May 1, 2011
Cincinnati, Ohio – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team closed the 2011 regular season in grand style as 11 different players scored for the Irish in a 17-6 win at Nippert Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
After giving up the first goal of the game to the Bearcats just 27 seconds into the contest, Notre Dame ran off 11 straight goals on the way to a 13-2 lead after 30 minutes in the victory.
Senior Kailene Abt and junior Maggie Tamasitis led the way with three goals each. Senior Kaitlin Keena and sophomore Betsy Mastropieri scored two each and Jenny Granger, Shaylyn Blaney, Megan Sullivan, Jaimie Morrison, Lauren Fenlon, Emily Conner and McKenzie Brown scored solo goals for Notre Dame’s total of 17. Granger, with a goal and three assists, and Tamasitis, with three goals and an assist, led the Irish with four points each.
Allison Bell led Cincinnati with three goals while Katie Kiriazoglou, MacKenzie Parsons and Laura Simanski had one goal each. Kiriazoglou chipped in three assists for a four-point afternoon.
The win gives the Irish a two-game winning streak and moves them over .500 at 9-8 for the first time since March 15. They finish the BIG EAST regular season with a 6-2 record and will be seeded fourth in the BIG EAST Tournament next Thursday, May 5, facing Georgetown in one of the semifinal games.
Cincinnati closes the season with a 2-14 overall record and the Bearcats were 0-8 in conference play.
The Irish outshot Cincinnati, 36-14, in the game. Both teams used two goalkeepers on the afternoon. Sophomore Ellie Hilling started her 35th consecutive game, playing the first 30 minutes, giving up a pair of goals with no saves. Fellow sophomore, Adele Bruggeman, played the final 30 minutes, giving up four goals while making four stops. The Bearcats started Haley Marvine who played the 23:06, giving up 12 goals with six saves. Jen Walsh played 36:54, giving up five goals with six saves.
Cincinnati got the game off to a quick start with Bell getting the first of her three goals just 27 seconds into the game for a 1-0 Bearcat lead.
After that, it was all Notre Dame, as the Irish ran off 11 straight and 15 of the next 16 goals in the game.
Granger had her hand in three of the first four Irish goals, scoring the first Irish marker of the game at 27:17. Following a goal by Sullivan 31 seconds later at 26:46, Granger set up goals by Keena and Mastropieri in a 38-second span at 26:19 and 25:41 to give Notre Dame a 4-1 lead.
Tamasitis, Morrison and Abt made it 7-1 with 16:24 left before Mastropieri became the first multiple-goal scorer on a free-position shot at 14:13 to make it 8-1.
Keena, Abt and Tamasitis closed out the 11-goal run to make it 11-1 with 7:46 left in the opening stanza.
Bell broke the run with a free-position shot with 4:10 left in the half before Blaney got her only goal of the game with 23 seconds left and Abt closed out her hat trick with her second free-position goal of the contest with three seconds left in the half for a 13-2 lead.
Irish head coach Tracy Coyne emptied her bench in the second half, giving Bruggeman the first extended playing time of her Notre Dame career in goal.
Tamasitis got her hat trick at 22:38 of the second half and Brown scored the second goal of her career at 20:31 to make it a 15-2 lead before the Bearcats’ offense got back on the scoreboard with four straight goals to cut the lead to 15-6.
Parsons, Kiriazoglou, Simanski and Bell (her third goal of the game) cut the Irish lead to nine goals with 8:20 left in the game.
A pair of Irish defenders closed the scoring with Conner getting her third goal of the year and senior Lauren Fenlon getting the final goal for the first of her career in the 17-6 victory.
Notre Dame’s 6-2 record in the BIG EAST equals the mark the Irish had last year when they were a number two seed in the tournament. This year, they are tied for third with Loyola (Md.) but the Greyhounds have the tiebreaker, having beaten Notre Dame, 13-10, on April 3 at Arlotta Stadium.
The Irish will be playing in their fifth consecutive BIG EAST Tournament when they travel to Washington, D.C., to face the Hoyas in a semifinal game on Thursday, May 5.
** IRISH NOTES **
** Notre Dame’s two road wins this week give the Irish a 5-4 record on the road this season. The Irish now have four consecutive years with a winning record on the road. Since the 2008 season, Notre Dame is 23-14 (.622) on the road.
** With three goals and an assist versus Cincinnati, junior attack Maggie Tamasitis extended her personal scoring streak to 35 games, having scored in all 18 games last season and all 17 so far this year. That gives her the fourth-longest point streak in Irish history. In those 35 games, Tamasitis has 39 goals and 65 assists for 104 points.
** After going four games without a goal, sophomore Jenny Granger got back on track this weekend with five goals and three assists for eight points. She now has 23 goals and 12 assists for 35 points this season.
** With a goal and an assist in the game, senior Shaylyn Blaney has 29 goals and 10 assists for 39 points on the season. The 10 assists are a career high for Blaney who is tied for the team lead in goals with Kaitlyn Brosco with 29.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 - FNotre Dame (9-8/6-2) 13 4 - 17Cincinnati (2-14/0-8) 2 4 - 6
ScoringFirst Half:Time Team Score Goal Assist29:33 UC 0-1 Allison Bell Katie Kiriazoglou27:17 ND 1-1 Jenny Granger Kaitlin Keena26:46 ND 2-1 Megan Sullivan Shaylyn Blaney26:19 ND 3-1 Kaitlin Keena Jenny Granger25:41 ND 4-1 Betsy Mastropieri Jenny Granger (2)24:47 ND 5-1 Maggie Tamasitis17:48 ND 6-1 Jaimie Morrison Maggie Tamasitis16:27 ND 7-1 Kailene Abt Free-position shot14:13 ND 8-1 Betsy Mastropieri (2) Free-position shot11:52 ND 9-1 Kaitlin Keena (2) Free-position shot10:57 ND 10-1 Kailene Abt (2) 7:46 ND 11-1 Maggie Tamasitis (2) Jenny Granger (3) 4:10 UC 11-2 Allison Bell (2) Free-position shot 0:23 ND 12-2 Shaylyn Blaney 0:03 ND 13-2 Kailene Abt (3) Free-position shot
Second HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist22:38 ND 14-2 Maggie Tamasitis (3)20:31 ND 15-2 McKenzie Brown Molly Shawhan17:09 UC 15-3 MacKenzie Parsons14:33 UC 15-4 Katie Kiriazoglou Kylie Ramsland10:52 UC 15-5 Laura Simanski Katie Kiriazoglou (2) 8:20 UC 15-6 Allison Bell (3) Katie Kiriazoglou (3) 1:58 ND 16-6 Emily Conner 0:27 ND 17-6 Lauren Fenlon
Goalkeepers:Notre Dame: Ellie Hilling (30:00 min; 2 goals against, 0 saves) Adele Bruggeman (30:00 min; 4 goals against, 4 saves)Cincinnati: Haley Marvine (23:06 min; 12 goals against, 6 saves) Jen Walsh (36:54 min; 5 goals against, 6 saves)
Total Shots: Notre Dame: 36; Cincinnati: 14Ground Balls: Notre Dame: 24; Cincinnati: 19Draw Controls: Notre Dame: 13; Cincinnati: 12Caused Turnovers: Notre Dame: 9; Cincinnati: 4