April 19, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team faces its biggest game of the season when the Irish travel to Washington, D.C. to meet the Georgetown Hoyas on Saturday, April 20 in a 12:30 p.m. game.
Both teams will come into the game with a 4-0 record in BIG EAST play and are tied for first. Each team will have just one conference game remaining as the Irish travel to Rutgers on April 28 while the Hoyas will be at Connecticut on April 27. Overall, Georgetown is ranked second in the nation with an 11-1 record with the lone loss coming to North Carolina by an 11-10 margin.
The 9-3 Irish, ranked ninth in the nation, are familiar with one-goal losses to ranked teams as they have three of them this year (to #10 Cornell, 10-9, to #15 Ohio State, 12-11 and last weekend’s 10-9 triple-overtime thriller to #7 Duke).
Notre Dame has never beaten Georgetown going 0-2 in the first two meetings between the two schools. Last season, the Hoyas took a 17-7 decision at Moose Krause Stadium. In 2000, the Irish dropped a 14-4 game at Georgetown.
The Hoyas bring a high-scoring attack into Saturday’s game as the Hoyas are fifth in the nation in scoring, averaging 14.08 goals per game. They are led by Erin Elbe – last week’s BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week – with 37 goals and 15 assists for 52 points which ranks her 14th in the country. She gets help from Wick Stanwick (29g, 15a) and Gloria Lozano (23g, 9a). Georgetown’s lineup features six players with 12 or more goals.
Defensively, Georgetown ranks 11th in the nation surrendering 8.79 goals per game. Chandler Vicchio will start in goal for Georgetown and has given up 8.40 goals per game this season while recording a .482 save percentage.
Saturday’s game marks the fourth consecutive game for the Irish versus a ranked opponent. For the year, Notre Dame is 2-3 versus ranked teams after bouncing back from the tough triple-overtime loss to Duke with an 11-8 win over 12th-ranked Yale on April 14.
The Irish have the fourth-best defense in the nation (7.33 goals per game) and goalkeeper Jen White (Jr., Annapolis, Md.) has the third-best goals against average with a 7.22 average. Her .553 save percentage is 17th in the nation.
The Irish offense (11.42 goals per game) is 19th overall and is led by junior midfielder Danielle Shearer (Hampstead, Md.). Shearer has 26 goals and 15 assists for 41 points. Senior midfielder Natalie Loftus (Baltimore, Md.) ranks second in scoring with 19 goals and seven assists for 26 points.
Senior Alissa Moser (North Wales, Pa.) and sophomore Meredith Simon (Flemington, N.J.) had big weeks for the Irish in three games last week. Moser had three goals and an assist with 13 ground balls, one caused turnover and six draw controls. Simon had five goals and two assist for the week. She had a goal and two assists in the Ohio State loss, scored the goal that sent the Duke game to overtime with 19 seconds left and then had three goals in the win over Yale.
Following the Georgetown game, the Irish have two more road games next week as they travel to Northwestern (April 25) and then are at Rutgers on April 28th.