July 2, 2005
Annapolis, Md. – Notre Dame junior midfielder Crysti Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) did her best to try to help her native Canada win the bronze medal at the 2005 International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Association’s (IFLWA) World Cup on Saturday afternoon at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. It just wasn’t enough as Canada fell to England by an 11-8 score.
Later in the day on Saturday in Annapolis, Australia ended the United State’s run of four consecutive World Cup titles with a 14-7 win in front of 6,000 fans at the Naval Academy.
Despite playing with her left knee in a brace, Foote paced Canada’s attack with two goals and two assists in the game and led her squad in scoring for the tournament with 20 goals and seven assists in eight games.
“Crysti really had a great tournament,” said her head coach Tracy Coyne, also Foote’s coach at Notre Dame.
“She played injured and still got the job done for us. She really showed that she can play at an elite level over the past 10 days.”
For Coyne, the loss to England was a bitter one. For Canada’s head coach since 1999, it marked the second time her squad had lost out on a medal to England as they fell in 2001 in the medal round to the English.
“It’s hard for the players who have put in a lot of hard work and effort over the last four years to get back to this point. With all our injuries and eight games in 10 days, I think we just ran out of gas at the end,” said Coyne following the game.
Foote who also had two goals and two assists in Friday’s semifinal loss to Australia, gave Canada its only lead of the day with 18:47 left in the first half at 2-1.
England followed with a three-goal run to make it a 4-2 game before Foote became the playmaker and set up goals by Jess Brownridge and Brooke McKenzie 35 seconds apart at 10:44 and 10:09 to knot the score at 4-4. England would score the final two goals of the half for a 6-4 halftime lead.
The English would build the lead to 9-5 by scoring three of the first four goals of the second half before Canada made what would be its last run.
McKenzie and Alana Chan scored 45 seconds apart with 14:58 and 14:13 left in the game and when Foote converted a feed from Chan with 10:06 left in the game, Canada had cut the lead to 9-8.
Foote’s goal would be the last of the World Cup for Canada though as England killed the remainder of the clock, getting insurance goals at 9:00 and 2:26 for the final score of 11-8.