April 8, 2006
Notre Dame, Ind. –
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• The Game: #10/#10 Notre Dame (10-1/2-0) at #4/#4 Duke (10-1/3-1)
• Date/Time/Site: Sun., April 9, 2006 – 1:00 p.m. – Koskinen Stadium – Durham, N.C.
IRISH TRAVEL TO DUKE: Notre Dame continues its five-game road swing on Sunday, April 9 with a visit to Durham, N.C., to face the fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils in a 1:00 p.m. game at Koskinen Stadium. The Irish are in the midst of a three-game winning streak since March 19, including back-to-back road wins at Connecticut and Ohio State. The Irish come into Sunday’s game ranked 10th in the nation with a 10-1 overall record. Their lone loss came on March 19, 21-12, at No. 1 Northwestern. Notre Dame will face a Duke squad that knocked off Northwestern on Friday night in Durham by a 16-10 score, snapping the Wildcats 31-game winning streak. The Blue Devils are also 10-1 on the season and are ranked fourth in both national polls. Duke’s lone loss came on April 1 when the Blue Devils lost an 11-10 decision to No. 6 Virginia.
NOTRE DAME VERSUS DUKE: The Irish and Blue Devils have met eight times in the all-time series with Duke owning a 7-1 edge. At Durham, the Blue Devils are 4-0 against Notre Dame. The only Irish win against Duke came on March 10, 2004, an 11-9 win at Orlando, Fla. Last season, the Blue Devils were ranked second in the nation when they visited South Bend, handing Notre Dame an 11-8 loss on April 8th at Moose Krause Stadium.
HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Notre Dame head coach Tracy Coyne is in her 10th season as the head coach of the Irish and is the only coach in the program’s Division I history. Coyne owns an 82-61 (.573) record at Notre Dame and is 196-87 (.693) in her 19-year coaching career. Her 2006 Irish squad started the season with a 7-0 record and is currently, 10-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play, quite a turnaround from last year’s 3-12 overall mark and 1-4 record in the BIG EAST. The Irish lost seven games by three goals or less, including four, one-goal decisions. The year before, 2004, Coyne led the Irish to a 12-5 overall record and second place in the BIG EAST with a 4-2 record. She was selected the 2004 BIG EAST coach of the year. Notre Dame advanced to the NCAA tournament for the second time in the program’s history, dropping a 10-8 decision at Northwestern. 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. A 1983 graduate of Ohio University, Coyne has coached on the international level as the head coach for the Canadian women’s lacrosse national team since 1999. Last year, 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 1-7 against Duke in her coaching career.
OHIO STATE RECAP: Senior Crysti Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) scored four goals and sophomores Mary Carpenter (Rochester, N.Y.) and Heather Ferguson (Newtown Square, Pa.) scored two each to lead Notre Dame to a 13-6 road win over Ohio State on Wednesday, April 5 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. The Irish, who jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead and led 9-2 at halftime, also got goals from Caitlin McKinney (So., Lafayette Hill, Pa.), Alicia Billings (Fr., Potomac, Md.), Jane Stockert (Fr., Mendham, N.J.), Brittany Fox (Sr., Annapolis, Md.) and Meghan Murphy (Jr., Centennial, Colo.). Freshman Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) was held off the scoreboard for the first time all season but did assist on three Notre Dame goals. Kelwyn Laws paced the Buckeyes with two goals and an assist. Four others – KC Carter, Natale Miller Kelly Kremer and Jessica Patane each had single goals for Ohio State. Carol Dixon (Sr., Pennsauken, N.J.) made nine saves in the game as the Irish out shot the Buckeyes, 29-21 in the contest to improve to 10-1 on the season.
GOAL-SCORING RECORD: Crysti Foote’s four-goal effort versus Ohio State gives her 45 on the season and moves her into first on Notre Dame’s all-time goal-scoring list with 132 career goals. That moves her past Danielle Shearer `03, who scored 130 goals in her four seasons at Notre Dame. The 45 goals in one season ranks Foote, Notre Dame’s current all-BIG EAST and All-American candidate, third on the single-season list behind Lael O’Shaughnessy `01, who scored 50 in 1999 and Meredith Simon `04, who had 46 in 2004.
GOOD START FOR THE IRISH: The 10-1 record for the Irish ties for the best start in the program’s history. In 2004, Notre Dame won the first 10 games of the season, only to lose their 11th that year to Georgetown. Game 12 that season saw the Irish lose to Northwestern to fall to 10-2 on the year.
BIG EAST OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: For the third time in six weeks this season, senior midfield/attack standout Crysti Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) was selected as the BIG EAST offensive player of the week. Foote recorded five goals and a career-high four assists for nine points in Notre Dame’s 13-9 BIG EAST win at Connecticut on March 25. She also had a career-best six draw controls and equaled a career-high with six ground balls in the game. Through 10 games, Foote leads the Irish in scoring with 41goals and 20 assists for 61 points. She now owns a 20-game point scoring streak that started on March 22, 2005. In her scoring streak, the Irish captain now has 67 goals and 32 assists for 99 points. Foote has also been selected to the BIG EAST honor roll in two of the three weeks she was not selected as offensive player of the week.
GOAL-SCORING RAMPAGE: Through the first 11 games of the 2006 season, Notre Dame has scored 171 goals (15.55 goals per game). In five of 11 games this season, the Irish have scored 17 or more goals. A year ago, during the 2005 season, the Irish scored 145 goals in 15 games for a 9.67 goals-per-game average. As of April 4, the Irish were fourth in the nation in goals scored (158), trailing Northwestern (168), Denver (168) and Maryland (165). In the NCAA statistics, Notre Dame ranked second in the nation in goals-per-game with 15.80 per game, trailing only Northwestern (16.80 per game). The Notre Dame record for goals-per-game in a season is 13.56 (nine games) and was set in the program’s first season, 1997. The school record in a 15-game season is 13.33 and was set in 1999. The Notre Dame record for goals in a season was set in 2004 when the Irish scored 206.
HELPING HANDS: While the Irish are on a record goal-scoring pace this season, it hasn’t been without a little help. Through 11 games this season, Notre Dame has recorded 99 assists or an average of 9.0 per game. The school record for “helpers” is 101 and was set in the 203 season. The Irish need just three more assists in the final five games to break that mark.
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST: Senior midfield/attack standout Crysti Foote has been named to the Tewaaraton Trophy watch list for the 2006 season. In 11 games this year, Foote has career highs in goals (45), assists (20) and points (65). She becomes the third Irish player named to the watch list, joining Danielle Shearer `03 and Meredith Simon `04. Simon went on to be Notre Dame’s first-ever nominee for the honor. The Tewaaraton Trophy is awarded each season to the top male and female collegiate lacrosse players.
FRESHMAN PHENOM: Freshman attack standout Jillian Byers became Notre Dame’s top freshman scorer with three goals and an assist for four points in the win over Connecticut on March 31. With three assists in the win over Ohio State, Byers now has 33 goals and 15 assists for 48 points in her rookie season. That gives her the freshman record for points (48) and assists (15) by a rookie at Notre Dame. She needs just six more goals to set the rookie goal mark that is owned by Courtney Calabrese `98 when she had 38 goals and three assists in her first year with the Irish. Besides the rookie point mark and assist marks, Byers already set a Notre Dame freshman record for points in a game with nine points (5g, 4a) versus Lehigh. Her nine-point game also tied an Irish record for points in a home game, matching the nine points recorded by Kerry Callahan `99 (6g, 3a) on March 24, 1997 versus Stanford and Lael O’Shaughnessy `01 (6g, 3a) on March 28, 1999 vs. Connecticut.
Freshman Scoring Leaders: 1. Jillian Byers (2006) 33-15-48 2. Courtney Calabrese (1998) 38- 3-41 Lael O'Shaughnessy (1998) 27-14-41 4. Caitlin McKinney (2005) 28-12-40 5. Crysti Foote (2003) 27-11-38
TERRIFIC TRIO: Notre Dame’s high-scoring trio of Crysti Foote, Jill Byers and Caitlin McKinney came into the week ranked second, 13th and 26th respectively in points-per-game nationally. Through the first 11 games of the season, the trio has combined for 103 goals and 51 assists for 154 points. Foote leads the way with 45 goals and 20 assists. Byers is second with 33 tallies and 15 assists for 48 points while McKinney has 25 goals and 16 assists for 41 points. Byers and McKinney each have two game-winning goals while Foote has one on the year.
SUPPORTING CAST: While Notre Dame’s “Big Three” has carried the bulk of the offensive load for the Irish this season, several others have started to step up and add to the Irish offensive attack. Junior Meghan Murphy ranks fourth in scoring with 13 goals and seven assists for 20 points and has at least one point in 10 of 11 games this season. Sophomore Heather Ferguson has career highs in goals (10), assists (9) and points (19) and has 12 points over the last five games. Junior Kaki Orr (Darien, Conn.) is sixth in scoring with 13 goals and five assists and has eight points in her last three games. Also ready to break into double-digits in the goa-scoring column are sophomore Mary Carpenter (9-6-15) and freshman Jane Stoeckert (8-9-17).
CARPENTER WATCH: Sophomore midfielder Mary Carpenter picked up a career-high seven ground balls in the Notre Dame win over Ohio State. She is tied for the team lead with goalkeeper Caro1 Dixon for the team lead with 32 ground balls. She is also third in draw controls (15) and second in caused turnovers with 15. Earlier this season, she had the first three-goal game of her career and first four-point game in the 17-15 win over Cornell.
FOOTE LOOSE: Senior Crysti Foote, Notre Dame’s all-BIG EAST, all-American and Tewaaraton Trophy candidate is on her way to a record-shattering season for the Irish. Through the first 11 games this season, Foote has already recorded career highs in goals (45), assists (20) and points (65). As of April 4, she was second in the nation in goals and points to Kristie Leggio of Denver (44g, 21a, 65 pts). Her 6.10 points-per-game was second in the nation to Mary Key of Johns Hopkins (6.63) and her 4.10 goals-per-game leads the nation in that category. In the Irish record books, Foote ranks:
Career Goals: 1. Crysti Foote `06 132 2. Danielle Shearer `03 130 3. Lael O'Shaughnessy `01 122
Career Points: 1. Danielle Shearer `03 196 2. Lael O'Shaughnessy `01 190 3. Crysti Foote `06 188
Career Assists: 1. Lael O'Shaughnessy `01 68 2. Danielle Shearer `03 66 3. Kerry Callahan `99 63 4. Crysti Foote `06 56
Career Draw Controls: 1. Alissa Moser `02 126 2. Tina Fedarcyk `02 96 3. Meredith Simon `04 91 4. Kathryn Lam `02 90 5. Crysti Foote `06 88
Single Season Goals: 1. Lael O'Shaughnessy (1999) 50 2. Meredith Simon (2004) 46 3. Crysti Foote (2006) 45
Season Points: 1. Meredith Simon (2004) 74 2. Lael O'Shaughnessy (1999) 69 3. Crysti Foote (2006) 65
IRISH STREAKS: Several Notre Dame players have scoring streaks going into the game with Connecticut. Some carry over from last season, the others just started in 2006:
Crysti Foote - 21-game streak (71-32-103)Caitlin McKinney - 14-game streak (33-17-50)Jill Byers - 11 games (33-15-48)Jane Stoeckert - 6 games (5-7-12)Heather Ferguson - 5 games (5-7-12)Meghan Murphy - 4 games (5-2-7)Mary Carpenter - 3 games (4-2-6)
Former Irish attack standout, Danielle Shearer `03 holds the Notre Dame record by scoring in 36 consecutive games between 4/25/01 and 5/1/03, getting 85 goals and 51 assists for 136 points in her streak. The streak was still active when her collegiate career ended. Foote’s 21- game streak is the fifth longest in Notre Dame history.
THE ELUSIVE ONE: Sophomore Caitlin McKinney has passed her season point output of last season (40 points) with 25 goals and 16 assists for 41 points in 11 games this season. So far this season, the speedy attack standout has recorded five games with five or more points. As a freshman, she finished the year by being named second team all-BIG EAST, the lone freshman on that team, and was a second-team all-Mid-Atlantic region choice. Following the season, McKinney was also named to the U.S. National Developmental Team.
BEST IN THE NATION: Notre Dame’s freshman class was rated No. 1 in the nation by Inside Lacrosse magazine in its November, 2005 issue. The story had this to say about the 10-player class: “Coming off a disappointing 3-12 season, the Fighting Irish have high hopes for 2006 with Jill Byers leading a powerful class that includes immediate contributors Jane Stoeckert (Mendham, N.J.), Mary Veith (Silver Springs, Md.) and Alicia Billings (Potomac, Md.). Goalie Erin Goodman (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) adds strength for the future.” As part of the story, the magazine’s list of “Blue Chip” recruits listed Jill Byers and Jane Stoeckert among its top 10 incoming freshmen.
VERSUS THE BEST: Eight teams currently ranked in the top 20 in this week’s IWLCA poll are on the Notre Dame schedule this season. The list includes No. 1 Northwestern, No. 3 Georgetown and No. 4 Duke. Those three are followed by Syracuse (No. 11), Cornell (No. 12), Vanderbilt (No. 14), James Madison (No. 18) and Stanford (No. 19). This season, the Irish are 3-1 against those teams with the lone loss to No. 1 Northwestern. Only Cornell, Loyola and Northwestern were ranked in the IWLCA poll when the Irish faced them this season. All-time, Notre Dame is 17-39 versus teams ranked in the IWCLA polls.