Notre Dame Rolls Over Cincinnati in Finale
from press release
CINCINNATI - The Notre Dame women's lacrosse
team closed the 2011 regular season in grand style as 11 different
players scored for the Irish in a 17-6 win at Nippert Stadium on
Sunday afternoon.
After giving up the first goal of the game to the Bearcats just 27
seconds into the contest, Notre Dame ran off 11 straight goals on
the way to a 13-2 lead after 30 minutes in the victory.
Senior Kailene Abt and junior Maggie Tamasitis led the way with
three goals each. Senior Kaitlin Keena and sophomore Betsy
Mastropieri scored two each and Jenny Granger, Shaylyn Blaney,
Megan Sullivan, Jaimie Morrison, Lauren Fenlon, Emily Conner and
McKenzie Brown scored solo goals for Notre Dame's total of 17.
Granger, with a goal and three assists, and Tamasitis, with three
goals and an assist, led the Irish with four points each.
Allison Bell led Cincinnati with three goals while Katie
Kiriazoglou, MacKenzie Parsons and Laura Simanski had one goal
each. Kiriazoglou chipped in three assists for a four-point
afternoon.
The win gives the Irish a two-game winning streak and moves them
over .500 at 9-8 for the first time since March 15. They finish the
BIG EAST regular season with a 6-2 record and will be seeded fourth
in the BIG EAST Tournament next Thursday, May 5, facing Georgetown
in one of the semifinal games.
Cincinnati closes the season with a 2-14 overall record and the
Bearcats were 0-8 in conference play.
The Irish outshot Cincinnati, 36-14, in the game. Both teams used
two goalkeepers on the afternoon. Sophomore Ellie Hilling started
her 35th consecutive game, playing the first 30 minutes, giving up
a pair of goals with no saves. Fellow sophomore, Adele Bruggeman,
played the final 30 minutes, giving up four goals while making four
stops. The Bearcats started Haley Marvine who played the 23:06,
giving up 12 goals with six saves. Jen Walsh played 36:54, giving
up five goals with six saves.
Cincinnati got the game off to a quick start with Bell getting the
first of her three goals just 27 seconds into the game for a 1-0
Bearcat lead.
After that, it was all Notre Dame, as the Irish ran off 11 straight
and 15 of the next 16 goals in the game.
Granger had her hand in three of the first four Irish goals,
scoring the first Irish marker of the game at 27:17. Following a
goal by Sullivan 31 seconds later at 26:46, Granger set up goals by
Keena and Mastropieri in a 38-second span at 26:19 and 25:41 to
give Notre Dame a 4-1 lead.
Tamasitis, Morrison and Abt made it 7-1 with 16:24 left before
Mastropieri became the first multiple-goal scorer on a
free-position shot at 14:13 to make it 8-1.
Keena, Abt and Tamasitis closed out the 11-goal run to make it 11-1
with 7:46 left in the opening stanza.
Bell broke the run with a free-position shot with 4:10 left in the
half before Blaney got her only goal of the game with 23 seconds
left and Abt closed out her hat trick with her second free-position
goal of the contest with three seconds left in the half for a 13-2
lead.
Irish head coach Tracy Coyne emptied her bench in the second half,
giving Bruggeman the first extended playing time of her Notre Dame
career in goal.
Tamasitis got her hat trick at 22:38 of the second half and Brown
scored the second goal of her career at 20:31 to make it a 15-2
lead before the Bearcats' offense got back on the scoreboard with
four straight goals to cut the lead to 15-6.
Parsons, Kiriazoglou, Simanski and Bell (her third goal of the
game) cut the Irish lead to nine goals with 8:20 left in the
game.
A pair of Irish defenders closed the scoring with Conner getting
her third goal of the year and senior Lauren Fenlon getting the
final goal for the first of her career in the 17-6 victory.
Notre Dame's 6-2 record in the BIG EAST equals the mark the Irish
had last year when they were a number two seed in the tournament.
This year, they are tied for third with Loyola (Md.) but the
Greyhounds have the tiebreaker, having beaten Notre Dame, 13-10, on
April 3 at Arlotta Stadium.
The Irish will be playing in their fifth consecutive BIG EAST
Tournament when they travel to Washington, D.C., to face the Hoyas
in a semifinal game on Thursday, May 5.
