Notre Dame Tops Boston U in Overtime
from press release
BOSTON - The Notre Dame women's lacrosse team
is starting to get the hang of playing in overtime. For the second
time on their West coast to East coast road trip, the Irish rallied
in regulation to tie the game and then won it in overtime. Saturday
afternoon's game at Boston University went to sudden death as the
Irish prevailed, 7-6, in a hard-fought game at BU's Nickerson
Field.
Senior attack standout Gina Scioscia scored the game winner with 38
seconds left in the second six-minute overtime as she beat
Terriers' goalkeeper Rachel Klein with a free-position shot just
second after she was hammered by BU's Kate Cipoletti, earning the
BU defender her second yellow card of the game.
The game proved to be the second longest in Notre Dame history as
it went a total of 71:22. The longest game was played on April 13,
2003 when the Irish lost to Stanford in a game that lasted 72
minutes.
The overtime game came one week after the Irish rallied from a
three-goal deficit to beat California, 14-12, in extra time at
Berkeley, Calif.
Shaylyn Blaney and Maggie Tamasitis each scored twice in the win
over the Terriers with Kailene Abt, Jenny Granger and Scioscia
scored for the Irish.
Traci Landy led Boston University with a pair of goals while Annie
Stookesbury, Danielle Etrasco, Hannah Frey and Catie Tiltin had
single goals for the Terriers.
The win improved the 15th-ranked Irish to 4-1 on the year while
11th-ranked Boston University goes to 4-3 overall. Notre Dame is
2-0 in overtime this season. The game was the first ever between
the Irish and Boston University in the two program's history. Notre
Dame played at Nickerson Field in 2006 when the Irish faced
Dartmouth in the 2006 NCAA semifinals.
"This was a really big win for us today," said Notre Dame head
coach Tracy Coyne.
"BU is a good team and we kept coming back against them. It was a
tough, defensive battle and I thought our defense and Ellie Hilling
in goal had strong games. This was one of those games where
different people stepped up and did little things well. We forced
some big turnovers late in the game and in overtime and came up
with some key ground balls when we needed them."
Notre Dame is a team known for its offensive attack, but on
Saturday, it was the defense that rose to the occasion. Hilling, a
freshman, making just her fifth career start had eight saves in the
game but none bigger than the point-blank stop she made on Rachel
Collins with 1:44 left in sudden death.
After 30 minutes, the Irish led by a 2-1 margin as Tamasitis made
it 1-0 on a free-position shot at 23:31. Stookesberry tied the game
at 1-1 with 18:09 left in the first and Granger got an unassisted
tally at 15:58 for all the offense in the half. The Irish out shot
BU, 11-6, in the first half with Hilling making four saves to five
for Klein in the Terriers' cage.
Boston University opened the second half with four consecutive
goals in the first 14 minutes of the half to open a three-goal
advantage at 5-2. Tilton (27:52), Frey (27:06), Landy with her
first (18:01) and Etrasco (15:50) did the damage. Coyne called a
key timeout after Etrasco's goal that seemed to get her team back
on track.
"We took the timeout after BU made it 5-2," said Coyne.
"We weren't shooting well, we were forcing things. It seemed to
settle them down."
The Irish cut the lead to 5-3 with 10:03 when Blaney picked up her
first of the game on a free-position shot. It would take just 21
seconds to cut the lead to one at 5-4 when Abt beat Klein with 9:42
left in second half.
The score remained that way until their was just 3:57 left in
regulation when McKinley Curro set up Landy's second goal of the
game to make it a two-goal advantage and a 6-4 lead.
Abt set up Blaney with 2:42 left to cut the lead to one and just 27
seconds later Tamasitis put the finishing touches on a nifty
two-on-one as Kaitlin Keena set her up with a wide-open net and the
game was tied 6-6.
In the first six-minute overtime, the Irish took the only shot as
the defenses tightened and the game remained tied. In sudden death
each team would get one chance with Scioscia taking advantage of
her chance on the free-position with 38 seconds left to give the
Irish their second overtime win in a row.
Notre Dame finished with 25 shots in the game while Boston
University had 17. Klein made 11 saves in the game for the
Terriers.
