April 7, 2012
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Using an 11-goal, second-half surge, the sixth-ranked University of Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team (9-2, 3-2) pulled away for an 18-5 victory over Villanova (2-9, 0-3) Saturday at Arlotta Stadium. Freshman Allie Murray earned the victory in her first career start in net.
Lindsay Powell led the way for an Irish offensive attack that saw nine different players score, tallying five goals on the day. Lauren Sullivan scored a career-high four goals, Grace Dooley and Kaitlyn Brosco added two apiece and Maggie Tamasitis, Jenny Granger, Kelly Driscoll, Megan Sullivan and Betsy Mastropieri added lone markers.
Murray, meanwhile, showed little nerves in her first career start, stopping nine shots while only allowing five goals to the Wildcats offense. The Exton, Pa., native followed up a three-save first half by stopping six of eight shots put on cage in the second half. She earned her first career victory and improved her goals-against-average to 8.78 for the season.
Maria Bowman led the way for Villanova, finishing the game with two goals. Jessica Mucci, Ali Brandenburg and Justine Donodeo added single tallies. Ama Hirschfeld got the start for the Wildcats and took the loss, allowing three goals without recording a save before getting pulled 5:12 into the first half. Dani Wiedmeier finished the contest, recording 13 saves and allowing 15 goals over the final 54:48.
The Irish, aided by back-to-back goals by Powell to begin the game, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the contest with only 3:25 having elapsed off the clock. After Tamasitis scored to make the count 3-0, Villanova brought in Wiedmeier to man the cage. Dooley greeted the Wildcats’ goalkeeper with her third goal of the year at 17:15 to push the score to 4-0.
Bowman got Villanova its first goal at 15:56, but the Irish responded with scores from Brosco, M. Sullivan and L. Sullivan to expand the count to 7-1. The Wildcats reeled off three consecutive scores of their own, however, to cut the lead to just three (7-4) with 23:01 left in the contest.
The Irish attack then took over for that final stretch of the game, outscoring Villanova 11-1 in that time. Included during that period, K. Driscoll scored her first goal of the season and recorded her first career assist, while L. Sullivan and McKenzie Brown also notched their first career helpers.
Notre Dame next faces Connecticut on Saturday, April 14 in Storrs, Conn. Opening draw is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. (ET).
**IRISH NOTES**
** With her assist 55 seconds into the first half, Maggie Tamasitis improved her point streak to 48 consecutive games, trailing Caitlin McKinney’s program-best mark (51) by only three games. Additionally, Tamasitis has now tallied the fourth-most assists (38) in a single season while moving into fifth on the all-time points list with 200 (70g-130a).
** Jaimie Morrison tied her career high with two assists in the contest.
** Lindsay Powell recorded five goals for the second time on the season, with the first five-goal game coming in the season opener against Stanford.
** Grace Dooley tied her career high with two goals, matching her best mark set earlier this season against Cornell.
** In addition to scoring a career-best four goals, Lauren Sullivan also posted her first career assist and set a career high with five points.
** Senior Kristin DeRespiris played in her first game of the season and 10th of her career.
–ND–