March 25, 2006
Notre Dame, Ind. – The 10th-ranked Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team bounced back from its first loss of the season on Saturday afternoon to hand the Canisius Golden Griffins and 18-2 loss at Moose Krause Stadium.
The Irish got goals from 10 different players in the victory as they jumped out to an 11-2 lead at halftime and then kept Canisius off the scoreboard in the second half in a game played on a cold, windy day with snow and sleet mixed in for good measure.
Junior midfielder Kaki Orr (Darien, Conn.) and sophomore Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) led the way with five point games. For Orr, her four goals and five points were career highs while McKinney turned in her fifth game of the year with five or more points.
Joining Orr with a career-high day was sophomore attack Heather Ferguson (Newtown Square, Pa.) who scored once and added a personal-best three assists for the first four-point game of her career.
Junior Meghan Murphy (Centennial, Colo.) added three goals on the afternoon while Jillian Byers (Fr., Northport, N.Y.) had two goals and Alicia Billings (Fr., Potomac, Md.), Mary Carpenter (So., Rochester, N.Y.), Crysti Foote (Sr., Suffern, N.Y.), Jane Stoeckert (Fr., Mendham, N.J.) and Brittany Fox (Sr., Annapolis, Md.) added single goals. Carpenter and Stoeckert also had two assists each in the game.
Canisius scored both its goals in the first half with Whitney Card and Erica Nasca each getting a goal and an assist. The two goals surrendered by the Irish equals a Notre Dame mark for the fewest goals given up in a game.
The win improves Notre Dame to 8-1 on the season while Canisius falls to 5-4 overall.
The Golden Griffins jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 24 seconds into the game when Nasca controlled the opening draw and raced down the middle of the field, feeding Card in front where she beat Notre Dame goalkeeper Carol Dixon (Sr., Pennsauken, N.J.) in close. From there though, the Irish scored 18 of the final 19 goals in the game.
Orr got the Notre Dame offense started with the first of her two goals 1:43 apart at 29:14 and 27:31 to make it 2-1 in favor of the Irish. The game would stay that way until the 17:00 mark when McKinney scored off a feed from Kerry Van Shura (Sr., Bel Air, Md.) for the eventual game-winning goal.
Byers would score her two goals 41 seconds apart at 14:13 and 13:32 to make it 5-1. The freshman now has 30 goals and 11 assists on the year for 41 points. That ties the Irish freshman scoring record that was set by Courtney Calabrese `99 and Lael O’Shaughnessy `01 as each had 41 points in their rookie years. Byers is now eight goals off Calabrese’s rookie mark of 38 goals in her first season.
After Stoeckert scored at 13:32, Canisius broke the Irish scoring run with a goal by Nasca that was set up by Card with 12:45 left in the half. Notre Dame would run off the final five goals of the half for an 11-2 lead at halftime and then scored all seven of the goals scored in the second half for the 18-2 win.
On the game, Notre Dame out shot the Golden Griffins by a 38-7 margin. Dixon, making her 41st consecutive start for the Irish, played 47:42 minutes, giving up two goals with two saves. Freshman Erin Goodman (Cortlandt Park, N.Y.) played the final 12:18, but made no saves.
Rasheeda Brenston started for Canisius and played the firs 43:48 of the game. She gave up 17 goals while making six saves. Katie Ferguson closed out the final 16:12, giving up one goal with two saves.
Notre Dame returns to BIG EAST play on Friday, March 31 when the Irish travel to Storrs, Conn., to face the Connecticut Huskies in a 1:00 p.m. game. The Irish are 1-0 in BIG EAST play this season.
IRISH NOTES:
** The 18 goals in the game give Notre Dame 145 in the first nine games of the season for 16.11 per game. That is the second-best goals-per-game mark in the nation behind Northwestern’s 17.33 per game. Last season, the Irish scored 145 goals in 15 games for a 9.67 average per game.
** Canisius held Crysti Foote to a season-low one goal in the game. The goal was the 123rd of Foote’s career and moved her ahead of Lael O’Shaughnessy `01 into second on Notre Dame’s all-time goals list. Foote has now scored in 19 consecutive games (62-28-90) dating back to last season.
Game Summary
1 2 - FCanisius College (5-4) 2 0 - 2#10 Notre Dame (8-1) 11 7 - 18
First-Half ScoringTime Team Score Goal Assist29:36 CC 0-1 Whitney Card (22) Erica Nasca29:14 ND 1-1 Kaki Orr (8) Heather Ferguson27:31 ND 2-1 * Kaki Orr (9) Free-position shot17:00 ND 3-1 Caitlin McKinney (20) Kerry Van Shura15:49 ND 4-1 * Jillian Byers (29) Free-position shot14:13 ND 5-1 Jillian Byers (30) Heather Ferguson13:32 ND 6-1 Jane Stoeckert (6) Mary Carpenter12:45 CC 6-2 Erica Nasca (15) Whitney Card 7:38 ND 7-2 Mary Carpenter (7) 6:24 ND 8-2 Meghan Murphy (10) Mary Carpenter 4:33 ND 9-2 Caitlin McKinney (21) Heather Ferguson 1:50 ND 10-2 Alicia Billings (5) Kaki Orr 0:17 ND 11-2 Meghan Murphy (11) Caitlin McKinney
Second-Half ScoringTime Team Score Goal Assist28:12 ND 12-2 Heather Ferguson (8)26:35 ND 13-2 Crysti Foote (36) Caitlin McKinney24:33 ND 14-2 Kaki Orr (10)21:46 ND 15-2 Caitlin McKinney (22) Jane Stoeckert20:31 ND 16-2 Meghan Murphy (12) Jane Stoeckert16:12 ND 17-2 Kaki Orr (11) Alicia Billings12:18 ND 18-2 Brittany Fox (6)
* Free-position goal
GoalkeepersCanisius College - Rasheeda Brenton (43:38 min.; 17 goals, 6 saves) Katie Ferguson (16:12 min.; 1 goal, 2 saves)Notre Dame - Carol Dixon (47:42 min.; 2 goals, 2 saves) Erin Goodman (12:18 min.; 0 goals, 0 saves)
Shots: CC - 7; ND - 38Ground Balls: CC - 16; ND - 25Draw Controls: CC - 9; ND - 13Caused Turnovers: CC - 11; ND - 21