March 8, 2006
Notre Dame, Ind. – Freshman standout Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) continued her strong early-season play with five goals and four assists to lead the 14th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish to a 20-4 win over Lehigh Wednesday afternoon at the Loftus Center. Byers, who scored all five of her goals in the first half, led a group of nine different players with goals in the game for Notre Dame.
Senior Crysti Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) had three goals and four assists on the afternoon while Caitlin McKinney (So., Lafayette Hill, Pa.) added three goals, juniors Kaki Orr (Darien, Conn.) and Meghan Murphy (Centennial, Colo.) added a pair as did senior Brittany Fox (Baltimore, Md.). Alicia Billings (Fr., Potomac, Md.), Heather Ferguson (So., Newtown Square, Pa.) and Caitlin Lucas (So., Baldwin, N.Y.) added single goals in the win.
Lehigh got single goals from Meagan Tenety, Christy Smith, Kara Chalanick and Vienna Pharoan in the loss. The win, the fifth straight for the Irish gives them a 5-0 mark on the season while Lehigh fell to 1-2 for the year.
Notre Dame jumped out to a 13-2 lead at halftime paced by Byers five goals in the half. Her nine-point game (four assists) gives her the Irish record for points in a game by a freshman and ties a Notre Dame mark for most points in a home game. Both Lael O’Shaughnessy `01 and Kerry Callahan `99 had nine-point games (6g, 3a) at home during their Irish careers. O’Shaughnessy was the last to do it on March 28, 1999 versus Connecticut.
Byers and Foote also tied the Notre Dame mark for assists in a home game as they each had four. Ten different players hold that mark.
The Irish scored the first six goals of the game before Pharoan scored on a nice feed from Kyle Roth to cut the lead to 6-1 with 19:46 left in the half. Notre Dame would go on to score the next six goals to make it 12-1 before Kara Chalanick scored at the 9:25 mark. Foote closed out the first-half scoring with her second goal at 4:43 to make it 13-2 at the half.
For the game, Notre Dame out shot Lehigh by a 40-11 margin. Mountain Hawk goalkeeper Brittany Besler played the entire game, making eight saves on the game. The Irish split their goaltending with Carol Dixon (Sr., Pennsauken, N.J.) playing the first half, giving up two goals with two saves. Freshman Erin Goodman (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) saw her first career action in the second half and gave up two goals while making two saves.
Through the first five games of the 2006 season, Notre Dame has now scored 90 goals for an average of 18.00 goals per game, more than 4.4 goals per game more than the all-time record of 13.56 set in 1997.
With her seven-point game, Foote now has 111 goals for her career to move into third in that category all-time for the Irish. Her 50 assists rank her fourth all-time and her 161 career points move her into third on the all-time scoring list.
The Irish will close out their four-game home stand on Sunday, March 12 when they play host to the 16th-ranked James Madison Dukes at the Loftus Center. Game time is set for 12:00 noon.
IRISH NOTES:
** Crysti Foote’s eight-point (5g, 3a) first half ties a Notre Dame record for points in a half. Kerry Callahan `99 recorded eight points (5g, 3a) in the first half of a game on March 24, 1997 against Stanford.
** Notre Dame’s five-game winning streak is the longest for the Irish since opening the 2004 season with a 10-game winning streak. That team finished the year with a 12-5 record.
** The high-scoring trio of Crysti Foote (24-14-38), Jillian Byers (20-10-30) and Caitlin McKinney (13-11-24) has scored 57 goals and 35 assists for 92 points in the first five games of the season.
Game Summary: 1 2 - FLehigh (1-2) 2 2 - 4#14 Notre Dame (5-0) 13 7 - 20
SCORINGFirst Half Scoring
Team Time Score Goal AssistND 29:43 1-0 Jill Byers (16) Crysti FooteND 25:19 2-0 Caitlin McKinney (11) Jill ByersND 24:39 3-0 Kaki Orr (3) Crysti FooteND 24:11 4-0 Jill Byers (17) Kaki OrrND 22:04 5-0 Jill Byers (18)ND 21:48 6-0 Kaki Orr (4) Caitlin McKinneyLEHIGH 19:46 6-1 Vienna Pharoan (4) Kyle RothND 16:22 7-1 Meghan Murphy (5) Crysti FooteND 14:57 8-1 Caitlin McKinney (12)ND 14:08 9-1 Jill Byers (19)ND 12:50 10-1 Heather Ferguson (5) Kaki OrrND 12:39 11-1 Crysti Foote (22) Jill ByersND 11:03 12-1 Jill Byers (20) Meghan MurphyLEHIGH 9:25 12-2 Kara Chalanick (2)ND 4:43 13-2 Crysti Foote (23)
Second Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistND 27:35 14-2 Meghan Murphy (6) Jill ByersND 21:43 15-2 Crysti Foote (24) Jill ByersND 19:35 16-2 Brittany Fox (4) Crysti FooteND 16:20 17-2 Brittany Fox (5)LEHIGH 12:47 17-3 Christy Smith (2)LEHIGH 9:28 17-4 Meagan Tenety (2) Sarah MacIntyreND 5:22 18-4 Caitlin McKinney (13)ND 3:50 19-4 Alicia Billings (3) Julie FooteND 0:12 20-4 Caitlin Lucas (1) Alicia Billings
* denotes free position goal
GoalkeepersLEHIGH: Brittany Besler (60:00 min; 20 goals against, 8 saves)ND: Carol Dixon (30:00 min; 2 goals against; 2 saves) Erin Goodman (30:00 min; 2 goals against, 2 saves)
Shots On Goal: Lehigh - 11; ND - 40
Ground balls: Lehigh - 14; ND - 26
Draw Controls: Lehigh - 12; ND - 14
Caused Turnovers: Lehigh - 5; ND - 13