April 14, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. –
The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team did something on Saturday afternoon at Moose Krause Stadium that had never been done in the seven-year history of the BIG EAST Conference. The Irish defeated the Georgetown, 13-8, handing the Hoyas their first BIG EAST regular season loss ever, snapping a 37-game win streak that started in 2001.
Nine different players scored for the Irish led by junior Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) with a five-point game on a goal and a career-high four assists and sophomore Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) scored three times in the Notre Dame win.
Kaki Orr (Sr., Darien, Conn.) and Jane Stoeckert (So., Mendham, N.J.) each had two goals while Meghan Murphy (Sr., Centennial, Colo.), Lena Zentgraf (Sr., Charlottesville, Va.), Mary Carpenter (Jr., Rochester, N.Y.), Heather Ferguson (Jr., Newtown Square, Pa.) and Alicia Billings (So., Potomac, Md.) rounded out Notre Dame’s scoring.
Ashby Kaestner led Georgetown with three goals while Coco Stanwick, Bunny O’Reilly, Brittany Baschuk, Laura Cipro and Zan Morley had one goal each for the Hoyas.
The victory improved Notre Dame to 11-3 overall and 3-1 in BIG EAST play. Georgetown falls to 7-6 on the season and 3-1 in conference play. Both teams have clinched a spot in the BIG EAST Tournament with the final seedings yet to be determined. The Irish and Hoyas are tied for first with Syracuse, as each team is 3-1. Notre Dame closes the regular season with Rutgers next Saturday while Syracuse faces Loyola and Georgetown plays on Sunday against Connecticut.
The win for the Irish against Georgetown was the second in as many meetings, but the first in BIG EAST play. Last year, the Irish defeated the Hoyas in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, 12-9, on May 20 to advance to the finals. The Hoyas have won seven of the nine all-time meetings.
It took just 57 seconds for the Irish to take their first lead in the game when McKinney set up Stoeckert for her first goal of the afternoon at the 57-second mark.
The lead lasted for over three minutes before Kaestner scored at the 4:07 mark to tie the game at 1-1. She would collect the next two goals over a 2:21 span for the first hat trick of her career, giving Georgetown a 3-1 lead at the 23:34 mark.
The Hoya lead would remain at two goals until the 16:20 mark of the half when Byers converted a feed from McKinney to make it 3-2. Orr would tie the game with her first of the game less than four minutes later at 12:39 for a 3-3 score.
A free-position shot by O’Reilly at 10:10 gave the Hoyas their last lead of the day at 4-3. From there, Notre Dame ran off the final three goals of the first half.
Carpenter tied the game with 6:09 left in the half whipping a shot past Hoya goalkeeper Maggie Koch off a nice set up by Zentgraf. Stoeckert’s free-position goal with 4:49 left in the half was her second of the game and gave the Irish a 5-4 lead. Byers closed the half with her second goal of the game with 3:40 left to give Notre Dame a two-goal lead at 6-4.
Byers’ goal was the 100th of her Notre Dame career in just her 33rd career game and makes her the quickest player to reach 100 goals in her Irish career.
The Irish picked up where they left off at the start of the second half when Billings converted McKinney’s third assist of the game in front of Koch just 20 seconds into the half to make it 7-4.
Stanwick, Georgetown’s leading scorer on the year, got her lone goal of the game at 27:11 to end the four-goal Irish run to make it 7-5. Byers (23:27) and Baschuk (16:48) traded goals to make it 8-6 before the Irish scored three straight to put the game away.
Murphy scored off a McKinney feed with 13:20 left to make it 9-6. Zentgraf and Orr teamed up with 11:58 left as Orr found Zentgraf moving in front for Zentraf’s third point of the game, giving the Irish a 10-6 lead. Heather Ferguson, who had five draw controls in the game, made it 11-6 with just 8:10 left in the contest.
Morley scored her 12th of the year with 7:10 left for Georgetown before McKinney and Orr closed out the Irish scoring with goals with 3:36 and 1:29 left to build the lead to 13-7.
Cipro closed the scoring with 26 seconds left when she went the length of the field from her defensive spot, beating Erin Goodman (So., Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) to the stick side for her first goal of the season and the final of 13-8.
The Irish defense did a great job shutting down the Hoyas’ attack, holding them to just 22 shots in the game. Goodman finished the day with five saves for Notre Dame while Koch had nine saves for Georgetown.
Notre Dame returns to action on Wednesday, April 18 when the Irish travel to Vanderbilt for a 4:00 p.m. (CST) game before closing the regular season on April 21 versus Rutgers in a 3:00 p.m. game.
IRISH NOTES:
** With her five-point game (1g, 4a), junior Caitlin McKinney extended her personal scoring streak to 36 consecutive games, tying a Notre Dame record held by Danielle Shearer `03. Shearer scored in 36 straight games between April 25, 2001 and May 1, 2003, getting 85 goals and 51 assists for 136 points. McKinney’s streak started on April 24, 2005 as a freshman and she has 86 goals and 43 assists for 129 points in her streak.
** Notre Dame’s 13-8 win over No. 9 Georgetown is the first win this season for the Irish against a top 10 team. They are now 6-3 against ranked teams.
** With two draw controls in the game, senior Kaki Orr (Darien, Conn.) tied Notre Dame’s single-season draw control record. She now has 44 and tied the mark set last season by Crysti Foote `06.
** With 11 wins this season, Erin Goodman is just one off the Notre Dame mark for wins by a goalkeeper in her first year as a starter. Carol Dixon `05 had 12 in 2004, her first year as a starter for the Irish.
Game Summary 1 2 - F#9 Georgetown (7-6/3-1) 4 4 - 8#11 Notre Dame (11-3/3-1) 6 7 - 13
First-Half ScoringTime Team Score Goal Assist29:03 ND 1-0 Jane Stoeckert (16) Caitlin McKinney (7)25:53 GU 1-1 Ashby Kaestner (5)24:45 GU 1-2 Ashby Kaestner (6)23:34 GU 1-3 Ashby Kaestner (7)16:20 ND 2-3 Jillian Byers (45) Caitlin McKinney (8)12:39 ND 3-3 Kaki Orr (13)10:10 GU 3-4 * Bunny O'Reilly (18) Free-position shot 6:09 ND 4-4 Mary Carpenter (9) Lena Zentgraf (16) 4:49 ND 5-4 * Jane Stoeckert (17) Free-position shot 3:40 ND 6-4 Jillian Byers (46) Lena Zentgraf (17)
Second-Half ScoringTime Team Score Goal Assist29:40 ND 7-4 Alicia Billings (6) Caitlin McKinney (9)27:11 GU 7-5 Coco Stanwick (41) Megan Bloomer (2)23:27 ND 8-5 Jillian Byers (47)16:48 GU 8-6 Brittany Baschuk (23)13:20 ND 9-6 Meghan Murphy (18) Caitlin McKinney (10)11:58 ND 10-6 Lena Zentgraf (16) Kaki Orr (8) 8:10 ND 11-6 Heather Ferguson (9) Jane Stoeckert (13) 7:10 GU 11-7 Zan Morley (12) 3:36 ND 12-7 Caitlin McKinney (36) 1:29 ND 13-7 Kaki Orr (14) 0:26 GU 13-8 Laura Cipro (1)
* Free-position goal
Goalkeepers GU - Maggie Koch (60:00 min; 13 goals, 9 saves)Notre Dame - Erin Goodman (60:00 min; 8 goals, 5 saves)
Shots: GU - 22; ND - 30Ground Balls: GU - 25; ND - 17Draw Controls: GU - 11; ND - 12Caused Turnovers: GU - 11; ND - 14