April 25, 2004
Piscataway, N.J. – The weekend of April 23-25 is one that the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team will like to forget. For the second time in two days, the Irish dropped a one-goal decision, this time losing 7-6 at Rutgers on Sunday afternoon. Notre Dame lost on Friday night to ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins at home by a 13-12 margin.
This one-goal defeat was even more painful though. Rutgers got two goals from junior midfielder Maggie Bopp in the final 1:09 of the game with the game winner coming with just 20 seconds left to give the Scarlet Knights the BIG EAST win. Rutgers scored the final three goals of the game to wipe out a 6-4 Notre Dame lead as the Irish were held to just one goal in the second half.
Abby Owen (Sr., Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.) paced the Irish attack with two goals and an assist. Lauren Fischer (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) added a pair of goals and Meredith Simon (Sr., Flemington, N.J.) had a goal and an assist for Notre Dame.
The loss extends Notre Dame’s losing streak to four in a row and drops the Irish to 10-4 overall and 3-2 in BIG EAST play. Rutgers improves to 7-7 on the season and 3-3 in conference play.
The game proved to be a defensive struggle early as the two teams played almost 12 minutes of the game before the Irish broke through.
Lauren Fischer scored her first of the afternoon off a Meghan Murphy assist with 18:04 left in the opening half. Emily Widrick would tie the game at 1-1 with her first of two goals in the game, this one a free-position shot at the 17:22 mark.
Notre Dame would score the next three goals to take a 4-1 lead with just over eight-and-a-half minutes left in the stanza. Owen put the Irish ahead, 2-1, off a Simon assist at 16:43. Fischer collected her second goal of the game at 11:58 with Owen setting up the goal and then Owen followed with her second of the game with 8:31 left on the clock for the three-goal Notre Dame lead.
Andrea Lenninger stopped the Irish run with 7:26 left in the half on a free-position goal to cut the lead to 4-2. Widrick got her second goal of the half with 1:38 left to make it 4-3 Notre Dame before Kassen Delano (Sr., Alexandria, Va.) closed the scoring with a free-position goal with 52 seconds on the clock to send the Irish into the intermission with a 5-3 lead.
Katie Batiuk opened the second-half scoring with a goal an unassisted goal at 23:14 to cut the Irish lead to 5-4. Simon made it a two-goal game (6-4) with a free-positon goal with 14:35 left, but that would be the last time Notre Dame would get on the scoreboard.
Jamie Farewell made it 6-5 with a goal that was set up by Batiuk with 11:36 left. The score would stay that way until the 1:09 mark when Bopp was fouled on a shot attempt in close and then beat Irish goalkeeper Carol Dixon (Jr., Pennsauken, N.J.) on a free-position shot to tie the game at 6-6.
Bopp and Batiuk teamed up to beat Dixon with 20 seconds left for Bopp’s second of the game and the game-winning goal in the 7-6 Rutgers win.
On the afternoon, both teams had just 18 shots on goal. Dixon finished with seven saves in the game while Rutgers goalkeeper Lyndsey Feldman had eight saves for the Scarlet Knights.
Notre Dame returns to action at home next Saturday afternoon, May 1, when the Irish play host to the Syracuse Orangewomen in a 1:00 p.m. (EST) game at Moose Krause Stadium.
Game Summary: 1 2 - F#6 Notre Dame (10-4/3-2) 5 1 - 6 Rutgers (7-7/3-3) 3 4 - 7
SCORING
NOTRE DAME:
GOALS: Lauren Fischer (2), Abby Owen (2), Kassen Delano, Meredith Simon.
ASSISTS: Meredith Simon, Abby Owen, Meghan Murphy.
RUTGERS:
GOALS: Emily Widrick (2), Maggy Bopp (2), Andrea Lenninger, Katie Batiuk, Jamie Farewell.
ASSISTS: Katie Batiuk (2).
First Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistND 18:04 1-0 Lauren Fischer Meghan MurphyRU 17:22 * 1-1 Emily WidrickND 16:43 2-1 Abby Owen Meredith SimonND 11:58 3-1 Lauren Fischer - 2 Abby OwenND 8:51 4-1 Abby Owen - 2RU 7:26 * 4-2 Andrea LenningerRU 1:38 4-3 Emily Widrick - 2ND :52 * 5-3 Kassen Delano
Second Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistRU 23:14 5-4 Katie BatiukND 14:35 * 6-4 Meredith SimonRU 11:36 6-5 Jamie Farewell Katie BatiukRU 1:09 * 6-6 Maggie BoppRU :20 7-6 Maggie Bopp - 2 Katie Batiuk
* denotes free position goal
GoalkeepersND: Carol Dixon (60:00 min; 7 goals against; 7 saves)RU: Lyndsey Feldmen (60:00 min; 6 goals against; 8 saves)