March 9, 2009
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame women’s lacrosse’s senior attack standout Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) has been selected as the BIG EAST offensive player of the week for her play in Notre Dame’s 16-11 win over 13th-ranked Dartmouth on March 7 in Hanover, N.H.
In the game at Dartmouth, Byers, who paced the Irish attack with three goals and two assists, and her teammates engineered the biggest comeback in Notre Dame history, overcoming a six-goal, first-half deficit on the way to the 16-11 win.
Notre Dame’s team captain saw Dartmouth score the first six goals of the game for a 6-0 lead with 16:21 left in the first half. The 11th-ranked Irish broke the shutout with two goals only to see the Big Green answer with two of their own for an 8-2 lead with 7:30 left in the half. From there, Notre Dame ran off 11 unanswered goals, getting three in the first half to cut the lead to 8-5 at halftime.
In the second half, Byers took over, scoring all five of her points. Her first goal came just 25 seconds into the second half to cut the lead to 8-6. Goals by Shaylyn Blaney (So., Stony Brook, N.Y.) and Gina Scioscia (Jr., Summit, N.J.) tied the game at 8-8 and Byers’ second goal with 23:46 left in the game put the Irish in the lead and ahead to stay at 9-8.
The third goal of the game for Byers came with 17:32 left made it 11-8 and the high-scoring leader of the Irish added two late assists for her five-point after noon in the 16-11 win.
She also had one ground ball, two draw controls and one caused turnover on the score sheet for the game.
On the season, the all-BIG EAST and All-American candidate, leads Notre Dame with 16 goals and her two assists give her 18 points on the season, putting her one point behind Scioscia’s team-best 19 points. She also leads the team with 17 draw controls and is tied for the lead with eight draw controls.
Byers and the Irish enter the week with a three-game winning streak and are 4-1 on the season.
They return to action this week with a pair of games. On Tuesday, March 10, Notre Dame faces James Madison University in Orlando, Fla., at Disney’s World of Sports. Game time is 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, March 14, the Irish return home to play host to the Hofstra Pride at the Loftus Center. That game will start at 1:00 p.m.