March 11, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. –
Complete Release in PDF Format 
– The Game: #11/#10 Notre Dame (2-1) at California (1-3)
– Date/Time/Site: Sat., March 13, 2010 – 12:00 noon (PT) – Memorial Stadium – Berkeley, Calif.
– Internet: The Notre Dame-California game will have live stats availabile on the Cal website at calbears.com. California also provides Twitter updates at twitter.com/calwlacrosse.
SPRING BREAK IN CALIFORNIA: The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team opens a two-game road swing this weekend when they travel west to Berkeley, Calif., to face the University of California Golden Bears on Sat., March 13 for a 12:00 noon (PT) contest at Memorial Stadium. The Irish will take a 2-1 record into the game and are coming off a 12-8 home loss to Dartmouth on March 7 at Arlotta Stadium. For California, Saturday’s game closes a four-game homestand as the Bears are 1-3 on the season. In their last outing, on March 2, Cal picked up its first win of the year, a 14-9 victory over Davidson. During the current homestand, the Golden Bears have faced Ohio State, Northwestern and Davidson. Following the game with Notre Dame, California has just three more home games during the 2010 campaign. Notre Dame will next be in action on Saturday, March 20 when the Irish travel to Boston, Mass., to face the ninth-ranked Boston University Terriers in a 12:00 noon game.
THE IRISH ALL-TIME: In this the 14th season of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse program, Notre Dame brings a 128-83 all-time record (.607) into the game at California. That record includes a 51-46 road record (.526). At home, the Irish are 63-30 (.677) with a 14-7 all-time ledger on neutral fields.
IRISH VERSUS THE GOLDEN BEARS: Notre Dame and California have met six times in the all-time series with the Irish having won all six previous meetings. Notre Dame is 3-0 at home versus Cal, 2-0 in Berkeley and 1-0 on neutral sites. Last season, the two teams played at Notre Dame’s Loftus Sports Center with the Irish taking a 20-4 win. Several members of this year’s team played key roles in the win. Gina Scioscia (Sr., Summit, N.J.) and Kailene Abt (Jr., Huntington, N.Y.) had six-point games with Sciosica scoring a pair and setting up four others. Abt had four lamplighter and chipped in a pair of assists in the win. Sophomore Kelly Driscoll (Andover, Mass.) had a pair of goals while Maggie Tamasitis (So., Boyertown, Pa.), Shaylyn Blaney (Jr., Stony Brook, N.Y.), Meredith Locasto (Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.), Kaitlin Keena (Jr., Vienna, Va.) and Maggie Zentgraf (Sr., Charlottesville, Va.) each had one goal in the victory. Notre Dame out shot Cal, 38-10 in the game.
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST: Two members of the Notre Dame roster have been selected among a group of 52 players to the 2010 Tewaaraton Trophy Watch Lists. The duo – junior midfielder Shaylyn Blaney and senior Gina Scioscia – are two of 10 players from the BIG EAST to be named to the Watch List. Blaney was selected to the Watch List last season while this is the first time for Scioscia. Both players were second team IWLCA All-Americans last year. Both were preseason all-BIG EAST selections for 2010 while Scioscia was named by the conference coaches as the preseason offensive player of the year.
ARLOTTA STADIUM OPENER: The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team played its first-ever game at Arlotta Stadium on Sunday, March 7 and the final results weren’t quite what the Irish were looking for as they dropped a 12-8 decision to No. 20 Dartmouth. The state-of-the-art facility is named after Notre Dame graduate John Arlotta, president and chief executive officer of Denver-based Coram Inc. He and his wife, Bobbie, pledged the lead gift toward the stadium. The Arlotta children – Mindy, Andy and Jon – also have pledged an additional gift from The Arlotta Family Foundation toward the project. In addition to their generous donation, alumni and friends of the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs have made significant contributions. The stadium was dedicated on Oct. 17, 2009. The previous afternoon, the Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team defeated the Iroquois National Team, 14-8, in the first game played at Arlotta Stadium. The stadium features over 2,000 permanent seats, lights, an artificial-turf field, locker rooms, team lounges, restrooms and concession areas.
HEAD COACH Tracy Coyne: Tracy Coyne is in her 14th season at Notre Dame and her 23rd year in collegiate lacrosse. Coyne brings a 242-109 (.689) career record into this week’s game. As the only head coach in the Notre Dame program’s history, Coyne is 128-83 (.607) and has guided the Irish to five NCAA tournaments (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009) where her teams have advanced to the Final Four once (2006) and the quarterfinals twice (2002, 2009). The Irish have been in all three BIG EAST Tournaments to date, beginning in 2007 and they recorded their first BIG EAST title last season with wins over Syracuse (16-10) and Georgetown (12-10). A 1983 Ohio University graduate, Coyne was 23-5 in two seasons at Denison (1988-89), 91-21 in seven years at Roanoke (1990-96) and 128-83 in this, her 14th season at Notre Dame. The Pittsburgh, Pa., native led Denison (1988) and Roanoke (1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996) to the NCAA Division III tournament during stops at those schools. Coyne also has coached on the international level as the head coach for the Canadian women’s lacrosse national team from 1999-2005. In June of 2005, she led Team Canada to a fourth-place finish at the 2005 World Cup, her second, fourth-place finish (2001) as Canada’s field boss. Coyne is 6-0 versus California during her coaching career.
DARTMOUTH RECAP: The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team ran into a red-hot Dartmouth squad on Sunday, March 7 at Arlotta Stadium, dropping a 12-8 decision to the Big Green. Kristen Goldberg paced the Dartmouth attack with five goals while Greta Meyer and Sarah Parks had two each in the victory. Erin Massimi, Kat Collins and Hilary Smith had one each. Notre Dame was paced on offense by junior Kailene Abt (Jr., Huntington, N.Y.) who had three goals and an assist in the loss. Sophomore Maggie Tamasitis (Boyertown, Pa.) had two goals and an assist while Ansley Stewart (Jr., Alexandria, Va.), Gina Scioscia and Jackie Doherty (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.) had one goal each. The Irish scored just one goal in the first half and trailed Dartmouth, 4-1, at halftime with the Big Green having a 14-6 shot advantage. Notre Dame got off to a fast start in the second half as Tamasitis and Abt scored 38 seconds apart at 29:52 and 29:14 to make it a 4-3 game. Dartmouth then ran off five unanswered goals for a 9-3 advantage with 13:04 left in the game. The teams traded goals over the next 10 minutes so that the Irish trailed, 12-6, with 2:31 left in the game. Abt and Zentgraf closed the Irish scoring for the 12-8 final score. Dartmouth finished with a 30-23 shot advantage. Julie Wadland finished with 12 saves for the Big Green while Ellie Hilling (Fr., Rochester, N.H.) had nine saves for Notre Dame.
SLOW START: Notre Dame’s one goal in the first half of the 12-8 loss to Dartmouth was the fewest goals scored by the Irish in a half since April 9, 2008 when they were held scoreless (11-0) in the first half of a 16-2 loss at Northwestern.
ABT TO SCORE: Junior Kailene Abt has carried the hot hand for Notre Dame over the last two games, notching seven goals and one assists in the win over Duquesne and the loss to Dartmouth. The talented midfielder scored four goals in the 15-10 win over Duquesne and then had three goals and an assist in the loss to Dartmouth. After three games, Abt leads the Irish in scoring with eight goals and one assist for nine points.
CHANGING ROLES: Sophomore Maggie Tamasitis got her second season off to a fast start with six assists in her first two games. On Sunday against Dartmouth, she put on her goal-scoring shoes as she scored twice and added an assist for a three-point game. She is tied with Abt for the team lead in scoring with two goals and seven assists for nine points. In 23 career games, Tamasitis already has 27 career assists.
STREAKING IRISH: With a second-half free-position goal against Dartmouth, Gina Scioscia extended her point streak to 22 games. Here are the current Irish scoring streaks:
Gina Scioscia - 22 games (55g, 41a, 96 pts)Kailene Abt - 18 games (40g, 9a, 45 pts)Kaitlin Keena - 9 games (10g, 6a, 16 pts)Ansley Stewart - 9 games (10g, 4a, 14 pts)Maggie Tamasitis - 3 games (2g, 7a, 9 pts)
A WINNING LEGACY: Notre Dame’s 16 wins in 2009 are the most in a single season for the Irish, surpassing the mark of 15-4 set in 2006. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Irish are 56-23 (.709).
ROAD WARRIORS: Notre Dame picked up where it left off last season on the road with the 13-12 win over Hofstra on Feb. 23. The Irish finished the 2009 season with a 6-3 record on the road. The six road wins equal the most the Irish have ever won on the road in the program’s 14-year history. In 2008, Notre Dame was 6-3 in nine road games. The Irish also were 2-0 in neutral site games for a total of eight wins away from Alumni Field and the Loftus Center. The three road losses came at Syracuse (14-13) and at Vanderbilt (18-11) in the regular season and at North Carolina (16-10) in the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame is 0-5 on the road in NCAA Tournament games in five trips to the tournament.
FOR OPENERS: Notre Dame’s win over Duquesne improved the Irish to 9-5 in home openers in the 14 years of the program. The win at Hofstra (Feb. 23) improved the Irish to 12-2 all-time in opening games. In road openers, the Irish are 13-1.
IN THE GOAL: Freshman Ellie Hilling (Rochester, N.Y.) has started each of Notre Dame’s first three games. The 5-2 goalkeeper is the lone goalie on the Notre Dame roster this season and owns a 2-1 record with an 11.33 goals-against average and a .370 save percentage. She recorded a career-high nine saves in the loss to Dartmouth on March 7. A two-time honorable mention high school All-American, Hilling was a four-year starter at Brighton High School where she guided her team to a pair of state championship games.
VERSUS THE BEST: Notre Dame’s 12-8 loss to No. 20 Dartmouth was the team’s first loss to a ranked squad this season. After going 8-5 a year ago against ranked teams, the Irish are 0-1 this season.
IRISH FIRSTS: Four members of the Notre Dame lacrosse team recorded college firsts in the win over Duquesne. Sophomore midfielder Kate Newall (Middlesex, England) scored the first goal of her career and added an assist for her first multiple-point game. Freshman midfielder Jenny Granger (East Setauket, N.Y.) recorded the first goal of her career and then added a second goal for her first multi-goal game of her career. Freshman Betsy Mastropieri (Richmond, Va.) scored the first goal of her career in her first game and sophomore Flannery Nangle (Auburn, N.Y.) picked up her first career assist in the win. Against Dartmouth junior Jackie Doherty (Ellicott City, Md.) scored her first goal of the 2010 season.
CLOSE ONES: Notre Dame’s one-goal win over Hofstra was the 33rd game in the program’s history to be decided by one goal. In those games, the Irish are 16-17 all-time. During the 2009 season, they were 0-1 with a 14-13 loss at Syracuse. Here’s a year-by-year breakdown:
1997: 0-01998: 1-11999: 1-02000: 1-12001: 1-02002: 1-22003: 1-32004: 1-22005: 0-22006: 4-22007: 3-12008 1-22009: 0-12010: 1-0Total: 16-17
THE CAPTAINS: Four members of the 2010 Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team will serve as captains this season. Three seniors – Gina Scioscia, Rachel Guerrera (Wantagh, N.Y.) and Maggie Zentgraf (Charlottesville, Va.) – will have leadership roles with the Irish. They will be joined by junior Shaylyn Blaney. All four are in their first season as captains.
SCORING MACHINE: Notre Dame finished the 2009 season with a school record 321 goals (15.29 per game) and records for assists and points. As a team, the Irish had five players with 30 or more goals (a first for the program) and seven players with 15 or more. While losing four-time All-American Jillian Byers `09′ 83 goals, the Irish return its next six top scorers. Gina Scioscia is the top returnee with 53 goals and is followed by Kailene Abt with 46. Shaylyn Blaney was third with 44 while Ansley Stewart had 30. Fellow junior Kaitlin Keena had 19 goals and sophomore Maggie Tamasitis rounds out the group with 15.
BIG JUMPS: Three members of the Notre Dame offensive attack had huge jumps in their scoring totals from the 2008 season to the 2009 campaign. Leading the way was midfielder Kailene Abt who saw a +46 improvement from her freshman year to last year. As a rookie, she had nine points and saw the number jump to 55 (46g, 9a) a year ago. Her 46-point increase is the biggest in the program’s history, just one behind Gina Scioscia’s 47-point increase from her freshman to sophomore year. Behind Abt was junior Ansley Stewart who had a 42-point improvement, going from 0 points as a freshman to 42 (30g, 12a) last season. Making her second appearance on the list is Scioscia, who saw her numbers jump 41 points as she went from 55 as a sophomore to 96 (53g, 43a) last season.
PRESEASON HONORS: Three members of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team were selected to the BIG EAST preseason team in voting by the league’s coaches. Senior attack standout Gina Scioscia was a unaminous selection to the all-BIG EAST preseason team and was named the preseason offensive player of the year. Senior defender Rachel Guerrera and junior midfielder Shaylyn Blaney join Scioscia on the team. The Irish were selected to finish third by the coaches, getting two first-place votes behind Georgetown and Syracuse.
VERSUS THE RANKED: As of March 10, eight teams that are ranked in the IWLCA coaches’ poll are ranked nationally in the top 20. This season, the Irish will face: No. 1 ranked Northwestern followed by No. 5 Georgetown, No. 7 Syracuse and No. 9 Boston University among top 10 teams. That group is followed by No. 16 Dartmouth, No. 17 Loyola (Md.), No. 19 Vanderbilt and No. 20 Rutgers. Two other teams – Hofstra and Ohio State – are receiving votes. Going into this week’s rankings, a total of five BIG EAST teams are ranked in the top 20 in the coaches’ poll. A year ago, Notre Dame played 13 games versus ranked teams and was 8-5 on the season.
NORTH OF THE BORDER: Irish assistant coach Kateri Linville will serve as an assistant coach for Canada’s Under-19 team that will compete in the World Cup in Hannover, Germany in August of 2011. She was named to the position in January. She will serve as an assistant to Canisius head coach Scott Teter. A 2003 graduate of the University of Delaware, Linville is in her fifth season as an assistant at Notre Dame.
HOMECOMING: Five members of the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team made a trip home to Long Island for Notre Dame’s game at Hofstra (2/23). Senior defender Rachel Guerrera (Wantagh, N.Y.), juniors Kailene Abt (Huntington, N.Y.) and Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.), sophomore Kristin DeRespiris (Locust Valley, N.Y.) and freshman Jenny Granger (East Setauket, N.Y.) make up the Irish Long Island contingent.
NEW KIDS: Head coach Tracy Coyne announced in November that seven student-athletes had signed national letters-of-intent to attend Notre Dame in the fall of 2009. Here are the seven players who will join the Irish next season.
Name Pos. Ht. Hometown/High SchoolKaitlyn Brosco M 5-2 Shoreham, N.Y./Shoreham Wading RiverKristin Cousins D 5-11 Glen Ridge, N.J./Glen RidgeGrace Dooley M 5-9 Chicago, Ill./Loyola AcademyLindsay Powell M/A 5-3 Honeoye Falls, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima Sr.Molly Shawhan M 5-8 Fulton, Md./Our Lady of Good CounselMargaret Smith M 5-7 Westminster, Md./McDonogh SchoolLauren Sullivan A 5-5 Winchester, Mass./Winchester