April 7, 2000
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team continues its five game road trip this weekend when it travels to Connecticut and Boston College on Saturday and Sunday, April 8-9. The Irish are coming off a 14-4 loss at sixth-ranked Georgetown on Wednesday.
IRISH MEET HUSKIES, EAGLES: Notre Dame makes its second trip to Connecticut for a 1:00 p.m. game against the Huskies on Sat., April 8. Connecticut enters the game with a 6-1 record following a 19-6 win over Albany on April 2. Sophomore Pamela Lowie leads Connecticut with 24 goals, while freshmen goalkeeper April Pollock has a 5.63 goals-against average. The Irish beat the Huskies 18-6 last year at Moose Krause Stadium thanks to a nine-point performance by Lael O’Shaughnessy in the first game between the teams. Notre Dame traveled to Connecticut in 1998 but the game was cancelled due to unplayable conditions.
After the Connecticut game, the Irish head to Boston College for a 12:00 p.m. game on Sunday. The Eagles enter the weekend with a 3-5 record following a 17-8 loss to Yale on April 5, and will travel to Fairfield on April 7, before playing host to the Irish. Senior Susan Pitt leads Boston College with 23 goals and 27 points, while sophomore goalkeeper Valerie Leuchs is eighth in the country with a .616 save percentage. O’Shaughnessy scored five goals to lead the Irish to a 13-9 win over Boston College in Notre Dame’s 1999 season opener in Fairfax, Va., in the first meeting between the schools.
GEORGETOWN REVIEW: The Irish dropped their fifth straight game with a 14-4 loss at sixth-ranked Georgetown on Wednesday at Kehoe Field. Junior goalkeeper Tara Durkin had 19 saves, while freshmen Angela Dixon came off the bench to score two goals and assist on another for the Irish. Junior All-American Sheehan Stanwick led the Hoyas with four goals. Georgetown built a 5-0 lead before Dixon netted her first goal at 1:19 on a transition feed from freshman Danielle Shearer. Durkin helped hold Georgetown to just five goals at halftime 10 saves, including seven in the first 14 minutes when the Hoyas led 1-0. The Hoyas scored four goals in the first 6:04 of the second half to take a 9-1 lead. Sophomore Alissa Moser and Dixon scored back-to-back goals in 21 seconds to pull the Irish within 9-3. The Hoyas then scored five consecutive goals to lead 14-3 with 1:40 left in the game. Junior Kathryn Perrella closed out the scoring with a goal with 17 second left for the 14-4 final score. The 14 goals are the most the Irish have allowed this season, while the four-goal output marks the fifth consecutive game Notre Dame has been held to under 10 goals. Georgetown held a 13-7 advantage in draw controls and 37-12 in total shots.
DURKIN AMONG NCAA LEADERS: Junior goalkeeper Tara Durkin — on pace for 200 saves this season — stands sixth among NCAA Division I goalkeepers with a .629 save percentage, according to the national statistics released on Wed., April 5 prior to Notre Dame’s game vs. Georgetown. Her save percentage stands at .620 entering the Connecticut game. She already has 119 saves — an average of nearly 15 saves per game — and is on pace to set single-season Irish records for saves, save percentage and goals against average. 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.
O’SHAUGHNESSY ON ATTACK: 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 17 goals this season. She already has set the school record for career goals with 94 and needs just six 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 33 of the 35 games in which she has played in her career.
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 36 groundballs and has caused 17 turnovers and controlled 21 draws. Lam has caused a team leading 20 turnovers and is second to Fedarcyk with 31 groundballs. She also has controlled eight draws. Fedarcyk and Lam have committed just eight and nine turnovers, respectively, the fewest of all Notre Dame starters.
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 24 games so far this season. The freshmen have scored 31 of the team’s 83 goals and have accounted for 51 of the teams 121 points this season.
BIG EAST WOMEN’S LACROSSE: When Notre Dame plays Connecticut and Boston College this weekend, the games will mark the final ones between the teams as independents. 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.”