April 8, 2008
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format 
• The Game: #10/#8 Notre Dame (9-3) at #1/#1 Northwestern (11-0)
• Date/Time/Site: Wed., April 9, 2008 • 6:00 p.m. (CT) • Lakeside Field • Evanston, Ill.
• The Game: #10/#8 Notre Dame (9-3/2-1) at #7/#6 Georgetown (8-3/2-1)
• 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 this week with a pair of games against nationally ranked opponents. On Wednesday, April 9, the Irish travel to Evanston, Ill., to face number-one ranked Northwestern in a 6:00 p.m. (CT) game at Lakeside Field. They then conclude the trip with an important BIG EAST Conference game at seventh-ranked Georgetown on Saturday, April 12 at 1:00 p.m. at the Hoyas’ Multi-Sport Field. Notre Dame has not played at home since Saturday, March 22 versus Loyola. The Irish are 3-0 through the first three games of the road streak and are coming off their biggest win of the season, a 12-8 victory, at #7/#7 Duke last Thursday. Overall, Notre Dame enters the week with a 9-3 record and is 2-1 in BIG EAST play. Northwestern will bring an 11-0 mark into Wednesday’s game after rallying on Saturday for a 15-11 win at Duke. The Wildcats outscored the Blue Devils, 9-3, in the second half to pull out the win. They now have won a school-record, 32 games in a row. Georgetown starts the week with an 8-3 overall record and a 2-1 mark in the BIG EAST. The Hoyas are coming off an 18-3 loss at Syracuse last Saturday. They will play host to No. 4 Virginia on Wednesday before meeting Notre Dame on Saturday.
NOTRE DAME VS. NORTHWESTERN: The two Midwest rivals have met seven times in the all-time series with the Wildcats holding a 5-2 edge since the start of the series in 2002. Northwestern has won the last five meetings since the 2004 season. At Northwestern, the Wildcats are 3-1 against the Irish. Notre Dame’s last win in the series came on April 26, 2003, a 13-9 win at Moose Krause Stadium. The last time the Irish won at Northwestern was April 25, 2002.
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 this week’s games 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.
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IRISH TO HOST 2008 BIG EAST TOURNAMENT Notre Dame will play host to the 2008 BIG EAST Tournament, April 25-27 with the games to be played at Notre Dame Stadium. The conferences top four teams will meet in the historic stadium in two semifinal games on Friday, April 25. Game one begins at 5:30 p.m. with the second game starting 45 minutes after the end of game one. The championship game is set for Sunday, April 27 with the time to be determined. This will be the first women’s varsity event ever held in Notre Dame Stadium.
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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.
HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 12th season at Notre Dame and her 21st year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 222-99 (.692) career record into this week’s games with 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 107-73 (.594). 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 Georgetown, 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:
Goals1. Jillian Byers (2006- ) 1642. Crysti Foote (2003-06) 1613. Caitlin McKinney (2005- ) 1444. Danielle Shearer (2000-03) 1305. Lael O'Shaughnessy (1998-01) 1226. Meredith Simon (2001-04) 1097. Kerry Callahan (1997-99) 838. Natalie Loftus (1999-02) 769. Courtney Calabrese (1998-99) 6910. 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.
ON A ROLL: Senior Caitlin McKinney 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 has 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 has the second longest point streak in the nation, trailing just Margie Curran of Vanderbilt who has scored in 54 straight games. Here are other Irish players in the midst of scoring streak.
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 has only played the number one team in the country three times in the program’s 12-year history and is 0-3 in those games. Twice the Irish have faced Northwestern when the Wildcats were ranked No. 1. The other No. 1 team they faced was Princeton in the 2002 NCAA Tournament.
VERSUS THE BEST: The win over Duke last week (4/3) improved Notre Dame to 1-1 versus nationally ranked teams this season. This week, the Irish will face two ranked teams in #1/#1 Northwestern and #7/#6 Georgetown. 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.
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 her last nine 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 12 games of the season. Byers already has a career best mark of 37 draw controls while Burke has passed her career high with 32 this season. With 84 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.