March 17, 2008
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team dropped a tough 16-13 decision to the Syracuse Orange on Sunday afternoon at the Loftus Center in the BIG EAST opener for both teams.
The Irish rallied from a four-goal, first-half deficit with a strong second half performance that saw them take three one-goal leads before settling for a 13-13 tie at the end of regulation. Syracuse went on to score once in the first three-minute overtime and then twice in the second to hand the Irish the 16-13 loss.
Senior Caitlin McKinney paced Notre Dame’s attack with four goals and two assists for six points. Freshman Shaylyn Blaney added three goals and an assist while Jillian Byers and Heather Ferguson each had two goals. Gina Scioscia and Maggie Zentrgraf rounded out the Irish scorers.
Syracuse got a six-point game from Katie Rowan (4g, 2a) while Christina Dove and Kristin Brady each scored three times. Awehiyo Thomas and Halley Quillinan scored a pair and Megan Mosenson and Jackie DePetris had one each.
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the 12th-ranked Irish as they go to 5-3 overall and 0-1 in conference play. Syracuse is now 5-1 on the year and 1-0 in the BIG EAST. The Orange are 8-3 all-time against Notre Dame.
After Rowan and McKinney traded opening goals, Syracuse scored three straight with Thomas, Dove and Brady getting the goals in just under two minutes to build a 4-1 lead.
Byers and Ferguson got their first of the game at 17:34 and 15:18 to cut the lead to 4-3.
Syracuse put together another three-goal run over a 3:24 span with Rowan, Quillinan and Dove building the Orange’s biggest lead of the day at 7-3 with 9:59 left in the half.
Notre Dame took its turn at putting a run together as the Irish responded with four consecutive goals with McKinney setting up Blaney (9:45) and Byers (8:53) in less than a minute and then Blaney and Heather Ferguson got back-to-back free-position goals at 7:47 and 7:08 to tie the game at 7-7.
Those would be the last goals the Irish would score in the half as Syracuse closed out the final four minutes with three straight goals to take a 10-7 lead into the intermission.
The Irish rallied from that three-goal deficit by running off the first four goals of the second half. Scioscia and Blaney made it 10-9 with a pair of free-position goals and McKinney’s second goal of the game at 21:24 tied the score at 10-10. When Ferguson caught the Irish speedster slicing to the goal with McKinney burying a shot behind goalkeeper Liz Hogan at 18:13, Notre Dame led for the first time all day, 11-10.
From there the teams traded goals as Mosenson (15:03), Dove (12:37) and Thomas (6:39) scored for the Orange, offsetting Irish goals by Zentgraf and McKinney for a 13-13 score to end the second half. Thomas got the game-tying marker off a free-position shot.
In overtime, Syracuse controlled the draw and got the only goal that the Orange would need when Quillinan scored just 32 seconds into the opening stanza. Brady and DePetris scored in the second overtime to close out the road win by the final of 16-13.
Notre Dame out shot the Orange, 35-27 in the game. Hogan finished with 12 saves while Erin Goodman had nine stops in the Irish goal.
Notre Dame closes out its three-game home stand on Saturday, March 22 when the Irish play host to the Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds in a 1:00 p.m. BIG EAST game at the Loftus Sports Center.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 OT OT - F#6 Syracuse (5-1/1-0) 10 3 1 2 - 16#12 Notre Dame (5-3/0-1) 7 6 0 0 - 13
First HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist29:15 SU 0-1 Katie Rowan27:28 ND 1-1 Caitlin McKinney Free-position shot23:49 SU 1-2 Awehiyo Thomas Katie Rowan23:24 SU 1-3 Christina Dove21:50 SU 1-4 Kristin Brady17:34 ND 2-4 Jillian Byers Shaylyn Blaney15:18 ND 3-4 Heather Ferguson Jillian Byers13:24 SU 3-5 Katie Rowan12:56 SU 3-6 Halley Quillinan Katie Rowan 9:59 SU 3-7 Christina Dove Free-position shot 9:45 ND 4-7 Shaylyn Blaney Caitlin McKinney 8:53 ND 5-7 Jillian Byers Caitlin McKinney 7:47 ND 6-7 Shaylyn Blaney Free-position shot 7:08 ND 7-7 Heather Ferguson Free-position shot 3:50 SU 7-8 Katie Rowan 2:28 SU 7-9 Kristin Brady Free-position shot 2:09 SU 7-10 Katie Rowan
Second HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist25:18 ND 8-10 Gina Scioscia Free-position shot22:26 ND 9-10 Shaylyn Blaney Free-position shot21:24 ND 10-10 Caitlin McKinney18:13 ND 11-10 Caitlin McKinney Heather Ferguson15:03 SU 11-11 Megan Mosenson13:33 ND 12-11 Maggie Zentgraf Gina Scioscia12:37 SU 12-12 Christina Dove 8:14 ND 13-12 Caitlin McKinney 6:39 SU 13-13 Awehiyo Thomas Free-position shot
First OvertimeTime Team Score Goal Assist 2:28 SU 13-14 Halley Quillinan
Second OvertimeTime Team Score Goal Assist 1:42 SU 13-15 Kristin Brady 0:13 SU 13-16 Jackie DePetris Awehiyo Thomas
Goalkeepers:Syracuse: (Liz Hogan; 66:00 min; 13 goals, 12 saves)Notre Dame: (Erin Goodman; 66:00 min; 16 goals, 9 saves)
Total Shots: SU - 27; ND - 35Groundballs: SU - 19; ND - 17Draw Controls: SU - 18; ND - 15Caused Turnovers: SU - 6; ND - 11