May 8, 2004
Notre Dame, Ind. – Meredith Simon (Sr., Flemington, N.J.) collected four points while Abby Owen (Sr., Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.) and Lauren Fischer (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) each had three points to pace Notre Dame’s balanced attack to an 11-8 win over 11th-ranked Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon at Moose Krause Stadium.
Four Irish players – Simon, Owen, Kassen Delano (Sr., Alexandria, Va.) and Crysti Foote (So., Suffern, N.Y.) – each scored a pair of goals while Fischer, Jackie Bowers (Jr., Springfield, Pa.) and Brittany Fox (So., Annapolis, Md.) scored one each in the win. Vanderbilt got a five-goal effort from senior midfielder Jess Roguski while Kate Hickman (two goals) and Michelle Allen scored the other goals for the Commodores.
The win improves Notre Dame to 12-4 on the year with the 12 victories being the second-highest win total in the program’s eight-year history (13 wins in 2002 is top mark). The Irish will now have to wait until Sunday (May 9) at 6:30 p.m. (EDT) to see if they will receive an NCAA at-large bid. Vanderbilt is now 10-5 on the year and has an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as they won the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) regular-season title.
With her four-point game, Simon set Notre Dame’s single-season point record as she now has 46 goals and 26 assists for 72 points. The previous record of 69 points was held by Lael O’Shaughnessy ’01 and was set in 1999.
The Irish jumped out to a 3-0 lead with just over nine minutes gone in the game on goals by Foote (free position), Delano and Owen, before the Commodores would put one past Irish goalkeeper Carol Dixon (Jr., Pennsauken, N.J.).
Roguski got Vanderbilt on the board at 20:10 on a free position goal and Kate Hickman cut the lead to 3-2 off a Kelly Devlin feed at 17:45.
Simon’s first point of the game came on an assist when she set up Bowers at 15:58. Owen made it 5-2 Notre Dame on a brilliant move to shake the Commodore defense with 8:59 left in the half. Roguski picked up her second goal of the half with 4:13 remaining to cut the Irish lead to 5-3, but Simon got her record-setting point on a free-position goal with 33 seconds left to give the Irish a 6-3 lead at halftime.
Allen, Vanderbilt’s leading scorer, opened the second-half scoring at 23:19 as the teams would trade the next eight goals of the afternoon.
Delano and Simon combined on a neat passing play for Delano’s second of the game with 18:00 left for a 7-4 Irish lead. Roguski answered back with her third goal of the game (second via a free-position shot) at 15:53 to make it 7-5.
Simon got her second of the game at 13:50 only to be answered by Roguski’s fourth of the game 12 seconds later as she controlled a draw and raced down the field to beat Dixon.
Fox built the Irish lead back to three goals at 9-6 when she beat Vanderbilt’s Ashley Bastanelli from in front for her second goal of the season with 11:29 left in the contest. Roguski answered back with her fifth and final goal of the game just one minute later at 10:29 to cut the lead to 9-7 as she was single-handedly keeping the Commodores in the game. With 8:59 remaining, she received her second yellow card of the game and was done for the afternoon.
The Irish were then able to build a cushion as Fischer notched her second goal with 8:30 left and Foote added her second for an 11-7 lead with 5:03 left in the game.
Vanderbilt would get the final goal of the afternoon as Hickman scored her second of the day with 40 seconds remaining for the 11-8 final score.
In the game, Notre Dame outshot 25-13. Bastanelli had 10 saves for the Commodores while Dixon had three stops for the Irish.
Game Summary: 1 2 - F#11 Vanderbilt (10-5) 3 5 - 8#13 Notre Dame (12-4) 6 5 - 11
SCORING
VANDERBILT:
GOALS: Jess Roguski (5), Kate Hickman (2), Michelle Allen
ASSISTS: Kelly Devlin (2), Kate Hickman.
NOTRE DAME:
GOALS: Crysti Foote (2), Kassen Delano (2), Abby Owen (2), Meredith Simon (2), Jackie Bowers, Brittany Fox, Lauren Fischer.
ASSISTS: Lauren Fischer (2), Meredith Simon (2), Jackie Bowers, Abby Owen.
First Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistND 26:25 * 1-0 Crysti FooteND 22:50 2-0 Kassen Delano Lauren FischerND 21:32 3-0 Abby OwenVU 20:10 * 3-1 Jess RoguskiVU 17:45 3-2 Kate Hickman Kelly DevlinND 15:58 4-2 Jackie Bowers Meredith SimonND 8:59 5-2 Abby Owen - 2VU 4:13 5-3 Jess Roguski - 2 Kate HickmanND 0:33 * 6-3 Meredith Simon
Second Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistVU 23:19 6-4 Michelle AllenND 18:00 7-4 Kassen Delano - 2 Meredith Simon - 2VU 15:53 * 7-5 Jess Roguski - 3ND 13:50 8-5 Meredith Simon - 2 Jackie BowersVU 13:38 8-6 Jess Roguski - 4ND 11:29 9-6 Brittany FoxVU 10:29 9-7 Jess Roguski - 5ND 8:30 10-7 Lauren Fischer Abby OwenND 5:03 11-7 Crysti Foote - 2 Lauren Fischer - 2VU 0:40 11-8 Kate Hickman - 2 Kelly Devlin - 2
* denotes free position goal
GoalkeepersVU: Ashley Bastanelli (60:00 min; 11 goals against; 10 saves)ND: Carol Dixon (60:00 min; 8 goals against; 3 saves)