April 8, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s lacrosse team, off to it’s best start in the program’s six seasons, travels to Columbus, Ohio to face the 13th-ranked Buckeyes on Tuesday, April 9th in a 4:00 p.m. start. For the Irish, it signals the busiest week of the season as they face three ranked teams over the next six days.
On Friday, the sixth-ranked Duke Blue Devils visit Notre Dame followed by a visit from the 12th-ranked Yale Bulldogs. Weather permitting, both those games will be played at Moose Krause Stadium with the Duke game starting at 4:00 p.m. and the Yale game at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.
The Irish take a three-game winning streak into Tuesday’s game at Ohio State. Notre Dame enters the week in first place in the BIG EAST with a 4-0 league record.
Ohio State, 7-2 overall, started the season with six-straight wins before losing to fifth-ranked North Carolina (12-7) on March 29. The Buckeyes followed that game with a 12-11 upset win over seventh-ranked Maryland before losing to 17th-ranked Johns Hopkins last Saturday by an 11-10 score.
Ohio State is led offensively by Megan Mirick, who has scored 31 goals with four assists for 35 points, while Tracey Bounds is a point behind with 23 goals and 11 assists. Goalkeeper Erin Forquer owns a 7.87 goals against average and a .588 save percentage.
Notre Dame is coming off a come-from-behind 12-9 win at Connecticut on Saturday. Trailing 8-6 with less than 15 minutes left, the Irish outscored the Huskies 6-1 down the stretch for the win. The game against Connecticut marked the first time since March 14 that the Irish had played outdoors. Each of the five games on the Notre Dame homestand was moved indoors due to bad weather.
The Irish start the week with the stingiest defense in the nation as they surrender just 6.44 goals per game. Goalkeeper Jen White (Jr., Annapolis, Md.) has the top goals against in the country (6.44) and owns a .580 save percentage.
Offensively, the Irish have featured a balanced attack as five players have scored 12 or more goals led by junior midfielder Danielle Shearer (Hampstead, Md.) who has scored 21 goals with 11 assists for 32 points. She is followed by Natalie Loftus (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) and Alissa Moser (Sr., North Wales, Pa.) with 15 while Meredith Simon (So., Flemington, N.J.) has 14 and Lauren Fischer (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) rounds out the top five with 12 goals.
The Irish have met Ohio State five times in the all-time series with the Buckeyes holding a 3-2 edge in the first five meetings. Last year, Notre Dame won at home 18-12. The Irish are 1-1 in Columbus, Ohio.