April 8, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team won a pair of road games over the weekend with a 15-9 win at Villanova and an 11-4 win at Pennsylvania. The 6-2 Irish will return to action with a pair of home games at Moose Krause Stadium against Davidson on Fri., April 9 at 7:00 p.m. and against Denver on Sun., April 11 at 1:00 p.m. Notre Dame then hits the road for a game at 17th-ranked Vanderbilt on Tues., April 13 at 3:00 p.m.
UP NEXT FOR THE IRISH: Notre Dame returns home for a pair of games against Davidson and Denver this weekend before traveling to 17th-ranked Vanderbilt on Tues., April 13. Davidson currently has a 5-7 record following a 10-9 win over Richmond on April 3, while Denver is 4-6. Notre Dame has played Davidson and Denver both of the last two years. The Irish lost to Davidson 21-8 in 1997 but beat the Wildcats 18-11 last year. Lauren Kenchington leads Davidson with 27 goals and 16 assists, while Linda Rothemund has 26 goals and 21 assists. Notre Dame has won both meetings with Denver, winning 15-4 in ’97 and 19-5 in ’98.
Vanderbilt has won both meetings with the Irish with a 20-13 win in ’97 and a 19-6 win in ’98 and currently has a 4-6 record following three straight one-goal losses to ranked teams. The Commodores will travel to fourth-ranked Virginia on Sun., April 11 before facing Notre Dame. The potent pair of sophomore April Tellam and senior Kristin Ehst lead Vanderbilt offensively. Tellam has 28 goals and 19 assists while Ehst leads the team with 29 goals.
VILLANOVA RECAP: Notre Dame scored five goals in the first seven minutes of the game and held a 7-2 lead at halftime as the Irish beat Villanova 15-9 on Saturday at Villanova Stadium. Sophomore Lael O’Shaughnessy (Alexandria, Va.) poured in a game-high six goals for the second straight game to lead the Irish. The Irish held only a two-shot advantage over Villanova, 34-32, but sophomore goalie Carrie Marshall (Colorado Springs, Colo.) came up with a season-high 16 saves in net for Notre Dame, which converted on 15 of its 34 shots. The Irish controlled 14 of the 12 draws and collected 18 groundballs to Villanova’s 17.
Freshman Katherine Scarola (Windsor, Conn.), making her first career start, sparked the Irish early on as she had two assists in the first 2:02 of the game to give Notre Dame a 2-0 lead. Villanova scored its first goal to cut the Irish lead to 3-1 but Notre Dame used a pair of goals by sophomore Kathryn Perrella (Valley Cottage, N.Y.) and goals by O’Shaughnessy and senior Kerry Callahan (Churchville, Pa.) to build a 7-1 lead late in the first half. Villanova senior Meghan Doyle, sister of Irish sophomore Maura Doyle (Cockeysville, Md.), netted the first of her five goals at the end of the first half as Notre Dame led 7-2 at halftime. The Wildcats scored four of the first six goals of the second half cut the lead to 9-6 but Maura Doyle answered with two goals in the next 1:27 to put the Irish ahead 11-6.
PENNSYLVANIA RECAP: The Irish opened with four goals in the first eight minutes and built an 8-2 lead in the first half on their way to an 11-4 win over Pennsylvania on Monday night at Franklin Field. Callahan netted four straight goals and added an assist in the first half to lead the Irish. Penn’s four goals matches the fewest the Irish have allowed in their two-plus seasons as a varsity sport and the fewest since UC Davis also scored just four on March 9, 1998. Notre Dame held a 47-20 advantage in shots, including 28-11 in the first half against the Quakers.
The Irish also led in groundballs, 23-10, and draw controls, 10-7. Penn goalie Christian Stover made 18 saves, while Marshall saved 15 of 23 shots. Penn cut the 4-0 lead in half with back-to-back goals 54 seconds, but Notre Dame scored four straight goals once again for an 8-2 lead with 2:08 left in the first half. O’Shaughnessy opened the second half with her second goal of the game at 28:43 but Notre Dame went scoreless for the next 22:22. The Quakers managed just one goal of their own in the second half at 9:31 to cut the lead to 9-4. The Irish finally got on the board once again at 6:21 on a score by freshman Maureen Whitaker (Doylestown, Pa.). Doyle added a goal with 59 seconds remaining for the 11-4 final.
IRISH LEAD NCAA STATS: Notre Dame boasts the nation’s highest scoring offense and assists leader, according to the latest NCAA statistics released before the Penn game. The Irish scoring offense is averaging 14.71 goals per game, just ahead of top-ranked Maryland’s 14.70 scoring mark, while Kerry Callahan’s 2.71 assists lead all NCAA Division I players. Lael O’Shaughnessy is third in goals per game with 4.57 and fourth in points per game with 5.57. Callahan also is eighth in points per game with 4.86. O’Shaughnessy’s nine-point performances against Connecticut and Gannon are the fifth-most single game points scored in any NCAA Division I game this season. Callahan’s six assists versus Gannon are the third-highest single game total this year.
CALLAHAN SCORING STREAK CONTINUES: Senior two-time captain Kerry Callahan scored four goals against Penn and one goal against Villanova to extend her goal-scoring streak to 22 games. A starter all three years of the program, Callahan has scored at least one goal in 29 of the 30 varsity women’s lacrosse games played at Notre Dame. Since being held scoreless in the 11-7 loss to Ohio State on April 6, 1997, Callahan scored in the final game of 1997 and in all 13 games in 1998. Her senior year scoring includes four goals against Penn, three against Gannon, Syracuse and Ohio State, two against both Boston College and Richmond and one against Connecticut and Villanova.
COYNE AT THE HELM: Irish head coach Tracy Coyne is in her third season as head coach of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team and in her 12th season overall after coaching Roanoke for seven years and at Denison for two years. In 11-plus seasons as a head coach, her lacrosse teams have a combined 132-38 record (.776), qualified for the NCAA championship six years, won seven conference titles and won 10-plus games in nine of those seasons. She has led Notre Dame to two winning seasons and has an 18-12 (.600) record during her time with the Irish.