April 24, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team takes its shortest road trip of the season when the Irish travel to Evanston, Ill., on Thursday, April 25 for a 3:00 p.m. game versus the Northwestern Wildcats at Lakeside Field.
The Irish, who dropped from ninth to tenth in the national rankings this week, will look to close their schedule on a strong note as they search for the program’s first-ever NCAA bid. Following the Northwestern game, the Irish close out the BIG EAST schedule at Rutgers on Sunday, April 28 and then close out the regular season on Friday, May 3 at home versus Vanderbilt in a 1:00 p.m. game.
Notre Dame faces Northwestern for the first time on the Division I level as the Wildcats program is in its first year. The Irish come into the week with a 9-4 overall record and a 4-1 mark in BIG EAST play. Northwestern, which had women’s lacrosse from 1982-91 before disbanding the program, is 5-8 overall and 2-3 in the American Lacrosse Conference.
The Irish lost their first BIG EAST game of the season last weekend, falling 17-8 at second-ranked Georgetown on April 20. Northwestern dropped a 13-10 decision at 15th-ranked Penn State on April 21.
Northwestern is a young team with 15 freshmen and four sophomores on the roster. The Wildcats average 7.77 goals per game while giving up 9.31 per contest. Offensively, they are led by freshman Sarah Albrecht with 25 goals and 13 assists for 38 points. Sophomore Angela McMahon is second with 21 goals and 10 assists for 31 points. In goal, freshman Ashley Gersuk has played all but 30 minutes and has a 9.52 goals against average.
The Irish will look to put the Georgetown loss behind them. After Natalie Loftus (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) scored just 1:31 into that game, the Hoyas ran off six straight goals on the way to an 11-5 halftime lead. The lead would go to 1-5 early in the second half before the teams traded goals in the final 19 minutes.
Notre Dame is ranked seventh in the nation in scoring defense, giving up 8.08 goals per game. Goalkeeper Jen White (Jr., Annapolis, Md.) is seventh in the nation giving up 7.96 goals per game.
The Irish feature a balanced offense with six players having 10 or more goals. Leading the offense is junior midfielder Danielle Shearer (Hampstead, Md.) who picked up three goals and an assist in the Georgetown game to give her 29 goals and 16 assists for 45 points. That ties her career-high for points that she set last season. Also registering 20 goals this season is Loftus who checks in with 20 goals and eight assists for 28 points. Alissa Moser (Sr., North Wales, Pa.) ranks third with 19 goals and five assists for 24 points.