May 13, 2004
Evanston, Ill. – The 2004 women’s lacrosse season came to an end for Notre Dame on Thursday afternoon as the Northwestern Wildcats rallied from a 6-4 halftime deficit to defeat the Irish, 10-8, at the Leonard B. Taylor Athletic Complex on the Northwestern campus.
The loss ended ninth-ranked Notre Dame’s season with a 12-5 record while eighth-ranked Northwestern (15-2) moves on to the NCAA quarterfinals at the University of Virginia on Sunday afternoon.
Senior midfielder Kassen Delano (Alexandria, Va.) paced the Irish attack with three goals and an assist to equal her career-best with four points on the afternoon. Crysti Foote (So., Suffern, N.Y.) added two goals and an assist for the Irish.
Northwestern got a four-point game (three goals and an assist) from freshman midfielder Kristen Kjellman and sophomore Laura Glassanos scored three times in the Wildcat win.
“I thought it was an exciting game. It was great for women’s lacrosse to have two teams from the Midwest in the NCAA tournament,” said Irish head coach Tracy Coyne following the game.
“We had two highly competitive teams that played very hard. I thought Northwestern did a good job of taking advantage of their scoring opportunities. That was the difference in the game. They capitalized on their chances and we didn’t.”
The Irish broke on top, taking a 2-0 lead just 10 minutes into the game. Kristen Gaudreau (Sr., Annapolis, Md.) opened the scoring when she bounced a shot past Northwestern goalkeeper Ashley Gersuk with 7:10 gone in the game. Lauren Fischer (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) gave Notre Dame a two-goal lead when she whipped a shot past Gersuk with 20 minutes left in the half.
Glassanos broke Notre Dame’s momentum with a free-position goal with 18:38 left in the first stanza. Foote built the lead back to 3-1 at the 16:51 mark when Meredith Simon (Sr., Flemington, N.J.) pulled the defense to her and dumped a pass in front where Foote finished.
Northwestern battled back with three goals in a 1:04 span to take a 4-3 lead with 15:03 left in the half. Sarah Albrecht beat Carol Dixon (Jr., Pennsauken, N.J.) in the Irish goal at 16:07. Kjellman got her first of the game off the ensuing draw when she controlled the draw and raced down the field to beat Dixon just eight seconds later at 15:59. Glassanos finished the Wildcat run 56 seconds later (15:03) when she took a feed from Kristen Boege to score her second of the game.
From there, Delano righted the Irish ship as she scored three straight goals to give Notre Dame the 6-4 lead at halftime. The first goal came after a great hustle play by Abby Owen in the midfield forced a Northwestern turnover. Delano made a great one-on-one move in front beat Gersuk off a spin move with 7:30 left.
Simon set up the second goal, finding Delano cutting to the net for a wide-open shot at 5:54 and then Fischer made a nice feed to the senior midfielder in front at 3:32 for the 6-4 Notre Dame lead.
“Kassen (Delano) really stepped up for us today,” said Coyne.
“They were double-teaming Meredith (Simon) and we were able to work the ball to the open player. We’ve been team-oriented all season long and today Kassen made the plays.
Northwestern scored the first two goals of the second half to tie the game at 6-6. Aly Josephs scored both with the first coming off a Notre Dame turnover at 25:20 and the second coming via a free-position shot at 21:35.
Abby Owen (Sr., Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.) answered for the Irish just 32 seconds later when she walked out from the right side and drilled a shot past Gersuk to give Notre Dame its final lead of the afternoon at 7-6.
The Wildcats would then score the next three goals as Kjellman sandwiched a pair of goals around Albrecht’s second of the game to give Northwestern a 9-7 lead with 8:15 left in the game.
Foote cut the lead to 9-8 with her second of the game with 6:25 remaining to make it a 9-8 contest but that was as close as the Irish would get.
Glassanos closed out her three-goal game with 1:22 left and Northwestern was able to run out the clock from there.
On the afternoon, Notre Dame outshot Northwestern by a 16-15 margin. Dixon finished with seven saves while Gersuk had six in the Wildcat goal.
The loss was especially hard for the eight seniors who played their final games for the Irish.
“This team had a great, great season,” said senior co-captain Meredith Simon who set the Notre Dame single-season scoring mark with 74 points this year.
“Everyone was out for each other. When we had the slump, everyone stuck together and we bounced back with the big wins over Syracuse and Vanderbilt. This was a great group of players to play with.”
Game Summary: 1 2 - F#9 Notre Dame (12-5) 6 2 - 8#8 Northwestern (15-2) 4 6 - 10
SCORING
NOTRE DAME:
GOALS: Kassen Delano (3), Crysti Foote (2), Abby Owen, Lauren Fischer, Kristen Gaudreau
ASSISTS: Meredith Simon (2), Kassen Delano, Lauren Fischer, Crysti Foote, Abby Owen
NORTHWESTERN:
GOALS: Kristen Kjellman (3), Laura Glassanos (3), Aly Josephs (2), Sarah Albrecht (2)
ASSISTS: Kristen Boege, Kristen Kjellman
First Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistND 22:50 1-0 Kristen Gaudreau Crysti FooteND 20:00 2-0 Lauren Fischer Kassen DelanoNU 18:38 * 2-1 Laura GlassanosND 16:51 3-1 Crysti Foote Meredith SimonNU 16:02 3-2 Sarah AlbrechtNU 15:59 3-3 Kristen KjellmanNU 15:03 3-4 Laura Glassanos - 2 Kristen BoegeND 7:30 4-4 Kassen DelanoND 5:54 5-4 Kassen Delano - 2 Meredith Simon - 2ND 3:32 6-4 Kassen Delano - 3 Lauren Fischer
Second Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistNU 25:20 6-5 Aly Josephs Kristen KjellmanNU 21:35 * 6-6 Aly Josephs - 2ND 21:03 7-6 Abby OwenNU 18:12 7-7 Kristen Kjellman - 2NU 13:48 7-8 Sarah Albrecht - 2NU 8:15 7-9 Kristen Kjellman - 3ND 6:25 8-9 Crysti Foote - 2 Abby OwenNU 1:22 8-10 Laura Glassanos - 3
* denotes free position goal
GoalkeepersND: Carol Dixon (60:00 min; 10 goals against; 7 saves)VU: Ashley Gersuk (60:00 min; 8 goals against; 6 saves)