March 4, 2007
Ithaca, N.Y. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team wasted little time getting back on the winning track after last Thursday’s 18-10 home loss to Northwestern as the Irish handed 16th-ranked Cornell a 13-9 loss at cold and snowy Schoellkopf Field on Sunday afternoon.
Junior Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) led the Notre Dame attack with three goals and three assists while sophomore Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) added three goals and an assist and Lena Zentgraf (Sr., Charlottesville, Va.) equaled her career high with three goals to pace the Irish. Mary Carpenter (Jr., Rochester, N.Y.), Meghan Murphy (Sr., Centennial, Colo.) and Jane Stoeckert (So., Mendham, N.J.) each had a goal and an assist in the win with Heather Ferguson (Newtown Square, Pa.) also scored for Notre Dame.
Katherine Simmons led Cornell with three goals while six other Big Red players scored once each in the game.
The Notre Dame win, the third in a row versus Cornell, improved the Irish to 3-1 on the season while the Big Red fall to 1-2 on the year.
The Irish got strong goalkeeping from sophomore Erin Goodman (Cortlandt Park, N.Y.), especially in the first half when she made 11 of her career-best 14 saves in the game. While Goodman was holding off Cornell in the defensive zone, Notre Dame was building a 6-3 first half lead.
Lindsey Moore opened the scoring just 1:15 into the game with an unassisted goal to give the Big Red a 1-0 lead.
The Irish then scored the next four goals to take a 4-1 lead. Zentgraf got her first of three in the game with a free-position goal just 2:30 into the game. McKinney followed with her first of the day at the 4:04 mark to make it a 2-1 game.
Zentgraf made it 3-1 five minutes later converting a Murphy feed for her second of the game and fifth of the year at the 9:00 minute mark. Ferguson ended the Irish run at the 11:12 mark with her second of the season.
Cornell would cut the lead to 4-3 after goals by Simmons and Noelle Dowd, but that would be as close as the Big Red would get as the Irish got free-position goals by Byers (25:52) and McKinney (29:20) to give the Irish a three-goal lead after 30 minutes of play.
In the second half, the two teams traded the first four goals of the stanza with Stoeckert and Carpenter scoring for the Irish and Kathryn Dewey and Simmons (second of the game) making it 8-5 in favor of Notre Dame with 21 minutes left in the game.
A three-goal burst by the Irish gave them a commanding 11-5 lead as Murphy, McKinney (third of game) and Zentgraf (third of game) scored over a 5:37 span to put Notre Dame ahead by six with 14:59 left in the game.
Cornell would make it 11-7 when Simmons (third of game, eighth of season) and Alison McKeown scored back-t0-back with 6:47 remaining on the clock.
Byers would close out her hat trick (15 goals in first four games) with assists to McKinney on both goals to offset Cornell goals by Morgan Hale and Ashleigh Smith for the final score of 13-9.
Cornell out shot the Irish by a 27-26 margin for the game. Renee Hughes had six saves in goal for the Big Red.
For the Irish the game was their fourth in a row versus ranked teams after facing James Madison, Stanford, Northwestern and Cornell with the team going 3-1 to start the season.
Notre Dame is now off until next Saturday, March 10 when the Irish travel to Buffalo, N.Y., to face the Canisius Golden Griffins in a 12:00 noon game at the Demske Sports Complex.
IRISH NOTES:
** Notre Dame dominated the draw controls in the game, winning 20 of 24 in the game. Kaki Orr (Sr., Darien, Conn.) and Zentgraf led the way with five draw controls each. Byers had four in the game and Carpenter grabbed three to lead the Irish in that category.
** McKinney continued her point-scoring streak that she carried into the season from a year ago. McKinney has now scored in 26 straight games getting 63 goals and 27 assists for 90 points since April 24, 2005.
Game Summary 1 2 - F# 7 Notre Dame (3-1) 6 7 - 13#16 Cornell (1-2) 3 6 - 9
First-Half ScoringTime Team Score Goal Assist28:45 CU 0-1 Lindsey Moore (2)27:30 ND 1-1 * Lena Zentgraf (4) Free-position shot25:56 ND 2-1 Caitlin McKinney (11)21:00 ND 3-1 Lena Zentgraf (5) Meghan Murphy (3)18:48 ND 4-1 Heather Ferguson (2)15:10 CU 4-2 Katherine Simmons (6) 8:52 CU 4-3 Noelle Dowd (10) 4:08 ND 5-3 * Jillian Byers (13) Free-position shot 0:40 ND 6-3 * Caitlin McKinney (12) Free-position shot
Second-Half ScoringTime Team Score Goal Assist26:09 ND 7-3 Jane Stoeckert (2) Mary Carpenter (1)24:38 CU 7-4 Kathryn Dewey (2) Courtney Farrell (8)22:56 ND 8-4 Mary Carpenter (1) Caitlin McKinney (2)20:55 CU 8-5 Katherine Simmons (7)20:36 ND 9-5 Meghan Murphy (3) Jane Stoeckert (1)16:03 ND 10-5 Caitlin McKinney (13) Gina Scioscia (2)14:59 ND 11-5 Lena Zentgraf (6) Jillian Byers (2)10:39 CU 11-6 Katherine Simmons (8) 6:47 CU 11-7 Alison McKeown (3) Lindsay Moore (3) 4:08 ND 12-7 Jillian Byers (14) Caitlin McKinney (3) 3:26 CU 12-8 Morgan Hale (1) 2:21 ND 13-8 Jillian Byers (15) Caitlin McKinney (4) 1:04 CU 13-9 Ashleigh Smith (1) Courtney Farrell (9)
* Free-position goal
Goalkeepers Notre Dame - Erin Goodman (60:00 min.; 9 goals, 14 saves)Cornell - Renee Hughes (60:00 min; 13 goals, 6 saves)
Shots: ND - 26; CU - 27Ground Balls: ND - 11; CU - 16Draw Controls: ND - 20; CU - 4Caused Turnovers: ND - 3; ND - 10