Feb. 16, 2013
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Trailing 7-2 at the half, the No. 8/9 University of Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team exploded for 10 second half goals, while limiting Stanford to just three, to spoil the Cardinal’ upset bid in the season-opener for both teams Saturday afternoon at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium at Maloney Field.
With the win the Irish opens the year 1-0 for the 15th time in 17 seasons.
“We made a lot of changes at halftime and got to playing like we had been playing in practice,” said head coach Christine Halfpenny. Once we made the adjustments at halftime we got on a roll. We played a very solid Stanford team that has a great coach and some talented players. Despite getting down early our team never gave up. They had great belief and we had incredible contributions from so many players, starters and reserves.”
Down 7-2, the Irish went to work in the second half, scoring six of the first seven goals of the second half, including five in a row from the 23:00 mark to 17:31 to tie the score at eight. The tie was the first since the score was 1-1 with 19:27 left in the first half. Sophomore Lauren Sullivan scored a pair of goals in under a minute, putting one in at 18:22 unassisted and another at 17:31 off a pass from Kaitlyn Brosco.
From there the two teams battled back and forth as each tallied goals to push the score to 10 all. Stanford took a 9-8 lead at 16:07 after a goal from Lucy Dikeou. Notre Dame answered just a minute and a half later as Brosco scored off a pass from junior Lindsay Powell. After Powell gave the Irish a 10-9 lead at 11:32, the Cardinal responded at 9:06 with the equalizer off the stick of Rachel Ozer.
Nearing the end of regulation, the Irish turned to a pair of upperclassman to close the door. Senior Betsy Mastropieri scored the lone free position goal of the game at 5:40 to give Notre Dame an 11-10 lead. Just 55 seconds later junior Grace Dooley sealed the game for the Irish as she pushed the lead to 12-10 after a Brosco pass set her up to drill a shot past goalie Lyndsey Munoz.
Notre Dame pounded the Cardinal’ net in the second half, taking 21 shots to just eight for Stanford. Overall, the Irish held a 25-22 advantage in shots.
The Irish were paced by juniors Powell, L.Sullivan and Dooley, who all found the back of the net twice. Five others scored one goal as eight Notre Dame student-athletes tallied at least one goal. Freshmen Kiera McMullan and Custis scored their first goals in an Irish uniform. Seven players dished out assists, led by Brosco’s two.
Brosco, Powell and Sullivan all led the Irish with three points. On defense Stephanie Peragallo scooped up four ground balls and caused two turnovers.
Senior Ellie Hilling picked up the win for Notre Dame in goal, stopping five shots while giving up 10.
Notre Dame got off to a tough start to the 2013 season as Stanford came out on fire and took a 7-2 lead into the break. The Irish scored the first goal of the game and season when Jaimie Morrison found the back of the net off the feed from Jenny Granger just 4:10 into the game. The Cardinal answered back with three consecutive goals from 19:27 to 10:17. After Custis scored her first goal in an Irish uniform off a pass from L. Sullivan with 8:36 left in the half, Stanford scored four more goals to extend its lead to 7-2 going into the locker room.
Notre Dame (1-0) returns to action Feb. 27 when it welcomes in No. 13/20 Ohio State for a 6 p.m. match at either Arlotta Stadium or Loftus Sports Center depending on weather.
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