Irish Prepared To Battle Northwestern On The Road

April 7, 2018

By Matt Paras

NOTRE DAME, Indiana – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team (7-6) is heading north this weekend to face one of their mid-western rivals. The Irish square off with No. 9/8 Northwestern (10-3) Sunday afternoon with opening draw scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on BTN Plus which can be viewed on BTN2GO.

DATE: April 8, 2018
TIME: 1 p.m. (ET)
LOCATION: Martin Stadium (Evanston, Ill.)
BROADCAST: BTN Plus
LIVE STATS: NU Live Stats
TWITTER: @NDWomensLax

The Irish are coming off a 14-8 home win over Michigan Tuesday night. Following the game, head coach Christine Halfpenny was excited about how the team has started to come to form as the season has gone on.

“We are getting better every time out,” stated Halfpenny. “It is April and we are looking like a team this is really starting to gel and get to postseason form which isn’t too far away.”

The Irish used a strong stretch from their defense to fuel their offense to the tune of a 6-0 run in the first half against Michigan. The Irish held the Wolverines scoreless for a 12-minute span and put up six goals during that time. Andie Aldave and Jessi Masinko scored twice while Nikki Ortega and Kaci Messier added the others.

Michigan scored three straight to halt the run but the Irish answered with the final three goals of the half to take an 11-5 lead into the break.

In the second half, the defense stepped up again and kept the Wolverines scoreless for another 10-minute plus span. Notre Dame held Michigan to three second half goals en route to the 14-8 win. Maddie Howe and Masinko led the way for the Irish. Howe had a team-high six points on three goals and three assists while Masinko scored a team-high four goals.

Scouting the Wildcats

Northwestern enters Sunday’s matchup with a 10-3 record on the year and riding a five-game win streak. The Wildcats defeated Ohio State Friday afternoon 20-6 at home. Selena Lasota is the team leader with 34 goals and 42 points on the season.

The Irish are 4-18 all-time against the Wildcats and 2-10 up in Evanston. Last season, Notre Dame fell in the season opener to Northwestern 14-13. The last Irish win over the Wildcats came at home in 2016 when they won 15-3 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

–ND–

Matt Paras, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since January 2018. In his role, he coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse and cross country/track & field programs. A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Paras is a graduate of the University of Louisville where he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sport Administration. Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, he worked at Vanderbilt University as the sports information contact for the women’s soccer and lacrosse programs.