March 10, 2009
Orlando, Fla. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team ran its winning streak to four straight as the Irish recovered from a 9-7 halftime deficit to hand James Madison a 16-12 loss on Tuesday night at Hess Field at Disney’s World of Sports.
The game is part of Notre Dame’s four-day spring training trip to Florida and the second win for the Irish on their two-game road trip.
Junior Gina Scioscia (Summit, N.J.) led the Irish offense with three goals and two assists and was followed on the scoresheet by Shaylyn Blaney (So., Stony Brook, N.Y.) with three goals of her own while Jillian Byers (Sr., Northport, N.Y.) added a five-point game of her own with two goals and three assists..
Also scoring two goals each for Notre Dame were Ansley Stewart (So., Alexandria, Va.), Maggie Zentgraf (Jr., Charlottesville, Va.) and Kailene Abt (So., Huntington, N.Y.). Jackie Doherty (So., Ellicott City, Md.) and Megan Sullivan (Fr., Winchester, Mass.) closed out the scoring for the Irish with one goal each.
Mary Kate Lomady led the Dukes with four goals in the game while Casey Ancarrow, Jaime Dardine and Kim Griffin each scored twice in the contest.
Erin Goodman (Sr., Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) made six saves in the win for the Irish.
Notre Dame overcame a pair of three-goal first half deficits as they trailed 5-2 and 6-3 with 15:42 left in the opening stanza.
Abt would score twice with single goals from Zentgraf and Stewart offsetting a goal by the Dukes’ Ancarrow to tie the score at 7-7 with 3:25 left in the half. The Irish would then surrender a pair of goals in the final 44 seconds of the half to go into the intermission trailing, 9-7.
Then, just like last Saturday’s come-from-behind win at Dartmouth, Notre Dame roared out of the blocks to start the second half, scoring the first four goals in a 3:47 span as lamplighters by Scioscia, Doherty, Byers and Blaney gave the Irish an 11-9 lead that they never relinquished.
Lomady’s third goal of the game with 19:52 left in the game cut the Notre Dame lead to 11-10 but that was as close as James Madison would get as the Irish answered with three goals from Stewart, Scioscia and Blaney in a 2:56 span to make it 14-10 with 16:05 remaining.
Zentgraf scored her second goal of the game and Sullivan picked up her first collegiate goal at 9:55 to offset Lomady’s fourth goal of the game and Griffin’s second for the 16-12 final score.
The win improves ninth-ranked Notre Dame to 5-1 on the season while No. 15 James Madison falls to 3-1 for the year.
The Irish will return to action on Saturday, March 14 when they return home to face the Hofstra Pride in a 1:00 p.m. game at the Loftus Sports Center. The Pride plays at Northwestern on Thursday before traveling to Notre Dame. The game starts a five-game homestand for the Irish.
at Disney World of Sports - Orlando, Fla.
GAME SUMMARY 1 2 - F#17/#15 James Madison (3-1) 9 3 - 12#11/#9 Notre Dame (5-1) 7 9 - 16
ScoringFirst Half:Time Team Score Goal Assist28:57 JMU 0-1 Mary Kate Lomady27:38 JMU 0-2 Caitlin Sullivan Kim Griffin27:07 ND 1-2 Jillian Byers Ansley Stewart25:54 JMU 1-3 Jaime Dardine Casey Ancarrow23:37 ND 2-3 Shaylyn Blaney Gina Scioscia20:26 JMU 2-4 Jaime Dardine (2) Kim Griffin (2)18:24 JMU 2-5 Annie Brophy Casey Ancarrow (2)17:08 ND 3-5 Gina Scioscia15:42 JMU 3-6 Mary Kate Lomady (2)14:10 ND 4-6 Kailene Abt10:24 ND 5-6 Kailene Abt (2) Jackie Doherty 9:30 JMU 5-7 Casey Ancarrow Jaime Dardine 8:46 ND 6-7 Maggie Zentgraf Jillian Byers 3:25 ND 7-7 Ansley Stewart Gina Scioscia (2) 0:44 JMU 7-8 Kim Griffin 0:19 JMU 7-9 Casey Ancarrow (2)
Second HalfTime Team Score Goal Assist29:37 ND 8-9 Gina Scioscia (2)28:55 ND 9-9 Jackie Doherty28:16 ND 10-9 Jillian Byers (2)26:13 ND 11-9 Shaylyn Blaney (2)19:52 JMU 11-10 Mary Kate Lomady (3)19:01 ND 12-10 Ansley Stewart (2) Kaitlin Keena18:41 ND 13-10 Gina Scioscia (3) Jillian Byers (2)16:05 ND 14-10 Shaylyn Blaney (3) Free-position shot12:55 JMU 14-11 Mary Kate Lomady (4)12:02 ND 15-11 Maggie Zentgraf (2) 9:55 ND 16-11 Megan Sullivan Jillian Byers (3) 0:08 JMU 16-12 Kim Griffin (2) Free-position shot