Jan. 31, 2010
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team closed out its weekend in Florida with a strong overall effort as the Irish dropped a 15-11 decision to the U.S. National Developmental Team at Disney World of Sports in the Champion Challenge, a US Lacrosse event.
Facing many of the top young players in the nation, the Irish had nine different players get on the scoresheet led by senior Gina Scioscia with three goals and sophomore Maggie Tamasitis who had two goals and one assist for her three-point game. Freshman midfielder Jenny Granger also had three points while setting up three goals for the Irish.
Joining Scioscia and Tamasitis in the goal-scoring department were Kailene Abt, Shaylyn Blaney, Kate Newall, Ansley Stewart, Megan Sullivan and Maggie Zentgraf with one goal each.
The Irish scored the opening goal of the game for their only lead and trailed by one at halftime, 8-7. Notre Dame then scored the first goal of the second half to tie the game at 8-8 but that was as close as the Irish would get in the contest, falling 15-11.
Freshman goaltender Ellie Hilling made seven stops in the game for Tracy Coyne’s squad.
Despite the two losses on the weekend to the top U.S. national teams, Coyne was able to take many positives from the weekend.
“In general, I thought our team came down here with a great attitude about facing the top players in the country,” said Coyne after Sunday’s game.
“I was very happy with the way we responded after a tough day on Saturday (a 23-7 loss to the U.S. National Elite Team) and did some things well today. We had some great ball movement at times offensively and scored 11 goals. Defensively, we had some good stands and forced turnovers. We just need to put more of both together and be more consistent. We now know what we need to work on to get ready for our season opener in three weeks.”
Notre Dame is currently ranked ninth in the Lacrosse Magazine preseason poll and will open the regular season on Tuesday, Feb. 23 when the Irish travel to Hofstra for a 3:30 p.m. game.