April 4, 2006
Notre Dame, Ind. –
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• The Game: #10/#10 Notre Dame (9-1/2-0) at Ohio State (1-8/0-1)
• Date/Time/Site: Wed., April 5, 2006 – 4:00 p.m – Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium – Columbus, Ohio
• The Game: #10/#10 Notre Dame (9-1/2-0) at #4/#4 Duke (9-1/3-1)
• Date/Time/Site: Sun., April 9, 2006 – 1:00 p.m. – Koskinen Stadium – Durham, N.C.
IRISH TAKE THE HIGHWAY TO OHIO STATE AND DUKE: Notre Dame continues its five-game road swing with a pair of games this week away from the friendly confines of Moose Krause Stadium. The 10th-ranked Irish will travel to Columbus, Ohio on Wed., April 5 to face the Ohio State Buckeyes in a 4:00 p.m. game at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. On Sunday, April 9, the Irish travel to Durham, N.C., for a 1:00 p.m. game versus the fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils. The Irish bring a 9-1 overall record to Ohio State, winning their lone game last week, a 13-9 BIG EAST decision at the University of Connecticut. Notre Dame is now 2-0 in conference action. Ohio State is 1-8 on the year but the Buckeyes are coming off their first win of the season on Sunday, April 2, a 16-5 home win over the Davidson Wildcats. Duke has been ranked among the top teams in the nation all season and brings a 9-1 record into the week that will see them face No. 1 Northwestern on Friday, April 7 and the 10th-ranked Irish on Sunday. The Blue Devils suffered their first loss of the season, an 11-10 decision to No. 6 Virginia, on Saturday, April 1 to fall from No. 2 in the country to fourth.
NOTRE DAME VERSUS OHIO STATE: Notre Dame has played Ohio State the most times in the program’s 10-year history as the two teams have already met 10 times with the Buckeyes holding a 6-4 advantage. The teams played twice in 2002 with the Irish losing a regular-season game at Ohio State before beating the Buckeyes in Notre Dame’s first-ever NCAA appearance on May 9, 2002. At Columbus, the teams have split four games. The last Irish win at Jesse Owens Stadium came on April 10, 2004, a 14-6 Irish win. Last season, the Buckeyes won a 14-10 decision in the regular-season finale at Moose Krause Stadium.
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 81-61 (.570) record at Notre Dame and is 195-87 (.691) in her 19-year coaching career. Her 2006 Irish squad started the season with a 7-0 record and is currently, 9-1 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 4-6 versus Ohio State and 1-7 against Duke in her coaching career.
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.) has been 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 10 games of the 2006 season, Notre Dame has scored 158 goals (15.80 goals per game). In five of 10 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 are fourth in the nation in goals scored (158), trailing Northwestern (168), Denver (168) and Maryland (165). In the NCAA statistics, Notre Dame ranks 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.
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST: Senior midfield/attack standout Crysti Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) has been named to the Tewaaraton Trophy watch list for the 2006 season. In 10 games this year, Foote has career highs in goals (41), assists (20) and points (61). 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.
A BIG EAST WIN AT CONNECTICUT: The Irish picked up their second BIG EAST win of the season on March 31, taking a 13-9 win at Connecticut to improve to 2-0 in the league. Crysti Foote paced the Notre Dame offense with five goals and four assists for nine points in the game. Freshman Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) added three goals and an assist while Caitlin McKinney (So., Lafayette Hill, Pa.) added a pair of goals. Midfielders Kaki Orr (Jr., Darien, Conn.) and Jane Stoeckert (Fr., Mendham, N.J.) each had a goal and an assist in the game and Mary Carpenter (So., Rochester, N.Y.) added the team’s 13th goal. The two teams traded six goals for the first 17 minutes before Foote and Byers put the Irish ahead 5-3 with 9:56 left in the first half. Connecticut’s Shannon Burke cut the lead to 5-4 before Carpenter and Stoeckert closed the scoring to make it 7-4 at halftime. In the second half, the teams again traded goals over the first 10 minutes to make it 9-7 in favor of the Irish. McKinney and Foote scored 29 seconds apart at 17:56 and 17:27 to give Notre Dame a four-goal lead at 11-7 on the way to the 13-9 final score. For the game, the Irish out shot Connecticut by a 32-22 margin. Carol Dixon (Sr., Pennsauken, N.J.) made six saves in the win for Notre Dame.
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. That gave her 45 points (33g, 12a) through the first 10 games of the season and snapped a three-way tie for the previous mark of 41 that was held by Byers, Courtney Calabrese `98 (38g, 3a) and Lael O’Shaughnessy `01 (27g, 14a). Byers needs just three more assists and six more goals this season to set the rookie mark in each of those categories. Besides the rookie point mark, Byers already set a Notre Dame freshman record for points in a game with nine points (5g, 4a) versus Lehigh. Byers had five goals and an assist in the first half and then set up three goals in the second half of the game. Byers 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) 33-12-452. Courtney Calabrese (1998) 38- 3-41 Lael O'Shaughnessy (1998) 27-14-414. Caitlin McKinney (2005) 28-12-405. Crysti Foote (2003) 27-11-38
TERRIFIC TRIO: Notre Dame’s high-scoring trio of Crysti Foote, Jill Byers and Caitlin McKinney ranks second, 13th and 26th respectively in points-per-game nationally. Through the first 10 games of the season, the trio has combined for 98 goals and 48 assists for 146 points. Foote leads the way with 41 goals and 20 assists. Byers is second with 33 tallies and 12 assists for 45 points while McKinney has 24 goals and 16 assists for 40 points. Byers and McKinney each have two game-winning goals while Foote has one on the year.
FAST START: Notre Dame’s 9-1 start is the second best start after 10 games in the program’s history. The 2004 team started the season with a school-record 10-game winning streak.
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 - 20-game streak (67-32-99)Caitlin McKinney - 13-game streak (32-17-49)Jill Byers - 10 games (33-12-45)Jane Stoeckert - 5 games (4-6-10)Heather Ferguson - 4 games (3-7-10)Meghan Murphy - 3 games (4-1-5)Kaki Orr - 2 games 5-2-7)Mary Carpenter - 2 games (2-2-4)
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 20-game streak is the fifth longest in Notre Dame history.
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 10 games this season, Foote has already recorded career highs in goals (41), assists (20) and points (61). 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 is 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. Danielle Shearer `03 1302. Crysti Foote `06 1283. Lael O'Shaughnessy `01 122
Career Points:1. Danielle Shearer `03 1962. Lael O'Shaughnessy `01 1903. Crysti Foote `06 184
Career Assists:1. Lael O'Shaughnessy `01 682. Danielle Shearer `03 663. Kerry Callahan `99 634. Crysti Foote `06 56
Career Draw Controls:1. Alissa Moser `02 1262. Tina Fedarcyk `02 963. Meredith Simon `04 914. Kathryn Lam `02 905. Crysti Foote `06 84
Single Season Goals:1. Lael O'Shaughnessy (1999) 502. Meredith Simon (2004) 463. Crysti Foote (2006) 41
Single Season Points:1. Meredith Simon (2004) 742. Lael O'Shaughnessy (1999) 693. Crysti Foote (2006) 61 Danielle Shearer (2003) 61
THE ELUSIVE ONE: Sophomore Caitlin McKinney has already equaled her point output from last season with 24 goals and 16 assists for 40 points in 10 games this season. A year ago, McKinney had 28 goals and 12 assists for 40 points in 15 games. 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.
DIXON IN GOAL: Senior goalkeeper Carol Dixon has now started 42 straight games for the Irish since taking over the goalkeeping duties in the 2004 season. In that streak, Dixon has missed just 55:38 minutes of playing time. For her career, Dixon is now 24-18 with a 9.86 goals-against average and a .477 save percentage. On the year, she is 9-1 with an 10.30 goals against and a .464 save percentage.