March 31, 2006
Storrs, Conn. – Notre Dame’s senior midfield/attack standout Crysti Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) broke out of her one-game scoring slump on Friday afternoon at Morrone Stadium with five goals and four assists to lead the Fighting Irish to a 13-9 BIG EAST win over the University of Connecticut.
Foote, who now has 61 points (41g, 20a) in 10 games this season, was held to one goal in Notre Dame’s March 25 win over Canisius, so it was only a matter of time before someone was going to have to pay. The Huskies ran into the offensive buzzsaw and found out firsthand what type of damage the Irish captain could do as she helped 10th-ranked Notre Dame improve to 9-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play with the win.
The high-scoring Irish also got three goals and an assist from Jillian Byers (Fr., Northport, N.Y.), one goal and one assist from Kaki Orr (Jr., Darien, Conn.), two goals from Caitlin McKinney (So., Lafayette Hill, Pa.) and a goal and an assist from Jane Stoeckert (Fr., Mendham, N.J.) in the win. The Irish have now scored 158 goals on the year for a 15.8 goals-per-game average.
Byers’ four-point game gives her 45 on the season and sets the Notre Dame record for points by a freshman in one season. Her 33 goals are just five off the rookie record of 38 set by Courtney Calabrese `99 in her first year.
Connecticut (2-5, 0-2 in BIG EAST) got three goals each from Abbey VanDeusen and Kristin Link while top scorer, Shannon Burke, scored twice and Laura Trzasko had one goal.
The teams traded the first six goals in the tightly called game over the first 16:30 of the opening half. McKinney put the Irish up 1-0 just 44 seconds into the game. VanDeusen answered with her first goal at the 28:56 mark. Orr gave Notre Dame a 2-1 lead at 24:41, converting a feed from Foote, her first assist of the day. Link responded for the Huskies 37 seconds later and the score stayed tied 2-2 until the 16:45 mark.
Foote gave the Irish a short-lived lead with her first goal only to see Link tie the game at three with an unassisted marker with 13:30 left in the half.
Byers put the Irish ahead to stay at 11:26 and a Foote free-position goal made it 5-3 with 9:56 left in the half. Burke cut the Notre Dame lead to 5-4 at 6:12, before the Irish closed the half with a pair of goals.
Mary Carpenter (So., Rochester, N.Y.) gave Notre Dame a two-goal lead via a free-position shot and Stoeckert turned a Meghan Murphy (Jr., Centennial, Colo.) pass into the seventh goal of the game for the Irish with 1:25 left in the half for the 7-4 lead.
The scoring continued to go back-and-forth in the second half. VanDeusen opened with her second goal of the game at 26:55 to cut the Irish lead to 7-5 only to see Foote (third goal) answer just over a minute later off a Heather Ferguson (So., Newtown Square, Pa.) assist.
Link completed her three-goal game for the Huskies at 25:05 before Byers and Foote teamed up at 21:01 to restore the three-goal lead at 9-6. Burke’s free-position goal, her second goal of the game at 19:18, cut the lead to 9-7 only to see McKinney turn a Foote pass into the eventual game-winning goal at 17:56.
The score remained 10-7 for over 10 minutes before VanDeusen completed her hat trick with an unassisted goal at 3:09 before Foote (3:09) and Byers (2:19) completed the Irish scoring. Laura Trzasko made the final score 13-9 with the final Huskies’ goal via a free-position shot with 1:26 left in the game. On the day, Notre Dame out shot Connecticut by a 32-21 margin. Carol Dixon (Sr., Pennsauken, N.J.) made five saves in goal for the Irish while Kristen Haldeman had nine saves in the UConn goal.
Notre Dame returns to action on Wednesday, April 5 when the Irish travel to Columbus, Ohio for a 4:00 p.m. game versus Ohio State.
IRISH NOTES:
** Crysti Foote’s nine-point game was the second of her career with nine or more points. She had 11 points (9g, 2a) in the season-opening win at California. Foote also tied a career-high with six ground balls in the game and set another career-best with six draw controls on the afternoon. The Suffern, N.Y. product needs just three more goals to become Notre Dame’s all-time leading goal scorer.
** Foote’s 41 goals this season are the third-best single-season total in the program’s 10-year history. Lael O’Shaughnessy `01 had 50 in 1999 and Meredith Simon `04 had 46 in 2004. Her 61 points ties her for the third-best single-season total behind Simon (74 in 2004), O’Shaughnessy (69 in 1999) and Danielle Shearer `03 had 61 in 2003.
** Notre Dame’s high-scoring trio of Foote, Jillian Byers and Caitlin McKinney now has 98 goals and 48 assists for 146 points in 10 games. Foote has (41g, 20a), Byers (33g, 12a) and McKinney (24g, 16a) on the season.
Game Summary 1 2 - F#10 Notre Dame (9-1/2-0) 7 6 - 13Connecticut (2-5/0-2) 4 5 - 9
First-Half ScoringTime Team Score Goal Assist29:16 ND 1-0 Caitlin McKinney (23)28:56 UC 1-1 Abbey VanDeusen (11) Kristin Link24:41 ND 2-1 Kaki Orr (12) Crysti Foote24:14 UC 2-2 Kristin Link (10) Whitney Michelle16:45 ND 3-2 Crysti Foote (37) Kaki Orr13:30 UC 3-3 Kristin Link (11)11:26 ND 4-3 Jillian Byers (31) Crysti Foote 9:56 ND 5-3 * Crysti Foote (38) Free-position shot 6:12 UC 5-4 Shannon Burke (19) 3:19 ND 6-4 * Mary Carpenter (8) Free-position shot 1:25 ND 7-4 Jane Stoeckert (7) Meghan Murphy
Second-Half ScoringTime Team Score Goal Assist26:55 UC 7-5 Abbey VanDeusen (12)25:51 ND 8-5 Crysti Foote (39) Heather Ferguson25:05 UC 8-6 Kristen Link (12)21:01 ND 9-6 Jillian Byers (32) Crysti Foote19:18 UC 9-7 * Shannon Burke (20) Free-position shot17:56 ND 10-7 Caitlin McKinney (24) Crysti Foote17:27 ND 11-7 Crysti Foote (40) Jillian Byers 7:01 UC 11-8 Abbey VanDeusen (13) 3:09 ND 12-8 Crysti Foote (41) 2:19 ND 13-8 Jillian Byers (33) Jane Stoeckert 1:26 UC 13-9 * Laura Trzasko (9) Free-position shot
* Free-position goal
GoalkeepersNotre Dame - Carol Dixon (60:00 min.; 9 goals, 5 saves)Connecticut - Kristen Haldeman (60:00 min.; 13 goals, 9 saves)
Shots: ND - 32; UC - 21Ground Balls: ND - 31; UC - 21Draw Controls: ND - 14; UC - 10Caused Turnovers: ND - 11; UC - 7