Christy Yarnell, the top goalkeeper in the history of the University of Richmond, has been named assistant women?s lacrosse coach at the University of Notre Dame, Irish head coach Tracy Coyne announced on Wednesday. Yarnell replaces Kathleen Ostar, who served as assistant coach for the 1999 season, and will work closely with the Notre Dame goalkeepers.

?We are very excited to have Christy as a member of our staff,? said Coyne, who begins her fourth year as head coach of the program she started in 1996. ?She has a very sound, fundamental knowledge of goalkeeping and is really going to help fine tune our goalkeepers. Her personality will be a nice addition to our staff, and she will be able to relate well to our players.?

Yarnell graduated from Richmond in 1999 with a degree in studio art and a minor in education after starting every game in her career and setting almost all every Spider goalkeeping record during her career, including career saves (678), single-season saves (252), career save percentage (.559) and single-season save percentage (.582). The Boothwyn, Pa., native, captained the team her senior year and played 707 of 840 total minutes in ?99, saving 188 shots for a .536 save percentage.

Yarnell, who has staffed the Point Blank Goalkeeping Camp since 1996, played with the United States under-19 national team at the 1995 World Championships. She served as a member of the Richmond Student-Athlete Advisory Committee from 1997-99 and was president of the organization during her senior year. Yarnell also was a four-year starting goalkeeper on the Spider field hockey teams and was a two-time Colonial Athletic Association all-conference field hockey selection.