Notre Dame Closes Five-Game Road Swing With BIG EAST Road Game Against #7/#6 Georgetown

April 11, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

* No. 10/8 Irish Face Third Straight Ranked Opponent
* Irish 1-2 Versus Ranked Opponents This Season
* Jillian Byers becomes Notre Dame’s all-time goal-scoring leader with three goals in the upset win at Duke

* The Game: #10/#8 Notre Dame (9-4/2-1) at #7/#6 Georgetown (9-3/2-1)

* Date/Time/Site: Sat., April 12, 2008 * 1:00 p.m. * Multi-Sport Field * Washington, D.C.

* Television: Notre Dame’s game with Georgetown will be televised live by CBS College Sports with Jason Chandler handling the play-by-play duties and Sheehan Stanwick Burch the color commentary. Check your local listings for CBS College Sports.

* Internet: All Notre Dame home women’s lacrosse games can be seen live via video streaming at und.com and you can follow the Irish via GameTracker on und.com for all home games and when available.

LONG, LONG ROAD: Notre Dame closes out its five-game road swing on Saturday afternoon at Georgetown as the Irish face their second ranked opponent in as many games. Notre Dame has not played at home since Saturday, March 22 versus Loyola. The Irish are 3-1 through the first four games of the road streak and are coming off their toughest loss of the season, a 16-2 defeat, at #1/#1 Northwestern on Wednesday. Overall, Notre Dame enters the game with a 9-4 record and is 2-1 in BIG EAST play. Georgetown is 9-3 overall record and has a 2-1 mark in the BIG EAST. The Hoyas are coming off an 8-7 victory at home on Wednesday against No. 4 Virginia.

IRISH VERSUS HOYAS: Notre Dame and Georgetown have met 10 times in the series that began in 2000. The Hoyas own an 8-2 record versus the Irish but Notre Dame is 2-1 in the last three meetings. At Georgetown, the Irish are 0-4 all-time. In the last two seasons, the teams have met twice each year, once in the regular season and once in the postseason. Last year, Notre Dame won its second in a row versus the Hoyas, taking a 13-8 regular-season win on April 14. Georgetown then ended the season for the Irish in the BIG EAST Tournament with a 12-10 win at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Notre Dame’s first-ever win against Georgetown came on May 20, 2006, a 12-9 win in the NCAA Quarterfinals. Last season’s regular-season BIG EAST win over the Hoyas was Georgetown’s first-ever BIG EAST regular-season loss, snapping a 37-game BIG EAST win streak.

NEXT FOR THE IRISH: Notre Dame will return home following today’s game against Georgetown to face the Vanderbilt Commodores in a 4:30 p.m. game at School Field in South Bend. The game will be played at School Field due to construction on the Notre Dame campus that has closed Moose Krause Stadium. The Irish then close out the regular season on Sunday, April 20 when they travel to Rutgers for a 12:00 noon game.

BIG EAST TOURNAMENT FIELD: Four teams have clinched berths in the 2008 BIG EAST Tournament that will be held at Notre Dame Stadium April 25-27. Syracuse, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Rutgers will all be making their second appearances in the tournament. Only the seedings for the tournament have not been decided as each team has two conference games remaining on their schedules.

DUKE RECAP: Notre Dame won its first ever game at Durham, N.C. and beat the Duke Blue Devils for just the second time in 11 tries with a 12-8 win on April 3. Freshman Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) led the way with four goals, including the game winner early in the second half. Jillian Byers (Jr., Northport, N.Y.) added three goals and junior goalkeeper Erin Goodman (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) made 11 saves in the Irish win. Sophomore Gina Scioscia (Summit, N.J.) had a goal and three assists for four points and Caitlin McKinney (Sr., Lafayette Hill, Pa.) scored a pair with an assist. Jane Stoeckert (Jr., Mendham, N.J.) and Shannon Burke (Jr., Baltimore, Md.) each scored once for the Irish. Sarah Bullard and Emma Hamm led Duke with two goals each. The Blue Devils scored the first goal just 33 seconds into the game but would not score again for over 25 minutes as the Irish answered with five straight goals for a 5-1 lead. Duke would cut the lead to 5-3, but Blaney and Burke scored in the final three minutes of the half for a 7-3 halftime lead. The Blue Devils scored the first goal of the second half to cut the lead to three goals but Blaney answered with her third and fourth goals of the game to make it 9-4. Duke could only get it as close as four goals as each time they scored, Byers would answer, scoring the final three Notre Dame goals to wrap up the 12-8 win.

NORTHWESTERN RECAP: A five-goal effort from Northwestern’s Hilary Bowen led the way as the No. 1 Wildcats handed the Irish a 16-2 setback on the road. Heather Ferguson (Newtown Square. Pa.) and Jackie Doherty (Ellicott City, Md.) scored each of Notre Dame’s two goals. Northwestern scored the contest’s first 15 goals before Ferguson put a halt to the surge with 17:54 remaining in the second half. Following a Wildcat score, Doherty tallied the game’s final goal with 2:06 remaining. The loss ended Notre Dame’s win streak at four. Northwestern held a 28-18 advantage in shots.

HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 12th season at Notre Dame and her 21st year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 222-100 (.689) career record into today’s game against Northwestern.

On Sunday, Feb. 17, she recorded her 100th career win at Notre Dame with the 16-4 win over Duquesne. As the only head coach in the Notre Dame program’s history, Coyne is 107-74 (.591). A 1983 Ohio University graduate, Coyne recorded her 200th career win at the end of the 2006 season with a 16-8 win over Cornell in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. She has guided Notre Dame to three NCAA tournament appearances (2002, 2004, 2006), including the school’s first-ever NCAA finals appearance in 2006. In her first 20 years of coaching, Coyne was 23-5 in two seasons at Denison (1988-89), 91-21 in seven years at Roanoke (1990-96) and 98-70 in 11 seasons at Notre Dame. 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. Coyne also has coached on the international level as the head coach for the Canadian women’s lacrosse national team from 1999-2005. In June of 2005, 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 2-5 against Northwestern and 2-8 versus Georgetown in her coaching career.

RECORD SETTER: In Notre Dame’s 12-8 win over Duke, junior attack standout Jillian Byers became Notre Dame’s all-time leading goal scorer with three goals. She came into that game tied for first with Crysti Foote ’06 who had 161 in her career. Byers, who now has 52 goals on the season has 164 for her career. Foote reached her goal mark in 66 career games. Byers has her 164 goals in 48 games. The Top 10:

Goals
1. Jillian Byers (2006- ) 164
2. Crysti Foote (2003-06) 161
3. Caitlin McKinney (2005- ) 144
4. Danielle Shearer (2000-03) 130
5. Lael O’Shaughnessy (1998-01) 122
6. Meredith Simon (2001-04) 109
7. Kerry Callahan (1997-99) 83
8. Natalie Loftus (1999-02) 76
9. Courtney Calabrese (1998-99) 69
10. Alissa Moser (1999-02) 67

BLANEY’S BACK: Freshman Shaylyn Blaney had just one point over a three-game stretch from March 6 – March 13 after starting the season with 16 points in the first four games. Since being held pointless on March 13, the talented midfielder has scored 15 goals and four assists for 19 points in her last five games. In the game at Hofstra, with the Irish trailing 13-12, she scored the final two goals of the game to give Notre Dame the 14-13 win. Versus Duke, she led the way with four goals. For the year, she ranks third in scoring with 28 goals and eight assists for 36 points in 12 games.

STREAKS END AGAINST WILDCATS: Senior Caitlin McKinney had her 51-game scoring streak come to an end against Northwestern. She had extended her school-best, point-scoring streak to 51 games with two goals and an assist in the win at Duke. During her 51-game streak, McKinney scored 124 goals with 61 assists for 185 points. Her streak started during her freshman season in 2005. Going into the game with Northwestern, McKinney had the second longest point streak in the nation, trailing just Margie Curran of Vanderbilt who has scored in 54 straight games. Three other Irish players also had their scoring streaks stopped.

Jillian Byers – 29 games (120g, 19a, 139 pts.) Gina Scioscia – 9 games (11g, 19a, 30 pts.) Shaylyn Blaney – 5 games (15g, 4a, 19 pts.)

VERSUS NO. 1: Notre Dame’s game against Northwestern marked the fourth time the Irish have played the number one team in the country in the program’s 12-year history. The Irish are now 0-4 all-time versus top-ranked teams. They are 0-3 versus Northwestern. The other No. 1 team they have faced is Princeton in the 2002 NCAA Tournament.

VERSUS THE BEST: Notre Dame is 1-2 versus ranked opponents this season. The lone win was the 12-8 victory at Duke on April 3. The 2008 schedule features seven teams that are currently ranked in the April 8 IWLCA rankings. The list includes: #1 Northwestern, #5 Syracuse, #6 Georgetown, #8 Duke, #14 Vanderbilt, #17 Stanford, and #20 Oregon.

200-POINT CLUB: Junior Jillian Byers became the third player in Irish history to go over 200 points in her career with her eight-point game versus Connecticut. Byers now has 164 goals and 43 assists for 207 career points. She joins current senior Caitlin McKinney (144-72-216) who went over 200 points earlier this season and Crysti Foote ’06 who finished her career with 237 career points.

RECORDS WATCH: Caitlin McKinney and Jillian Byers continue their assaults on the Notre Dame record books this spring. The dynamic duo continues to move up the assist and points lists.

Assists
1. Crysti Foote (2003-06) 76
2. Caitlin McKinney (2005-) 72
3. Lael O’Shaughnessy (1998-01) 68
4. Danielle Shearer (2000-03) 66
Kerry Callahan (1997-99) 63
6. Meredith Simon (2001-04) 49
7. Jillian Byers (2006- ) 43
8. Natalie Loftus (1999-02) 33
9. Kathryn Perrella (1998-00) 26
10. Gina Scioscia (2006- ) 25
Eleanor Weille (2000-03) 25

Points
1. Crysti Foote (2003-06) 237
2. Caitlin McKinney (2005- ) 216
3. Jillian Byers (2006- ) 207
4. Danielle Shearer (2000-03) 196
5. Lael O’Shaughnessy (1998-01) 190
6. Meredith Simon (2001-04) 158
7. Kerry Callahan (1997-99) 146
8. Natalie Loftus (1999-02) 109
9. Lauren Fischer (2001-04) 85
Alissa Moser (1999-02) 85

PASSING FANCY: Sophomore Gina Scioscia ranks fourth on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 21 assists for 33 points this season. As a freshman, she recorded just four goals and four assists for eight points last season. She now has points in nine of her last ten games and that includes three, five-point games. Scioscia has recorded three or more assists in a game four times this season, including a five-assist game on March 13 versus Delaware. With three assists against Duke, she has moved into the Notre Dame Top 10 with 25 career assists.

MORE BYERS: Jillian Byers started the week, second in the nation in goals with 52 and trails Mt. St. Mary’s Katelyn Catanese (54) by two. Emily Bonczek of LaSalle is third with 48 and Lehigh’s Lauren Dykstra is fourth with 47. In points, Byers is second in the nation with 63 and trails only Syracuse’s Katie Rowan who has 80 points on the year. She is the first player in Notre Dame history to record three 50-goal seasons.

DRAWING THINGS OUT: Jillian Byers and junior defender Shannon Burke have become Notre Dame’s top draw control specialists through the first 13 games of the season. Byers already has a career best mark of 38 draw controls while Burke has passed her career high with 32 this season. With 85 career draw controls, Byers is now seventh on the all-time list while Burke, with 71, is 10th all-time.

BIG EAST PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Notre Dame has seen two of its players selected as BIG EAST offensive and defensive players of the week over the past three weeks. Junior attack Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) was named BIG EAST offensive player of the week for the week ending March 30 and freshman midfielder Kailene Abt (Huntington, N.Y.) was the BIG EAST defensive player of the week for March 23. Byers took honors last week by scoring 11 goals with two assists for 13 points in wins over Hofstra and Connecticut. She had four goals with one assist in the 14-13 win over Hofstra and then equaled her season best with an eight-point game (7g, 1a) in the 18-11 win at Connecticut. She had one ground ball, seven draw controls and one caused turnover in the two games. Abt took defensive honors the previous week, playing a key role off the bench in the 13-10 win over Loyola (Md.).

In that game, Abt scored a goal, caused four turnovers, had two ground balls and two draw controls as the Irish limited the Greyhounds to just four second-half goals in the game.

OVERTIME NUMBERS: Notre Dame’s overtime game with Syracuse on March 13 was the 14th overtime contest in the program’s 12-year history. In those games, the Irish are now 6-8. Last year, the Irish were 2-0 in overtime, taking a triple-overtime win versus James Madison (10-9) in the season opener on Feb. 18. In the second game of the year, on Feb. 24, at home, Notre Dame pulled off a 12-11 double overtime win against Stanford. In one-goal games, the Irish are 7-3 over the last two seasons and 14-17 in the program’s history.

SETTING THE MARK: Gina Scioscia cleared up some space in the Notre Dame record books with her five-assist game versus Delaware on March 13. The five assists is the most by an Irish player in a home game and breaks a mark held by 12 different players, including current teammates Caitlin McKinney and Jillian Byers. McKinney was the last to do it, getting four helpers on April 14, 2007 at Moose Krause Stadium against Georgetown. Scioscia shared the wealth, setting up four different players – Byers, Beth Koloup, McKinney (twice) and Kailene Abt. She had two in the first half and three in the second. Koloup’s goal was the first of the junior’s career. The Notre Dame record for assists in a game is six and was set by Kerry Callahan ’99 on March 17, 1999 against Gannon.

HOME SWEET HOME: The loss to Syracuse on March 16 dropped the Irish to 3-1 on the year at home in the Loftus Center. Last season, Notre Dame was 6-3 at home, going 3-2 at the Loftus Sports Center and 3-1 at Moose Krause Stadium. In 2006, the Irish were 9-0 at home and are now 18-4 (.818) between the Loftus Center and Moose Krause Stadium over the last three years.

MAKING THE STOPS: Junior goaltender Erin Goodman has picked up nine wins this season, giving her 20 for her career. That total ranks her third all-time at Notre Dame in career wins. In 2007, she was 11-6 overall record and a 10.32 goals-against average and a .444 save percentage. She finished just one win behind Carol Dixon ’06 for the most wins by an Irish goalkeeper in her first year as a starter as Dixon had 12 in 2004. Goodman set a BIG EAST record on March 25, 2007 when she held Loyola (Md.) to just one goal in an 11-1 Irish win, setting the league mark for the fewest goals given up in a game.

Goodman now has four games in her career with 14 saves – vs. Cornell (13-7 win), vs. Yale (9-7 win) and against Loyola (11-1 win) last season and on March 13 versus Delaware. As a junior, Goodman is 9-4 with a 10.78 goals-against average and a .478 save percentage.

GETTING INTO THE ACT: Senior attack Heather Ferguson (Newtown Square, Pa.) is in the midst of a strong senior season that has her ranked fifth in scoring on the team with 11 goals and 10 assists for 21 points. Her point total is the second best mark in her career.

Versus California on March 8, she equaled her single-game assist and points marks with a goal and three assists for four points. Against Delaware, Ferguson equaled her single-game marks for goals (3) and points (4) while chipping in another assist for four goals and four assists for eight points in the two games.

SCORING BY CLASS:

FIRST TIMERS: Two Notre Dame players recorded the first goals of their careers in the games against Delaware and Syracuse. In the March 13 game against the Blue Hens, junior midfielder Beth Koloup scored her first career goal after being set up by Gina Scioscia to give the Irish a 6-0 lead in the first half. On March 16 against Syracuse, Maggie Zentgraf came off the bench to get her first career goal in the second half, converting a Scioscia pass with 13:33 left for a 12-11 lead. Another first came against Delaware with Shannon Burke had the first two-goal game of her career.

CLOSE ONES: The 14-13 loss to Oregon on March 6 with three seconds left marked the second one-goal loss in a row for the Irish with less than 10 seconds left. The last one-goal loss came on April 21, 2007, an 8-7 loss to Rutgers that saw the Scarlet Knights score with 8.8 seconds left. The Irish broke that streak with the 14-13 win over Hofstra on March 25. Notre Dame is now 1-1 on the year in one-goal games and 15-17 all-time in one-goal games.

FIELD OF DREAMS: Arlotta Stadium will become the new home of the Notre Dame men’s and women’s lacrosse programs upon completion in June of 2009. Construction of the facility will begin in August of 2008. Conceptual plans suggest a 2,000 seat, lighted stadium that would include an artificial-turf field, locker rooms, restrooms and concession areas. The state-of-the-art facility is named after Notre Dame graduate John Arlotta, president and chief executive officer of Denver-based Coram, Inc. He and his wife, Bobbie, pledged the lead gift toward the stadium that will be built to the east of the Joyce Center as part of the University’s new athletics quadrangle. The Arlotta children – Mindy, Andy and Jon – have pledged and additional gift from the Arlotta Family Foundation toward the project. In addition to their generous donation, alumni and friends of the lacrosse programs have donated over two million dollars.

HISTORIC STADIUMS: During the 2008 women’s lacrosse season, Notre Dame will play in two of college football’s most historic stadiums. On March 8, the Irish will face California, in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. They will follow that up by hosting the 2008 BIG EAST Championship at Notre Dame Stadium, home of the Fighting Irish football team. That will occur on April 25 and 27 should the Irish make the conference tourney. The tournament will be held at Notre Dame Stadium due to construction on the Irish campus.

OUTDOING THE OPPOSITION: Through the first 12 games of the 2008 season, Notre Dame has out shot the opposition by a 420-312 margin or 35.0 to 26.0. The Irish have also outscored opponents by a 178-126 advantage – 14.83 goals-per-game to 10.50 per game.

RANCK AND FILE: Senior defender Becky Ranck (Radnor, Pa.) is tied for the team lead in caused turnovers with Shannon Burke as each have 20 on the season. Caitlin McKinney is third with 19 on the year. As a team, the Irish have caused 149 turnovers while the opposition has just 81.

BAD NEWS BILLINGS: Junior Alicia Billings (Potomac, Md.) has seven goals on the season, giving her a new career high in that department. For the season, Billings has seven goals and two assists for nine points on the year. Earlier this season, she had a six-game point scoring streak.

DOUBLE-DIGIT WINS: With 11 wins during the 2007 season, Notre Dame recorded back-to-back double-digit win seasons for the second time in the program’s history and the first time since winning 10 in 2001 and 13 in 2002. Over the last three seasons, Notre Dame has a 35-13 (.729) record.

PRESEASON HONORS: Senior midfielder Caitlin McKinney and junior attack standout Jillian Byers have been named to the Tewaaraton Trophy preseason “Watch List.” They also were selected preseason All-Americans by Inside Lacrosse on Feb. 19. The dynamic duo were unanimous preseason all-BIG EAST selections earlier this winter. Both have gotten off to fast starts in the first three games of the season. Byers has 15 goals and two assists for 17 points while McKinney has eight goals and three assists for 11 points.

TOP-RANKED PLAYERS: Senior midfielder Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) and junior attack standout Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) have been ranked among the top 20 players by Inside Lacrosse magazine in its preseason edition. McKinney, a two-time All-American was ranked as the 14th best player in the country. Byers, also a two-time All-American, was ranked as the ninth-best player in the nation by the magazine. Both players also have been selected as unanimous preseason all-BIG EAST selections in voting by the league’s coaches.

THE CAPTAINS: Seniors Caitlin McKinney and Becky Ranck (Radnor, Pa.) have been selected team captains for the 2008 season. McKinney was second on the team in scoring last year with 44 goals and 21 assists for 65 points and was a second team IWLCA All-American. Ranck is the leader of the Notre Dame defense and a three-time monogram winner during her career. In three seasons, she played in 47 career games with 46 ground balls, 29 draw controls and 54 caused turnovers in her career.

CAREER FIRSTS: Several veteran Notre Dame players scored career firsts in the wins against Canisius and Duquesne. Junior defensive midfielder Shannon Burke scored her first career goal with 14:38 left in the second half of the win against Canisius. Fellow junior Lauren deMello (Manlius, N.Y.) picked up her first career goal when she scored with 4:09 left in the win versus Duquesne. Sophomore goalkeeper Amy Winik (Freehold, N.J.) made her first appearance in goal, playing 8:52 versus Duquesne, making one save and giving up one goal. Beth Koloup (Phoenix, Md.) scored the first goal of her career on March 13 versus Delaware. The goal came in the midfielder’s 17th career game and seventh career start.

USA…USA…USA: Notre Dame freshman Shaylyn Blaney helped the U.S. Under-19 team win the gold medal at the Under-19 World Championships this past summer. The three-time U.S. Lacrosse high school All-American scored 16 goals with one assist for 17 points in six games to help the U.S. team to the gold medal. Blaney became the first Notre Dame player to play on the Under-19 team since Kelly McCardell ’03, was a member of the 1999 Under-19 team. Fellow freshmen Kailene Abt (Huntington, N.Y.) and Lauren Fenlon (Dayton, Md.) were alternates for the Under-19 team.

BIG EAST SCHOLAR ATHLETE: Senior midfield/attack standout Caitlin McKinney has been selected as Notre Dame’s female BIG EAST/Aeropostale Scholar-Athlete Award winner. She received the honor along with baseball player Brett Lilley and will receive a $2,000 award toward graduate studies. McKinney owns a 3.522 grade-point average with a double major in sociology and film, television and theatre at Notre Dame. A two-time IWLCA All-American, McKinney was selected to the IWLCA academic honor roll following the 2007 season.

WELCOME BACK: Head coach Tracy Coyne welcomed a new assistant coach to her staff during the summer, but she is no stranger to Irish women’s lacrosse fans. Former Notre Dame standout Meredith Simon ’04 joined Coyne’s staff on July 18 after three seasons at Towson University. Simon replaces another former Irish player, Alissa Moser ’02, who was married over the summer and is now attending law school. With the Irish, Simon will work with the Irish attack on a daily basis while assisting with recruiting and team travel in addition to the day-to-day office operations. While at Notre Dame as a player (2000-04), Simon became the school’s first-ever, first-team IWLCA All-American as she set a then-Notre Dame single-season scoring mark with 74 points on 46 goals and 28 assists while leading the Irish to the NCAA tournament in 2004. During that season, Simon also became the first Notre Dame player to be a Tewaaraton Trophy nominee as the top player in the nation. A two-time first team All-BIG EAST selection (2003, 2004), Simon was the BIG EAST co-attack player of the year in 2004. A team captain as a senior, Simon finished her Notre Dame career ranked first in games played (64), third in goals (109), fourth in assists (49), third in points (158), fourth in ground balls (123) and third in draw controls (91). She ended her career with the fifth-longest point-scoring streak in the program’s history as she scored in 28 straight games, recording 68 goals and 35 assists for 103 points between March 25, 2003 and May 13, 2004.

During her career, Simon was a member of Notre Dame’s first two NCAA tournament teams in 2002 and 2004.

SECOND TIME AROUND: Also rejoining the Notre Dame coaching staff as a volunteer assistant coach is former All-American Kathryn Lam ’02. Currently working as an executive assistant in the Dean’s Office of the Graduate School, Lam last served as a volunteer assistant in 2006 when the Irish advanced to the Final Four. The first All-American, along with Danielle Shearer ’03, in the program’s history in 2002, Lam will work with the Notre Dame defense.

SISTER ACTS: Notre Dame has had eight sets of sisters in the program’s 12-year history and has one sister duo on this year’s team. In fact, this year’s sister tandem are twins – seniors Heather and Lindsey Ferguson (Newtown Square, Pa.). Three other members of this year’s team have sisters who played at Notre Dame. Senior Julie Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) was preceded by her sister, Crysti ’06 while junior Lauren deMello (Manlius, N.Y.) was preceeded by her sister Meghan ’06 and sophomore Maggie Zentgraf (Charlottesville, Va.) follows her sister, Lena ’07. Other sister duos to play for the Irish include: Kelly and Kristen Gaudreau ’04, Carol ’06 and Angela ’03 Dixon and Mary ’06 and Annemarie McGrath. The sisters that started the tradition are Amy (’98) and Mara (’98) Grace who played in 1997 and 1998.

NEW KIDS: Head coach Tracy Coyne announced in December that six high school lacrosse players had signed national letters-of-intent to attend Notre Dame in the fall of 2008. Joining the Irish next fall are:

ALL-AMERICANS: The 2007 season saw two members of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team acheive All-American status. Then junior Caitlin McKinney and then-sophomore Jillian Byers were both named second team IWLCA All-Americans. For both players it marked the second time in their careers that they achieved All-American status.

Both players also became the first two players in Irish history to be named to the Inside Lacrosse and womenslacrosse.com All-American teams twice in their careers. Byers led the Irish in scoring with 58 goals and eight assists for 66 points while McKinney was second with 44 goals and 21 assists for 65 points. In 2006, Byers was a second team pick while McKinney took third team honors. They are the eighth and ninth IWCLA All-Americans at Notre Dame.

2006 – Crysti Foote (first team)
2006 – Jillian Byers (second team)
2006 – Caitlin McKinney (third team)
2005 – Crysti Foote (third team)
2004 – Meredith Simon (first team)
2004 – Andrea Kinnik (second team)
2004 – Abby Owen (third team)
2003 – Jen White (third team)
2002 – Kathryn Lam (second team)
2002 – Danielle Shearer (second team)

SEASON-BY-SEASON: Notre Dame women’s lacrosse in its first 12 seasons.

        Overall        BIG EAST1997    5-4            ----1998    7-6             ----1999    9-6             ----2000    5-10                ----2001    10-5               4-2, tie 2nd2002    13-5               5-1, 2nd2003      8-7              4-2, 3rd2004    12-5               4-2, 2nd2005      3-12             1-4, 4th2006    15-4               4-1, 2nd2007    11-6               3-2, 4th2008      9-4              2-1Totals    107-74, .591       27-15, .643

NEXT FOR THE IRISH: Following today’s game, Notre Dame returns home to face Vanderbilt on on Wed., April 16 at 4:30 p.m.