Notre Dame, Ind. -- The Notre Dame women's lacrosse team got off to a fast start on Friday at the Loftus Sports Center, as the Irish equaled a school record by scoring 22 goals on the way to a 22-10 win over the Canisius Golden Griffins. Ten different players scored goals on the afternoon led by five each from senior Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) and junior Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.). Freshman Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) added four goals while Alicia Billings (Jr., Potomac, Md.) had two and Heather Ferguson (Sr., Newtown Square, Pa.), Kaitlin Keena (Fr., Vienna, Va.), Gina Scioscia (So., Summit, N.J.), Shannon Burke (Jr., Baltimore, Md.), Jackie Doherty (Fr., Ellicott City, Md.) and Julie Foote (Sr., Suffern, N.Y.) had single goals for the Irish.

McKinney (two assists) equaled a career-best with seven points while Byers (one assist) and Blaney (two assists) had six-point games to start the season. Keena had three assists for the game and a four-point contest in her collegiate debut. Ashley Gray led Canisius with three goals and two assists in the game. Whitney Card and Chelsea Martinez scored twice with Taylor Gray, Lauren Welsh and Brett Poissant scoring one each. The win gives Notre Dame a 1-0 record and makes the Irish 10-2 all-time in season openers.

Canisius opens the season with an 0-1 record. Notre Dame scored early and often in this game, building a 6-0 lead in the first 10:17 of the game. McKinney and Keena teamed up to score the first goal of the season just 49 seconds into the game as Keena found McKinney all alone in front for a 1-0 lead. The goal by McKinney extended her school-record point streak to 40 games. Ferguson (27:17), Scioscia (25:49),

Blaney (24:07), McKinney and Billings (19:43) wrapped up the 6-0 run before Canisius found its legs. Card broke the run with her first of the night at 17:18 and her goal got the Griffins on a four-goal spree as Poissant, Martinez and Ashley Gray scored in a 2:23 span to make it a 6-4 game. Blaney, recognized as the top freshman in the nation, put a halt to any Canisius plans to tie the game as she score the next two goals at 14:46 and 12:16 to build an 8-4 lead. Her goal at 14:46 came off the draw as she won it to herself and then raced down the field through the

Canisius defense before beating goalkeeper Allison Daley for the goal. Martinez scored on a free-position shot at 10:10 before Byers got the first two of her five goals, scoring at 7:38 and then with three seconds left to send the Irish into the intermission with a 10-5 lead. McKinney scored just 50 seconds into the half for her third of the night and the eventual game winner only to see Canisius score four of the next five goals to make it a 12-9 game with 18:38 left.

Card's free-position goal at 18:38 would be the last goal the Griffins would get until the final minute as the Irish ran off 10 straight goals over the next 15:33. McKinney added two more with Byers scoring three and Blaney one with additional scores from Burke (16:05), Doherty (9:30), Foote (8:16) and Keena (5:35) wrapping up the Notre Dame scoring. Gray would close the scoring with a goal at 1:10 for the final score of 22-10. For the night, the Irish peppered Daley with 46 shots, one off the Notre Dame school record. She finished the night with 15 saves.

Canisius had 19 shots on the Notre Dame goal with Erin Goodman (Jr., Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) making seven saves on the night. Notre Dame returns to action on Sunday, Feb. 17 when the Irish play host to the Duquesne Dukes in a 12:00 noon contest. The game will be played indoors at the Loftus Sports Center.

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2008-02-16