Feb. 25, 2006
Berkeley, Calif. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team got the 2006 season off to a big start on Friday afternoon as the Irish rolled to a 23-11 win over the California Golden Bears at Memorial Stadium.
Crysti Foote (Sr., Suffern, N.Y.) paced the Notre Dame offense with a school record nine goals and two assists for a school-record 11-point game. She got plenty of help on the offensive side of the ball as freshman Jill Byers (Northport, N.Y.) set an Irish freshman mark with five goals and two assists for seven points in her first game in a Notre Dame uniform.
Laura Cavallo and Danni Zuralow each scored three goals to past the Golden Bears offense.
The victory gives Notre Dame a 1-0 mark on the new season while California falls to 1-1 on the year. The Irish will face the Stanford Cardinal on Sunday, Feb. 26 in a 12:00 noon (PST) contest.
Notre Dame gave up the first goal of the games to Zuralow just 1:25 into the game before scoring five straight goals on the way to a 5-1 lead just under nine minutes into the game. The Irish would build a 12-6 halftime lead in the game.
California rallied in the second half, cutting the Notre Dame lead to 15-11 with 21:29 left in the game when Irish head coach Tracy Coyne called a timeout.
That seemed to do the trick as the Irish ran off the final eight goals on the way to the 12-goal victory. Notre Dame’s 23 goals in the game breaks the previous record of 22 set versus Vanderbilt on May 1, 2003 and March 10, 2000 versus Ohio State.
Joining Foote and Byers in the goal-scoring column were Caitlin McKinney (So., Lafayette Hill, Pa.) who had three goals and three assists for six points; junior Kaki Orr (Darien, Conn.) who had two goals and Alicia Billings (Fr., Potomac, Md.), Jane Stoeckert (Fr., Mendham, N.J.), Heather Ferguson (So., Newtown Square, Pa.) and Meghan Murphy (Jr., Centennial, Colo.) who had one goal apiece.
Foote’s nine goals snap the previous record of seven set by Courtney Calabrese on April 18, 1998 in a game versus Gannon. Her 11-point afternoon breaks the previous mark of nine points in a game set by Lael O’Shaughnessy, who did it once, and Kerry Callahan, who recorded nine points twice in her career.
Byers broke McKinney’s freshman mark of four goals in her first game that was set last season.
Notre Dame out shot California, 38-21, in the game. Carol Dixon (Sr., Pennsauken, N.J.) was credited with six saves for the Irish while Hilary Lynch gave up all 23 goals for California while making eight saves. Morgan Dyson made one save in the final 5:12 of the game.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 FNotre Dame (1-0) 12 11 23California (1-1) 6 5 11
Notre Dame ScoringGoals: Crysti Foote 9, Jillian Byers 5, Caitlin McKinney 3, Kaki Orr, 2, Alicia Billings 1, Jane Stoeckert 1, Heather Ferguson 1, Meghan Murphy 1. Assists: Caitlin McKinney 3, Jillian Byers 2, Mary Carpenter 2, Crysti Foote 2, Brittany Fox 2.
California ScoringGoals: Laura Cavallo 3, Danni Zuralow 3, Leanne Zilioli 2, Liz Reifsnyder 1, Sam Price 1, Schuyler Sokolow 1. Assists: Jocelyn Paul 1, Leanne Zilioli 1.
GoalkeepingNotre Dame: Carol Dixon, 6 saves, 11 GA, 60:00. California: Hilary Lynch, 8 saves, 23 GA, 54:48; Morgan Dyson, 1 save, 0 GA, 5:12.