April 14, 2012
STORRS, Conn. – University of Notre Dame women’s lacrosse senior attacker and Tewaaraton Award candidate Maggie Tamasitis dished out a school and BIG EAST record eight assists as the No. 7 Irish (10-2, 4-2 BIG EAST) rolled past Connecticut, 16-9, in conference action Saturday at the George J. Sherman Family-Sports Complex.
The eight helpers broke the school record of six that was held by Tamasitis, Gina Scioscia and Kerry Callahan and the league mark of seven that was held by Syracuse’s Kim Wayne (2002 vs. Connecticut) and Katie Rowan (2008 vs. Georgetown). The Boyertown, Pa., native also tied her own single-season school mark of 46 assists and tied her own school record with five helpers in the first half.
Entering this season, eight assists in a single game would put Tamasitis into a tie for fifth all-time in NCAA Division I history, behind only Northwestern’s Hannah Nielsen (10 vs. Duquesne in 2009), Mercyhurst’s Amy Perry (9 vs. Fredonia State in 1999), Navy’s Erin Rawlick (9 vs. Howard in 2010) and Boston College’s Karen Emas (9 vs. Iona in 2010).
Tamasitis also contributed one goal in the contest, representing one of eight Irish players to post a marker on the day. Jaimie Morrison led the scoring attack, recording four goals. Kaitlyn Brosco finished with three, while Megan Sullivan, Lindsay Powell and Caitlin Gargan chipped in two apiece. Alongside Tamasitis, Kelly Driscoll and Betsy Mastropieri both notched one goal. Ellie Hilling returned to the cage for the Irish, improving to 9-2 on the season after making 11 saves while allowing only nine goals.
M.E. Lapham led the Connecticut attack (7-5, 0-4 BIG EAST), finishing the contest with three goals and one assist. Kiersten Tupper and Kacey Pippitt both recorded two goals, with Lauren Kahn and Chelsea Hauswirth scoring one apiece. Britney Testa guarded the cage for the Huskies, falling to 6-5 on the year after allowing 16 goals while stopping eight shots.
The two teams started the half trading goals to make the score 2-2. Lapham got the scoring underway with an unassisted tally at 27:34, but Sullivan took a feed from Tamasitis just over a minute later to even the count. After Kahn gave the Huskies the lead back at 2-1, the Irish scored three consecutive goals to claim a lead they would not surrender.
Morrison and Sullivan scored 20 seconds apart at 22:56 and 22:36 to give Notre Dame its first lead of the contest before Brosco gathered in a pass from Morrison in front at 16:09 to move to a 4-2 advantage. Hauswirth temporarily stopped the momentum, cutting the lead to one with an unassisted marker but Mastropieri and K. Driscoll scored back-to-back to push the score to 6-3.
The goal by Driscoll began a stretch of six consecutive Irish goals in which Tamasitis would provide a helper. Morrison scored two more goals to end the first half, before she and Powell began the second half with a goal each all set up by the passing of Tamasitis. Brosco then scored at 23:43 off a Tamasitis dish to bump the score to 11-5.
After Gargan scored unassisted at 20:58 to push the Irish advantage to seven, the two teams scored four goals apiece over the final stretch of play as the Irish locked up their 10th win of the season and fourth in BIG EAST action. It is the seventh straight year in which Notre Dame has reached double-digit wins and the 10th time in the program’s 16-year history.
The Irish now return home for a top-20 showdown against #17 Vanderbilt at 2 p.m. (ET) Wednesday at Arlotta Stadium. Fans can follow the contest via live stats or live streaming video through UND.com.
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