April 20, 2008
Piscataway, N.J. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team bounced back from a tough home loss on Wednesday against Vanderbilt by traveling to Rutgers on Sunday and rolling over the Scarlet Knights, 20-9, at Yurcak Field.
The win gives the Irish a 4-1 record in the BIG EAST, 11-5 overall, and will give Notre Dame the second seed in next weekend’s BIG EAST Tournament at Notre Dame Stadium. Rutgers falls to 7-9 overall and 2-3 in conference play. The Scarlet Knights will be the No. 4 seed and will face top-seeded Syracuse in the first semifinal. The Irish will face Georgetown in the second semifinal on Friday, April 25.
For the Irish, the 20 goals scored against Rutgers is the most ever scored by Notre Dame in a BIG EAST game since the conference began play in 2001.
Sophomore Gina Scioscia (Summit, N.J.) made the most of her first trip home, recording a career-best seven-point game, scoring a pair of goals and adding five assists. Scioscia’s five-assist game was her third of the season and she now leads the Irish with 28 this season.
Junior Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) continued her torrid goal-scoring as she scored five times in the first half and added an assist for six points on the afternoon. She now has a career-high 61 goals on the season.
Senior Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) notched her fourth game this season with six or more points as she scored three times and added three assists in the game.
Shaylyn Blaney (Fr., Stony Brook, N.Y.) and Jane Stoeckert (Jr., Mendham, N.J.) each scored three goals on the afternoon while Kailene Abt (Fr., Huntington, N.Y.), Shannon Burke (Jr., Baltimore, Md.), Heather Ferguson (Sr., Newtown Square, Pa.) and Julie Foote (Sr., Suffern, N.Y.) rounded out the Notre Dame scoring with single goals in the game.
Nina Frankoski and Michelle Poole had two goals each for the Scarlet Knights while Kaja Stamnes, Jennifer Schmitt, Mary Cryan, Marlena Welsh and Brooke Cantwell had solo goals.
Notre Dame scored early and often in this game, getting 10 of the first 11 goals of the game on the way to an 11-5 lead at halftime.
Byers led the way with four goals in the first 17 minutes with Stoeckert and Blaney getting two each and Scioscia and McKinney one. Scioscia had four helpers on Notre Dame’s first 10 goals. Stoeckert’s goal with 13:38 left in the half proved to be the game winner.
Frankoski’s first goal of the game came at 21:09 of the opening stanza and would be the only goal for the Scarlet Knights until Poole beat Irish goalkeeper Erin Goodman (Jr., Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) on a free-position goal at 12:47.
Poole’s goal started Rutgers on a mini-comeback as the Scarlet Knights picked up four of the last five goals of the half. Welsh, Cryan and Cantwell offset Byers’ fifth goal of the half and cut Notre Dame’s margin to six goals at 11-5 after one half of play.
Notre Dame put the game away early in the second half, scoring the first five goals of the half over a span of 4:13. McKinney had a pair with Ferguson, Blaney and Scioscia building the Irish lead to 16-5 with 22:29 remaining in the game.
After Frankoski broke the five-goal run with her second of the game at 17:23, Notre Dame would run off three more goals with Burke, Foote and Abt scoring to improve the Irish advantage to 19-6 with 12:07 left in the game.
Stoeckert would close out her three-goal after noon with 1:00 left in the game to make it 20-8.
Notre Dame fired 43 shots on goal in the game, three off the season high of 46 in the opener against Canisius and the third time this year that the Irish had 40 or more shots in a game.
Rutgers fired 20 shots on the Notre Dame goal. Goodman played 48:53 minutes, giving up six goals and making four assists in the game. Amy Winik (So., Freehold, N.J.) played the final 11:07 of the game, giving up three goals while making one save.
Sandra Abel played 35:06 in the Rutgers goal, giving up 14 goals with five saves. Katherine Parker played 24:54, giving up six goals with six saves.
Both teams will now prepare for the BIG EAST Tournament that will be played at Notre Dame Stadium, beginning on Friday, April 25 at 5:30 p.m. The second semifinal will be played 45 minutes after the first game. The BIG EAST championship game is on Sunday, April 27 at 12:00 noon.
IRISH NOTES:
** With five goals against Rutgers, Jillian Byers became just the second player in Notre Dame history to score 60 or more goals in a season. Her 61 goals are second to Crysti Foote’s `06 total of 74 in 2006. Her 73 points are the fourth-highest single-season total behind Foote’s 114 in 2006, Byers’ 78 in 2006 and Meredith Simon’s `04 mark of 74 in 2004.
** Sophomore Gina Scioscia now has 28 assists on the season for Notre Dame. That total ties her for the third-best single-season mark at Notre Dame. Meredith Simon `04 had 28 in 2004 and Lael O’Shaughnessy `01 had 28 in her senior season. Only Kerry Callahan `99 with 32 in 1999 and Crysti Foote with 40 in 2006 have more assists in a season than Scioscia.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 - F#8 Notre Dame (11-5/4-1) 11 9 - 20Rutgers (7-9/2-3) 5 4 - 9
First HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist28:39 ND 1-0 Jillian Byers (57) Gina Scioscia (25)27:44 ND 2-0 Gina Scioscia (14)27:32 ND 3-0 Jillian Byers (58) Gina Scioscia (26)26:23 ND 4-0 Caitlin McKinney (33) Gina Scioscia (27)21:09 RU 4-1 Nina Frankoski (14) Michelle Poole (7)19:25 ND 5-1 Jillian Byers (59) Gina Scioscia (28)18:09 ND 6-1 Jane Stoeckert (12)17:24 ND 7-1 Shaylyn Blaney (33)16:53 ND 8-1 Shaylyn Blaney (34) Caitlin McKinney (19)14:30 ND 9-1 Jillian Byers (60) Caitlin McKinney (20)13:38 ND 10-1 Jane Stoeckert (13) Jillian Byers (12)12:47 RU 10-2 Michelle Poole (17) Free-position goal11:20 RU 10-3 Marlena Welsh (12) Meghan Flanagan (22) 7:26 ND 11-3 Jillian Byers (61) 6:38 RU 11-4 Mary Cryan (19) 2:48 RU 11-5 Brooke Cantwell (34) Nina Frankoski (6)
Second HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist26:42 ND 12-5 Caitlin McKinney (35) Free-position goal26:00 ND 13-5 Heather Ferguson (15) Gina Scioscia (28)24:37 ND 14-5 Caitlin McKinney (36)23:21 ND 15-5 Gina Scioscia (15)22:29 ND 16-5 Shaylyn Blaney (35) Caitlin McKinney (20)17:23 RU 16-6 Nina Frankoski (15) Free-position goal15:50 ND 17-6 Shannon Burke (7) Free-position goal13:49 ND 18-6 Julie Foote (3)12:07 ND 19-6 Kailene Abt (6) 6:24 RU 19-7 Michelle Poole (17) Free-position goal 2:30 RU 19-8 Kaja Stamnes (2) 1:00 ND 20-8 Jane Stoeckert (14) 0:01 RU 20-9 Jennifer Schmitt
Goalkeepers:Notre Dame: (Erin Goodman; 48:53 min; 6 goals, 4 saves) (Amy Winik; 11:07 min; 3 goals, 1 save)Rutgers: (Sandra Abel; 35:06 min; 14 goals, 5 saves) (Katherine Parker; 24:54 min; 6 goals, 6 saves)
Total Shots: ND - 43; RU - 20Groundballs: ND - 20; RU - 14Draw Controls: ND - 20; RU - 10Caused Turnovers: ND- 9; RU - 4