doherty (Ellicott City, Md.) will serve as team captains of the 2011 Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team. Blaney served as one of the team’s captains in 2010 while this is the first season for Doherty. Blaney is a two-time second team IWLCA All-American and leads the Irish offense. Doherty guides the defense and was selected as a first team IWLCA All-American in her junior year.
ROAD WARRIORS: With the split versus California and Stanford, Notre Dame is 1-1 this season on the road. A year ago, the Irish were 6-4 away from South Bend and have now had three consecutive seasons of at least six wins on the road. Since the 2008 season, Notre Dame is 19-11 (.633) away from home.
PRESEASON HONORS: Three members of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team were selected by the BIG EAST coaches as members of the 2011 preseason all-BIG EAST team. Leading the group is Shaylyn Blaney who is a three-time all-BIG EAST selection (first team twice and second team once) in her career. She is joined by senior defender Jackie Doherty who was a first team choice last season. Joing those two is midfielder Kailene Abt who was a second team all-BIG EAST selection last season.
STREAKY IRISH: During the 2010 season two Notre Dame players – Maggie Tamasitis and Gina Scioscia `10 scored points in all 18 games. Scioscia finished her career with the second longest scoring streak in the program’s history – 37 games. Tamasitis has picked up where she left off last season and has now scored at least one point in each of her last 21 games. She is joined by six others with point streaks entering the game with Duquesne this weekend.
Maggie Tamasitis - 21 games (22g, 35a, 57 pts)Kailene Abt - 13 games (18g, 6a, 24 pts)Jenny Granger - 6 games (13g, 5a, 18 pts.)Kaitlin Keena - 4 games (6g, 3a, 9 pts)Shaylyn Blaney - 3 games (4g, 3a, 7 pts)Kaitlyn Brosco - 3 games (6g, 1a, 7 pts)Betsy Mastropieri - 3 games (3g, 1a, 4 pts)
MAKING THE STOPS: Sophomore goalkeeper Ellie Hilling has now started 21 consecutive games in goal for Notre Dame. As a freshman she played all but 2:17 of the season and was 11-7 with a 9.69 goals-against average and a .421 save percentage. This season, she is 1-2 with an 11.02 goals-against average and a .459 save percentage. She has played all but 17 seconds this season. Against California, Hilling turned in a career-high 13 saves while giving up a season-low six goals.
FAST STARTER: Freshman midfielder Kaitlyn Brosco (Shoreham, N.Y.) has gotten her Notre Dame career off to a fast start as she has scored six goals with one assist for seven points in her first three collegiate games for the Irish.
CHART CLIMBERS: With two goals in the game agaisnt Northwestern, senior Shaylyn Blaney moved into fourth on Notre Dame’s all-time goals list with 131 in her career. She moved past Danielle Shearer `03 who had 130 in her career. With four ground balls against Northwestern, senior Jackie Doherty moved into fourth on the ground balls list with 131. She moved past Erin Goodman `09, who had 128 in her career. With three caused turnovers against Northwestern, Doherty moved into a tie for fifth all-time with 75. She tied Natalie Henwood `03, who also had 75 in four seasons for the Irish.
HERE WE GO AGAIN?: During the 2010 season, Notre Dame saw 11 of its 18 games decided by two goals or less and saw it happen again in the 13-12 loss at Stanford on Feb. 13. In those games, the Irish had four overtime contests, eight games decided by one goal and 11 decided by two goals or less. In overtime, the Irish were 2-2. They were 5-3 in one goal games and 7-4 in games decided by two or less. In the BIG EAST Tournament, the Irish dropped a 12-11, four overtime game to Syracuse in the semifinals. That game was decided after 72:58, the longest game in Notre Dame history and the longest in the history of the BIG EAST Tournament.
RUNNING THE SHOW: With the graduation of attack standout Gina Scioscia `10, look for junior Maggie Tamasitis to run the Irish offense in 2011. Tamasitis finished second on the Irish in scoring last season with career highs in goals (18), assists (26) and points (44). The senior playmaker leads the Irish in scoring this season with four goals and nine assists for 13 points. She is eighth on the all-time assist list with 55.
SPEAKING OF ASSISTS: Senior Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) is known for putting the ball in the net as she has 131 goals to her credit as the Irish prepare for Duquesne. In the win at California, Blaney turned into the set-up person as she had a career-high three assists in the victory to go along with a goal for a four-point game. As a junior Blaney had three assists all season and for her career, she now has 19.
AHEAD OF PACE: Just three games into her senior season, midfielder Kaitlin Keena has already passed her goal output of the 2010 season. One of Notre Dame’s fastest players, Keena had four goals and eight assists for 12 points as a junior. In just three games this season, the speedster is third in team scoring with six goals and two assists for eight points. Keena’s best year for the Irish was 2009 when she had 19 goals and 15 assists for 34 points.
KEY CONTRIBUTOR: Junior midfielder Megan Sullivan became a key contributor to the Irish offense in 2010. Strong in transition, the speedy middie had career highs in goals (16), assists (6) and points (20) to finish sixth on the team in scoring. Through the first three games this season, Sullivan has scored a pair of goals.
FIRST TIMERS: Several Notre Dame players scored their first career goals in the games played in California last weekend. Leading the way was freshman Kaitlyn Brosco who had four in the two games. Joining Brosco were two sophomores who scored their first career goals. That group included midfielder McKenzie Brown (Greenwood Village, Colo.) who scored versus California and defender Emily Conner (Alexandria, Va.) who had one goal in each game of the trip. Seeing their first career action on the weekend were freshmen Molly Shawhan (Fulton, Md.) and Margaret Smith (Westminster, Md.) plus sophomores Adele Bruggeman (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Michelle Tremblay (Tonka Bay, Minn.). Brown and Tremblay sat out the 2010 season due to injuries. Bruggeman is in her first season at Notre Dame as a goaltender. She played the final 17 seconds of the game against Stanford.
NEW FACES: Head coach Tracy Coyne has two new assistant coaches this season as they replace Merideth Simon `04, who is now an assistant at Cal and Kateri Linville, who was an assistant with the Irish for five seasons. Linville is now the head coach at her alma mater – the University of Delaware. Replacing them are former Irish All-American Crysti Foote `06 and Nick Williams, a former standout lacrosse and football player at Towson. Foote, who helped lead Notre Dame to its only appearance in an NCAA women’s lacrosse Final Four joined Coyne’s staff in July after spending last season working on her Masters Degree at Long Island University. She has been an assistant coach at Drew University and Columbia since graduating. A member of Canada’s national team and a veteran of two World Cups (`05, `09), Foote was a two-time All-American and a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist in 2006. She owned virtually every offensive record for the Irish upon her graduation. Williams also joined the staff in July after one season as an assistant coach at Towson. A two-sport athlete at Towson, Williams was a four-year member of the lacrosse and football teams. In lacrosse, Williams helped the Tigers to a pair of CAA titles and in football is the program’s fifth leading rusher. He will work with the Irish defense and the goalkeepers while Foote works with the attack.