June 5, 2006
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team saw three players – Crysti Foote (Sr., Suffern, N.Y.), Jillian Byers (Fr., Northport, N.Y.) and Caitlin McKinney (So., Lafayette Hill, Pa.) – and head coach Tracy Coyne (Pittsburgh, Pa.) collect postseason honors from womenslacrosse.com.
Foote was selected first team All-American and the lacrosse website’s attack player of the year while Byers took second team honors and was named to the all-rookie team. McKinney was a third team selection for 2006 and Coyne took womenslacrosse.com’s coach of the year honors.
In taking womenslacrosse.com All-American honors, Foote, Byers and McKinney have now been named to three All-American teams for the 2006 seasons as all three were selected to the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) and Inside Lacrosse magazine teams this season. Foote and Coyne were also named attack player and coach of the year by both Inside Lacrosse and womenslacrosse.com this year.
The trio of players joins Meredith Simon `04 and Andrea Kinnik `04 who were the first Notre Dame women’s lacrosse players named to all three All-American teams.
The postseason honors as attack player and coach of the year for Foote and Coyne also mark the first time that a Notre Dame player and coach have been selected by two media outlets as their national player and coach of the year.
The Irish experienced the best season in the program’s history in 2006, going 15-4 on the year while advancing to the NCAA semifinals for the first time.
Foote finished her final season at Notre Dame as the nation’s leader in goals (74) and points (114) and was a finalist for the prestigious Tewaaraton Trophy on the way to first team All-American honors by the IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse and womenslacrosse.com. Earlier this spring, she was chosen as the BIG EAST Conference’s attack player of the year. Foote set Notre Dame single-season records for goals, assists, points and draw controls this season and was a unanimous first team all-BIG EAST selection. In the NCAA rankings, she was second in points-per-game (3.86) and second in points-per-game (6.00). An NCAA all-tournament selection, Foote finished her Notre Dame career as the all-time leader in goals (161), assists (76) and points (237). She opened the year by setting Irish records for goals (9) and points (11) in a game in a 23-11 win at California and never looked back. Foote led the team with 44 ground balls, was fourth with 31 ground balls and fifth in caused turnovers with 17.
Freshman Jillian Byers was selected second team All-American and all-rookie team by womenslacrosse.com
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Byers was a second team IWLCA selection and a third team Inside Lacrosse selection to go with her second team womenslacrosse.com selection. The top freshman scorer in the country, Byers was alsoselected to the womenslacrosse.com all-rookie team for 2006. She came into her first year at Notre
Dame recognized as one of the top freshman in the country and did not disappoint. Byers finished her rookie season with 54 goals and 24 assists for 78 points, the second highest single-season point total in Irish history, behind Foote’s 114 this season. All three totals set Notre Dame rookie records with the 78 points almost doubling the previous freshman record of 41 points. The talented attack player led the Irish with four game-winning goals, including a game winner in sudden death overtime in a 12-11 victory against Stanford on Feb. 26 and a winner with 18 seconds left in an 11-10 win against Vanderbilt. Byers also chipped in 23 ground balls, 30 draw controls and 15 caused turnovers in her first season with the Fighting Irish. She was a unanimous first team all-BIG EAST selection and was a first team IWLCA West/Midwest Region choice.
McKinney rounds out Notre Dame’s high-scoring trio and was a third team selection to all three All-American teams this season. The fleet-footed attack standout had a career year in her second season with the Irish and became the youngest player in the program’s history to reach the 100-point plateau, doing it in 33 games. For the year, McKinney finished third in scoring with 42 goals and 22 assists for 64 points. A unanimous first team all-BIG EAST selection, McKinney was a first team all-region choice in 2006. In 34 games at Notre Dame, the speedster has 70 goals and 34 assists for 104 career points. That ranks her seventh all-time in goals, sixth in assists and seventh in points.
Head coach Tracy Coyne was named womenslacrosse.com’s coach of the year for 2006. She led Notre Dame to the biggest turnaround in women’s college lacrosse history and a trip to the NCAA semifinals this season.
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Coyne, the only coach in the Notre Dame program’s history, led the Irish to the biggest turnaround in NCAA history in 2006. After going 3-12 in 2005, the Irish experienced a 10-game improvement with their 15-4 mark. The previous best turnaround in NCAA history was seven games. This marks the second time that Coyne has received national accolades as she was selected the NCAA Division III coach of the year in 1990 while at Roanoke. The veteran coach, who won her 200th career game in Notre Dame’s NCAA tournament win over Cornell on May 14 was also named the BIG EAST coach of the year in 2006, the second time (2004) she has been honored by the conference in her career. In 19 seasons as a Division I head coach, Coyne is 201-90 (.691), including an 87-64 (.576) in 10 seasons at Notre Dame.