Irish 'D' Hits Stride in Upset of No. 7 Syracuse
from press release
NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- When Notre Dame and
Syracuse get together in women's lacrosse fans can usually expect
loads of offense as both teams have traditionally had high-scoring
offenses. On Sunday afternoon at Arlotta Stadium, defense was the
name of the game as the 15th-ranked Irish upset the seventh-ranked
Orange, 6-5.
After shutting out Villanova, 16-0, on Friday, Notre Dame tacked
on another 30 minutes of scoreless defense as they Irish took a 6-0
lead at halftime as each team got all its goals in one half.
Senior Gina Scioscia paced the Notre Dame attack with two goals
and one assist. Shaylyn Blaney, Ansley Stewart, Kailene Abt and
Kaitlin Keena had single goals for the Irish.
Syracuse got three points from Tegan Brown (1g, 2a) with Tee
Ladouceur, Halley Quillanan. Jackie DePetris and Michelle Tumolo
getting the other goals for the Orange.
In the game, each team had 26 shots on goal. Freshman Ellie
Hilling finished with six saves for Notre Dame while Liz Hogan had
10 for Syracuse. Hilling saw her scoreless streak snapped at 98:33
when Tumolo broke up the shutout 3:55 into the second half. Before
that, the last goal she surrendered came on April 5 at Loyola when
the Greyhounds scored with 4:38 left in that game.
The victory, the third straight for the Irish improves Notre Dame
to 8-4 overall and 4-1 in the BIG EAST. Syracuse falls to 7-4 on
the year and 2-1 in conference play. The win was the first for the
Irish at home against Syracuse since the 2006 season.
The Orange came into the game averaging 15 goals a game and
featured four players with 20 or more goals, highlighted by senior
midfielder Christina Dove who had 40. When Sunday's game was over,
Dove still had 40 goals as the Irish defense, led by Jackie
Doherty, Rachel Guerrera, Lauren Fenlon, Emily Conner and Kate
Newall blanketed the Orange attack, holding them to just five
goals.
Notre Dame would score the first six goals of the game, giving
them 23 consecutive goals since Monday's game at Loyola.
Stewart made it 1-0 as she converted a nice feed from behind the
goal from Scioscia at 24:18. Scoiscia, who has scored in 31
consecutive games dating back to last season, scored her first of
the game with 20:12 left to give Notre Dame a 2-0 lead.
Maggie Tamasitis, the Irish leader in assists worked her magic at
14:32 as she set Abt up in front where she beat Hogan to make it
3-0. Scioscia made it 4-0 with an unassisted goal at 12:55.
Two free-position goals by the Irish made it 6-0 before the end of
the first half. Keena whipped a shot past Hogan with 7:53 left and
Blaney got the eventual game winner with an extraordinary effort.
With time running out in the half, the junior midfielder snaked her
way through Syracuse defense and got was fouled. On the
free-position shot, she beat Hogan with 5.3 seconds left to give
Notre Dame the six-goal lead.
The Irish out shot Syracuse, 16-7 in the first half with Hogan
making six saves and Hilling three.
The tide would turn in the second half and the Orange would
dominate the play. They finally broke through on the freshman
goalkeeper when Tumolo beat her off a free-position shot just 3:55
into the half to make it 6-1.
The score stayed that way until the 15:15 mark when Syracuse would
start a run of four goals in 3:41. Brown set up Ladouceur at 15:15
to make it 6-2 and just 2:15 later, Brown would whip one under the
cross bar over Hilling to make it 6-3.
On that play, Dove would get her lone point of the game, an
assist, versus the Irish defense.
Brown wasn't done. She set up DePetris 34 seconds later at 12:26
to make it 6-4 and Quillinan closed the scoring with 11:34 left in
the game with the Irish in the lead, 6-5.
In the final 11 minutes of the game, each goalkeeper came up with
big saves to keep the game at 6-5. Hogan stopped a bouncing
free-position shot by Abt with 9:01 left and then stopped Scioscia
on a two-on-one chance with Abt with 3:50 left.
Hilling made her biggest stop when she stopped Brown in close with
19 seconds left to seal the win.
After winning three games on the week, Notre Dame will play just
one game this week as the Irish play host to the University of
Cincinnati on Saturday, April 17 in a 3:00 p.m. game at Arlotta
Stadium. That is the final home game of the regular season for the
women's lacrosse team and Notre Dame will honor its graduating
seniors - Rachel Guerrera, Gina Scioscia and Maggie Zentgraf -
prior to the game.
