April 20, 2004
Evanston, Ill. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team ran into a red-hot Northwestern Wildcat squad and also had to battle miserable weather conditions as they dropped their second straight game, this time by a 9-5 decision at the Taylor Athletic Complex. The five goals were the fewest scored by the Irish since March 2, 2003 when Cornell handed Notre Dame a 13-5 loss in the season opener.
The win, was the 10th straight by Northwestern and the first ever by the Wildcats versus Notre Dame as they improved to 11-1 on the year. The loss dropped the sixth-ranked Irish to 10-2 overall.
Both teams struggled in the first half against the wind, rain and cold weather and it took almost 14 minutes before the Irish got on the board first with Jackie Bowers (Jr., Springfield, Pa.) converting a Meredith Simon (Sr., Flemington, N.J.) feed.
The Wildcats would score the next two as Sarah Albrecht scored unassisted to tie the game at one and Jenny Bush put Northwestern ahead at the 22:09 mark. The Irish tied the game with 3:18 left in the first half as Mary McGrath (So., Bryn Mawr, Pa.) beat goalkeeper Ashley Gersuk for a 2-2 score. From there, the Wildcats would score five straight goals.
Northwestern took the lead for keeps late in the opening half when freshman Kristen Kjellman scored her first of three in the contest on a free-position goal.
The second half was all Northwestern. Kjellman made it 4-2 just 12 seconds into the half and Albrecht got her second to make it 5-2 on a free-position shot eight minutes into the final stanza.
Bush gave the Wildcats a 6-2 lead with her second goal of the game with just under 12 minutes gone in the half and Kjellman closed out her three-goal game with an unassisted tally just under 14 minutes into the half to make it 7-2. The Irish stopped Northwestern’s run of five straight goals on an Abby Owen (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.) score , cutting the lead to 7-3. Aly Josephs and Laura Glassanos closed the Wildcat scoring over the next nine minutes to give Northwestern a 9-3 lead.
Simon and Crysti Foote (So., Suffern, N.Y.) closed the Irish scoring with a pair of late goals for the final of 9-5.
After averaging 14.4 goals in the first 10 games, Notre Dame has now scored just 12 in the last two.
For the game, Carol Dixon (Jr., Pennsauken, N.J.) had seven saves while giving up nine goals. Freshman Katie Linhares (Greenwich, Conn.) made her first career appearance in goal as she played three minutes while Dixon was serving a yellow card. Linhares made one save without giving up a goal. Gersuk had 10 stops for Northwestern.
The Irish will have to regroup quickly as they return home to face the ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays on Friday night at Moose Krause Stadium. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
Game Summary: 1 2 - F#6 Notre Dame (10-2) 2 3 - 5#11 Northwestern (11-1) 3 6 - 9
SCORING
NOTRE DAME:
GOALS: Jackie Bowers, Mary McGrath, Abby Owen, Meredith Simon, Crysti Foote
ASSISTS: Meredith Simon, Mary McGrath, Lauren Fischer.
NORTHWESTERN:
GOALS: Kristen Kjellman (3), Sarah Albrecht (2), Jenny Bush (2), Aly Josephs, Laura Glassanos
ASSISTS: Jenny Bush
First Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistND 16:13 1-0 Jackie Bowers Meredith SimonNU 12:55 1-1 Sarah AlbrechtNU 7:51 1-2 Jenny BushND 3:18 2-2 Mary McGrath Lauren FischerNU 2:11 * 2-3 Kristen Kjellman
Second Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistNU 29:48 2-4 Kristen Kjellman - 2NU 21:51 * 2-5 Sarah Albrecht - 2NU 18:39 2-6 Jenny Bush - 2NU 16:08 2-7 Kristen Kjellman - 3ND 12:25 * 3-7 Abby OwenNU 8:05 3-8 Aly Josephs Jenny BushNU 4:04 3-9 Laura GlassanosND 0:59 4-9 Meredith SimonND 0:38 5-9 Crysti Foote Mary McGrath
* denotes free position goal
GoalkeepersND: Carol Dixon (57:00 min; 9 goals against; 7 saves) Katie Linhares (3:00 min; 0 goals against; 1 save)NU: Ashley Gersuk (60:00 min; 5 goals against, 10 saves)