March 2, 2008
Palo Alto, Calif. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team headed west for a three-game Spring Break trip to California and saw the trip get off on the wrong foot Sunday afternoon as the Irish lost a 13-9 decision to Stanford at Cagan Stadium.
Junior Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) led the Irish offense with four goals and one assist for he fourth game this season with four or more points this season. Freshman midfielder Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) had two goals and an assist while Caitlin McKinney (Sr., Lafayette Hill, Pa.), Gina Scioscia (So., Summit, N.J.) and Kaitlin Keena (Fr., Vienna, Va.) added single goals for Notre Dame.
Megan McClain paced the Cardinal attack with four goals while Sarah Flynn scored three times and Karen Nesbitt and Dana Lindsay had two each. Jamie Nesbitt and Bess Siegfried each had one goal.
The loss snapped 10th-ranked Notre Dame’s three-game season-opening win streak as the Irish are now 3-1 on the season. Stanford improved to 4-2 on the year.
The two teams opened the game by trading the first six goals of the game. McClain, Jamie Nesbitt and Karen Nesbitt scored the first three Stanford goals while Scioscia, Byers and McKinney made it 3-3 with 14:23 left in the first half.
Byers’ second goal of the game at 14:00 gave Notre Dame its first lead of the game at 4-3 only to see Flynn’s first goal of the game tie the game at 4-4 with 13:37 remaining on the clock.
The Irish would get their final lead of the afternoon at 13:01 when Keena got her lone goal by beating Stanford’s Laura Shane with a free-position shot for the 5-4 lead.
From there, Stanford scored four straight goals. McClain scored twice at 10:59 and 9:57 while Flynn (9:07) and Lindsay (5:50) gave the Cardinal an 8-5 lead.
Blaney scored the final goal of the half at 4:46 for an 8-6 halftime score.
The Irish hoped to make a comeback in the second half only to see Stanford open the half by running off four consecutive goals over a 9:23 span.
Siegfried built the lead to 10-6 just 36 seconds into the half. She was followed by Lindsay (27:03), Karen Nesbitt (25:52) and McClain (20:37) to give Stanford a 12-6 lead.
Byers broke up the run at 14:47 with her third goal of the game to make it 12-7. The Irish would then take over nine minutes to score again as Byers beat Shane at 5:04 to make it 12-8.
Flynn scored for the Cardinal at 2:36 and Blaney got the game’s final goal at 1:14 with her second marker of the game.
The Irish out shot Stanford, 33-30, in the game. Erin Goodman (Jr., Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) finished with nine saves in the game while Shane made 17 to lead the Cardinal to the win.
Notre Dame will look to get back on track when the Irish participate in the East/West Challenge on Thursday, March 6 in San Diego, Calif. They will face the Oregon Ducks in a game that will be played at Torrey Pines High School with the opening draw set for 8:00 p.m. (PST). IRISH NOTES:
** Notre Dame’s loss to Stanford on Sunday afternoon marked the first time the Irish had lost to the Cardinal at Palo Alto. They are now 4-1 at Stanford and 6-3 in the all-time series.
** The Irish will play California on Saturday, March 8 at Pasadena, Calif., at the Rose Bowl to close out the trip. That game begins at 1:00 p.m. (PST).
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 - F#10 Notre Dame (3-1) 6 3 - 9Stanford (4-2) 8 6 - 13First HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist29:00 STAN 0-1 Megan McClain Free-position shot28:09 ND 1-1 Gina Scioscia Jillian Byer27:16 STAN 1-2 Jamie Nesbitt26:02 ND 2-2 Jillian Byers Shaylyn Blaney19:00 STAN 2-3 Karen Nesbitt14:23 ND 3-3 Caitlin McKinney Alicia Billings14:00 ND 4-3 Jillian Byers13:37 STAN 4-4 Sarah Flynn Karen Nesbitt13:01 ND 5-4 Kaitlin Keena Free-position shot10:59 STAN 5-5 Megan McClain 9:57 STAN 5-6 Megan McClain 9:07 STAN 5-7 Sarah Flynn Daphne Patterson 5:50 STAN 5-8 Dana Lindsay Daphne Patterson 4:46 ND 6-8 Shaylyn Blaney
Second HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist29:24 STAN 6-9 Bess Siegfried27:03 STAN 6-10 Dana Lindsay Julie Christy25:52 STAN 6-11 Karen Nesbitt20:37 STAN 6-12 Megan McClain14:47 ND 7-12 Jillian Byers Free-position shot 5:04 ND 8-12 Jillian Byers 2:36 STAN 8-13 Sarah Flynn Claire Hubbard 1:14 ND 9-13 Shaylyn BlaneyGoalkeepers:Notre Dame: (Erin Goodman; 60:00 min; 13 goals, 9 saves)Stanford: (Laura Shane; 60:00 min; 9 goals, 17 saves)
Total Shots: ND - 33; STAN - 30Groundballs: ND - 23; STAN - 18Draw Controls: ND - 10; STAN - 14Caused Turnovers: ND - 14; STAN - 8
— ND —