April 25, 2002
Evanston, Ill. – The 10th-ranked Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team got back on the winning track Thursday afternoon at Northwestern’s Lakeside Field, scoring five times in the first seven minutes of the game on the way to an 11-3 win over the Northwestern Wildcats.
The Irish, who had lost three of their last four games all involving ranked teams, were paced offensively by junior Danielle Shearer (Hampstead, Md.) who led all scorers with three goals and an assist in the game. Meredith Simon (So., Flemington, N.J.), Anne Riley (Jr., Marblehead, Mass.) and Alissa Moser (Sr., North Wales, Pa.) each added a pair of goals in the win.
The victory improves the Irish to 10-4 overall while Northwestern falls to 5-9 in their first season of Division I play. The 10 wins equals the most in the program’s six-year history set during the 2001 campaign.
Shearer wasted little time getting the Irish on the scoreboard as she whipped a shot past Northwestern goalkeeper Ashley Gersuk just 30 seconds into the game. Moser got the second (3:40 into the game) Irish goal before Simon and Riley scored 29 seconds apart (5:22 and 5:51) to make it 4-0. Moser got her second of the game off a Shearer set up with 6:41 gone in the game for a 5-0 lead.
Northwestern’s Angela McMahon broke the Wildcat scoring drought at 11:05, before Riley scored her second of the game on a free position shot to restore the Irish lead to five goals at 13:55. The Wildcats scored the final two goals of the half as Jenna Gartner scored on a free position shot at 18:55 and Sarah Albrecht’s goal at 23:59 made it 6-3 at halftime.
That was as close as the Wildcats would get as the Irish defense slammed the door in the second half. Shearer scored twice in a 37-second span (at 4:28 and 5:05 into the second half) to make it 8-3. Freshman Lisa Lombardi (Milton, Mass.) scored her first career goal with 9:09 left in the game off a feed from Maureen Whitaker (Sr., Doylestown, Pa.) to give the Irish a 9-3 edge.
Simon scored her second goal of the game with 2:24 left on a free position shot and Kristen Gaudreau (So., Annapolis, Md.) got her second of the year with 1:16 left for the 11-3 final score.
The Irish dominated the Wildcats, outshooting Northwestern 35-7 for the game. Jen White (Jr., Annapolis, Md.) made three saves in the game for Notre Dame while Gersuk made 13 stops for Northwestern.
Notre Dame will go for a record setting 11th win on Sunday, April 28th when the Irish travel to Rutgers for their BIG EAST regular season finale. That game begins at 1:00 p.m. (EDT).
IRISH NOTES: Notre Dame has six players on the roster with 10 or more goals. The group is led by Shearer with 32, Moser and Simon each have 21, Natalie Loftus (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) checks in with 20 while Lauren Fischer (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) has 16 and Kassen Delano (So., Alexandria, Va.) has 10.
Danielle Shearer, Alissa Moser and Meredith Simon have all set career-highs this season. Shearer has career-highs in points (49) and assists (17). Moser has career-bests in goals (21) and points (26) while Simon has career-highs in goals (21), assists (4) and points (25).
The Irish go into Sunday’s game at Rutgers with a 4-1 record in BIG EAST play. The best they can do is tie Georgetown for first. The Hoyas close the season at Connecticut this weekend.
Game Summary
First-Half Scoring
Team Time Score Goal Assist
ND 29:30 1-0 Danielle Shearer Meredith Simon
ND 26:20 2-0 Alissa Moser Eleanor Weille
ND 24:38 3-0 Anne Riley
ND 24:09 4-0 Meredith Simon
ND 23:19 5-0 Alissa Moser – 2 Danielle Shearer
NU 18:55 5-1 Angela McMahon Courtney Flynn
ND 16:05 * 6-1 Anne Riley
NU 11:05 * 6-2 Jenna Gartner
NU 6:01 * 6-3 Sarah Albrecht
Second-Half Scoring
Team Time Score Goal Assist
ND 25:32 * 7-3 Danielle Shearer – 2
ND 24:55 8-3 Danielle Shearer – 3
ND 9:09 9-3 Lisa Lombardi Maureen Whitaker
ND 2:24 * 10-3 Meredith Simon – 2
ND 1:16 11-3 Kristen Gaudreau Eleanor Weille – 2
* indicates free position goal
Scoring: 1st 2nd Final
Notre Dame (10-4) 6 5 11
Northwestern (5-9) 3 0 3
Shots on Goal
ND 35
NU 7
Goalkeepers
ND: Jen White, (60:00 min., 3 goals, 3 saves)
Northwestern: Ashley Gersuk, (60:00 min., 11 goals, 13 saves)