Sophomore midfielder Kate Newall scored her first collegiate goal in Notre Dame's 15-10 win over Duquesne.

Irish Women's Lacrosse To Play Host To Dartmouth At Arlotta Stadium

March 3, 2010

Notre Dame, Ind. –

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– The Game: #8/#6 Notre Dame (2-0) vs. #20/– Dartmouth (1-1)

– Date/Time/Site: Sunday, March 7, 2010 – 12:00 noon – Arlotta Stadium – Notre Dame, Ind.

– Internet: The Notre Dame-Dartmouth game will be available at the Notre Dame website – und.com and is free of charge. Gametracker live stats are also available on the Irish website.

BIG GREEN VISIT: The Dartmouth Big Green visit Notre Dame for the first time in the all-time series and will serve as the first opponent for the first regular-season game at the new Arlotta Stadium. This is the lone game of the week for the Irish as they bring a 2-0 mark into the game. Notre Dame opened the season on Feb. 23 with a 13-12 win at Hofstra and a 15-10 home-opening win versus Duquesne on Saturday, Feb. 27. Dartmouth played on Wednesday afternoon (3/3) at home where the Big Green handed Vermont a 22-2 pasting to improve to 1-1 on the year. They dropped the season opener in a tough, 9-8 decision at New Hampshire on Feb. 27. The Irish come into the Dartmouth game ranked eighth in the IWCLA coaches’ poll while Dartmouth is ranked 20th on the season. Following the game with Dartmouth, Notre Dame will visit both sides of the country as the Irish take to the road. On Sat., March 13, they travel to Berkeley, Calif., to meet the University of California in a 12:00 noon (PT) contest. The following week, Notre Dame heads to the East coast to face Boston University on Sat., March 20. That game also has a 12:00 noon start time. The next home game for the Irish is set for Wednesday, March 23 versus Vanderbilt with the opening draw set for 2:30 p.m.

THE IRISH ALL-TIME: In this the 14th season of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse program, Notre Dame brings a 128-82 all-time record (.610) into the game with Dartmouth. That record includes a 51-46 road record (.526). At home, the Irish are 63-29 (.685) home mark and a 14-7 all-time mark on neutral fields.

IRISH VERSUS THE BIG GREEN: This is the third meeting in the all-time series between the two schools with each team owning a win on its side of the ledger. The two teams met at Dartmouth last March 7 with Notre Dame rallying for a 16-11 win. The first meeting in the series came in the 2006 NCAA semifinal game at Boston University with the Big Green taking a 14-8 win to move on to the national title game. In last year’s meeting in Hanover, N.H., the Irish trailed, 6-0, after the first 13:39 of the game. From there, they scored 11 straight goals on the way to the win. Gina Scioscia (Sr., Summit, N.J.) had three goals and one assist for four points while Kaitlin Keena (Jr., Vienna, Va.), Ansley Stewart (Jr., Alexandria, Va.) and Kailene Abt (Jr., Huntington, N.Y.) each had two goals. Jackie Doherty (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.), Shaylyn Blaney (Jr., Stony Brook, N.Y.) and Maggie Tamasitis (So., Boyertown, Pa.) had single goals for Notre Dame in the win.

THE PLAYMAKER: Sophomore Maggie Tamasitis had a career-best four assists in the win over Duquesne and leads Notre Dame with six assists this season. In 22 career games for the Irish, Tamasitis already has 26 career assists.

FOR OPENERS: Notre Dame’s win over Duquesne improved the Irish to 9-5 in home openers in the 14 years of the program. The win at Hofstra (Feb. 23) improved the Irish to 12-2 all-time in opening games. In road openers, the Irish are 13-1.

A WINNING LEGACY: Notre Dame’s 16 wins in 2009 are the most in a single season for the Irish, surpassing the mark of 15-4 set in 2006. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Irish are 56-22 (.718).

IRISH FIRSTS: Four members of the Notre Dame lacrosse team recorded college firsts in the win over Duquesne. Sophomore midfielder Kate Newall (Middlesex, England) scored the first goal of her career and added an assist for her first multiple-point game. Freshman midfielder Jenny Granger (East Setauket, N.Y.) recorded the first goal of her career and then added a second goal for her first multi-goal game of her career. Freshman Betsy Mastropieri (Richmond, Va.) scored the first goal of her career in her first game and sophomore Flannery Nangle (Auburn, N.Y.) picked up her first career assist in the win.

HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 14th season at Notre Dame and her 23rd year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 242-108 (.691) career record into the 2010 season. As the only head coach in the Notre Dame program’s history, Coyne is 128-82 (.610) and has guided the Irish to five NCAA tournaments (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009) where her teams have advanced to the Final Four once (2006) and the quarterfinals twice (2002, 2009). The Irish have been in all three BIG EAST Tournaments to date, beginning in 2007 and they recorded their first BIG EAST title last season 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 126-82 in 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 is 1-1 versus Dartmouth in her coaching career.

ARLOTTA OPENER: Notre Dame’s game versus Dartmouth is expected to be the first-ever regular season game played at Arlotta Stadium as temperatures are expected to be in the mid-40s with a 40% chance of rain. The state-of-the-art facility is named after Notre Dame graduate John Arlotta, president and chief executive officer of Denver-based Coram Inc. He and his wife, Bobbie, pledged the lead gift toward the stadium. The Arlotta children – Mindy, Andy and Jon – also have pledged an additional gift from The Arlotta Family Foundation toward the project. In addition to their generous donation, alumni and friends of the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs have made significant contributions. The stadium was dedicated on Oct. 17, 2009. The previous afternoon, the Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team defeated the Iroquois National Team, 14-8, in the first game played at Arlotta Stadium. The stadium features over 2,000 permanent seats, lights, an artificial-turf field, locker rooms, team lounges, restrooms and concession areas.

DUQUESNE RECAP: Notre Dame opened the 2010 home schedule with a 15-10 win over Duquesne on Saturday, Feb. 27 at the Loftus Sports Center. The win improved the Irish to 2-0 on the young season. Junior midfielder Kailene Abt (Huntington, N.Y.) led the Notre Dame attack with four goals and sophomore Maggie Tamasitis (Boyertown, Pa.) had a four-point game with four assists in the win. Gina Scioscia (Summit, N.J.), junior Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) and freshman Jenny Granger (East Setauket, N.Y.) each had two goals in the win. Ansley Stewart (Jr., Alexandria, Va.), Megan Sullivan (So., Winchester, Mass.) and Kate Newall (Middlesex, England) chipped in a goal and an assist while Kaitlin Keena (Jr., Vienna, Va.) and Betsy Mastropieri (Fr., Richmond, Va.) had one goal each. Notre Dame led 11-6 at halftime in the game. The Irish out shot the Dukes, 44-17 in the game. Freshman goalkeeper Ellie Hilling (Rochester, N.Y.) made four saves in the game in picking up her second win of the season. Duquesne’s Sara Beckstead had 19 saves in the contest.

CLOSE ONES: Notre Dame’s one-goal win over Hofstra was the 33rd game in the program’s history to be decided by one goal. In those games, the Irish are 16-17 all-time. During the 2009 season, they were 0-1 with a 14-13 loss at Syracuse. Here’s a year-by-year breakdown:

1997:   0-01998:   1-11999:   1-02000:   1-12001:   1-02002:   1-22003:   1-32004:   1-22005:   0-22006:   4-22007:   3-12008    1-22009:   0-12010:   1-0Total:  16-17

STREAKY IRISH: Four members of the Notre Dame lineup enter Sunday’s game with Dartmouth in the midst of point-scoring streaks that started last season. The list includes:

Gina Scioscia - 21 games (54g, 41a, 95 pts)Kailene Abt - 17 games (37g, 8a, 45 pts)Kaitlin Keena - 8 games (10g, 5a, 15 pts)Ansley Stewart - 8 games (9g, 4a, 13 pts)
Starting scoring streaks this season are:Maggie Tamasitis - 2 games (0g, 6a, 6 pts)Megan Sullivan - 2 games (3g, 1a, 4 pts)

IN THE GOAL: Freshman Ellie Hilling (Rochester, N.Y.) has started each of Notre Dame’s first two games. The 5-2 goalkeeper is the lone goalie on the Notre Dame roster this season. A two-time honorable mention high school All-American, Hilling was a four-year starter at Brighton High School where she guided her team to a pair of state championship games.

THE CAPTAINS: Four members of the 2010 Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team will serve as captains this season. Three seniors – Gina Scioscia, Rachel Guerrera (Wantagh, N.Y.) and Maggie Zentgraf (Charlottesville, Va.) – will have leadership roles with the Irish. They will be joined by junior Shaylyn Blaney. All four are in their first season as captains.

ROAD WARRIORS: Notre Dame picked up where it left off last season on the road with the 13-12 win over Hofstra. The Irish finished the 2009 season with a 6-3 record on the road. The six road wins equal the most the Irish have ever won on the road in the program’s 14-year history. In 2008, Notre Dame was 6-3 in nine road games. The Irish also were 2-0 in neutral site games for a total of eight wins away from Alumni Field and the Loftus Center. The three road losses came at Syracuse (14-13) and at Vanderbilt (18-11) in the regular season and at North Carolina (16-10) in the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame is 0-5 on the road in NCAA Tournament games in five trips to the tournament.

SCORING MACHINE: Notre Dame finished the 2009 season with a school record 321 goals (15.29 per game) and records for assists and points. As a team, the Irish had five players with 30 or more goals (a first for the program) and seven players with 15 or more. While losing four-time All-American Jillian Byers `09′ 83 goals, the Irish return its next six top scorers. Gina Scioscia is the top returnee with 53 goals and is followed by Kailene Abt (Jr., Huntington, N.Y.) with 46. Shaylyn Blaney was third with 44 while Ansley Stewart (Jr., Alexandria, Va.) had 30. Fellow junior Kaitlin Keena (Vienna, Va.) had 19 goals and sophomore Maggie Tamasitis (Boyertown, Pa.) rounds out the group with 15.

BIG JUMPS: Three members of the Notre Dame offensive attack had huge jumps in their scoring totals from the 2008 season to the 2009 campaign. Leading the way was midfielder Kailene Abt who saw a +46 improvement from her freshman year to last year. As a rookie, she had nine points and saw the number jump to 55 (46g, 9a) a year ago. Her 46-point increase is the biggest in the program’s history, just one behind Gina Scioscia’s 47-point increase from her freshman to sophomore year. Behind Abt was junior Ansley Stewart who had a 42-point improvement, going from 0 points as a freshman to 42 (30g, 12a) last season. Making her second appearance on the list is Scioscia, who saw her numbers jump 41 points as she went from 55 as a sophomore to 96 (53g, 43a) last season.

PRESEASON HONORS: Three members of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team were selected to the BIG EAST preseason team in voting by the league’s coaches. Senior attack standout Gina Scioscia was a unaminous selection to the all-BIG EAST preseason team and was named the preseason offensive player of the year. Senior defender Rachel Guerrera and junior midfielder Shaylyn Blaney join Scioscia on the team. The Irish were selected to finish third by the coaches, getting two first-place votes behind Georgetown and Syracuse.

VERSUS THE RANKED: Notre Dame will play eight games this season against teams ranked in the IWLCA top 20. Leading the list is No. 1 ranked Northwestern. The Wildcats are followed by No. 5 Georgetown and No. 7 Syracuse. The Irish are ranked eighth overall and the fourth BIG EAST team on the list is 11th ranked Loyola (Md.). The remaining four ranked teams are: Boston University (12th), Vanderbilt (14th), Ohio State (18th) and Dartmouth (20th). A year ago, Notre Dame played 13 games versus ranked teams and was 8-5 on the season.