April 21, 2000

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team ends its 2000 home schedule this weekend when it plays host to Columbia and Harvard at Moose Krause Stadium. The Irish ended their stretch of five consecutive road games with losses to Duke and Yale in Durham, N.C., last weekend.

IRISH MEET LIONS, CRIMSON: Notre Dame closes its 2000 home schedule as Columbia and Harvard make their first trips to Notre Dame. The Irish and Lions have met twice previously in season-ending matches for Notre Dame. Columbia won the first meeting 12-11 in 1998, and Notre Dame winning 13-5 in 1999. The Lions enter Saturday’s game with a 5-5 record after beating Stanford 8-6 in their last game on April 14. Junior Devin Fitzpatrick leads Columbia with 11 goals, while Sara Brubaker has scored 10 goals. Five other Lions have scored at least five goals. Sophomore goalkeeper Gina Kline has played all 600 minutes for Columbia and has allowed just 9.90 goals per game. The Harvard game on Monday will mark Notre Dame’s third consecutive against an Ivy League opponent. The Crimson have won both previous meetings with the Irish, a 16-9 victory at Columbia in 1998 and 13-5 at home in 1999. The Crimson enter the weekend with a 4-5 record following losses to Princeton and Dartmouth and will play Columbia on Sunday in an Ivy League game before facing the Irish. Juniors Lauren Corkery and Alli Harper lead the Crimson with 13 goals each, while sophomore Lizzy Frisbie has 11 goals. Freshman Nora Guyer has a save percentage of .565 and an 11.56 goals against average.

DUKE, YALE REVIEW: The Irish lost to fourth-ranked Duke 15-3 on Thursday in Durham, N.C. Junior Lael O’Shaughnessy and freshmen Angela Dixon and Kelly McCardell scored for the Irish. The Blue Devils led scored the first 11 goals of the game and held Notre Dame to just six shots. Duke led just 3-0 after the first 18 minutes of the game but then scored seven goals in the final 11:20 of the first half to lead 10-0 at halftime. After Duke did not score until nearly 12 minutes into the second half, Dixon finally got the Irish on the board at 17:00. After two more Duke goals, O’Shaughnessy scored her team-leading 22 goal of the season at 10:36 on an assist from sophomore Natalie Loftus. McCardell closed out the scoring at 1:30 left in the game on a goal assisted by freshman Anne Riley. Notre Dame lost to 14th-ranked Yale 17-3 on Saturday in Durham, N.C. Junior Kathryn Perrella, sophomore Natalie Loftus and freshmen Danielle Shearer scored for the Irish. The Bulldogs led 10-3 at halftime and held the Irish scoreless in the second half while scoring seven goals. Amanda Walton scored eight goals and had two assists to lead Yale. Heather Bentley added three goal for the Bulldogs. Loftus and sophomore Alissa Moser also had assists for the Irish. Yale held a 33-17 advantage in shots, while Notre Dame had 38 groundballs to Yale’s 26. Junior goalkeeper Tara Durkin had three saves in the first half, while freshman Jen White made five saves in the second half. Yale’s Amanda Sisley recorded 14 saves.

FEDARCYK, LAM LEAD DEFENSE: Sophomore defenders Tina Fedarcyk and Kathryn Lam have been active players for the Irish defensive unit. Fedarcyk leads the team with 48 groundballs and has caused 23 turnovers and controlled 24 draws. Lam has caused a team leading 30 turnovers and is second to Fedarcyk with 45 groundballs. She also has controlled 15 draws. Fedarcyk and Lam have committed just 13 and 10 turnovers, respectively, the fewest of all Notre Dame starters.

O’SHAUGHNESSY NEARS CENTURY MARK: Junior captain Lael O’Shaughnessy — the third-highest returning scorer among NCAA Division I schools from the ’99 season — leads the team once again with 22 goals this season. She already has set the school record for career goals with 99 and needs just one more to reach the 100-goal milestone. O’Shaughnessy scored a school-record 50 goals last year and has scored at least one goal in 36 of the 38 games in which she has played in her career.

DURKIN AMONG TOP GOALKEEPERS: Junior goalkeeper Tara Durkin has spent most of the season ranked among the top NCAA Division I goalkeepers in save percentage. She currently has a .550 save percentage and is on pace to set single-season Irish record for save percentage. Durkin matched the school record for single-game saves with 20 against Vanderbilt on April 2, becoming one of six NCAA Division I goalkeepers to record at least 20 saves in a game this season.

FROSH SPARKS IRISH: Notre Dame’s freshmen class already has had an impact on the program. Angela Dixon, Kelly McCardell, Anne Riley and Danielle Shearer have combined to start 36 games so far this season. The freshmen have scored 41 of the team’s 109 goals this season.

BIG EAST WOMEN’S LACROSSE: The 2001 women’s lacrosse season will mark a new era in the brief history of Notre Dame women’s lacrosse when the sport becomes the 20th sponsored by the BIG EAST Conference. Boston College, Connecticut, Georgetown, Rutgers, Syracuse and Virginia Tech will join Notre Dame in the formation of BIG EAST women’s lacrosse. Five of the six teams will be on Notre Dame’s schedule in 2000. The teams will play a round-robin schedule against each of the other six teams. The BIG EAST also has applied for an automatic bid into the NCAA Championship for the conference winner. “We now will have opportunity to compete in a quality all-sports conference and develop conference rivalries,” says Tracy Coyne, a large part in the driving force among the coaching community for the inclusion of women’s lacrosse under the BIG EAST Conference umbrella. “I expect the BIG EAST to become a very influential conference on the national level, particularly with the success a number of the teams have had already and the support that the newer programs receive. We can be as powerful as any other lacrosse conference.”