Notre Dame, Ind. -- The Notre Dame women's lacrosse team made it two wins in a row in their opening weekend of action on Sunday afternoon at the Loftus Center as they scored 11 of the first 12 goals on the way to a 16-4 win over Duquesne University. Junior Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) led the Notre Dame offense with a seven-point game on six goals and one assist. She got plenty of help from her teammates as nine players scored with freshmen Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) and Kaitlin Keena (Vienna, Va.) getting multiple-goal games with a pair of goals each.

Caitlin McKinney (Sr., Lafayette Hill, Pa.), Jackie Doherty (Fr., Ellicott City, Md.), Heather Ferguson (Sr., Newtown Square, Pa.), Alicia Billings (Jr., Potomac, Md.), Lauren deMello (Jr., Manlius, N.Y.) and Jane Stoeckert (Jr., Mendham, N.J.) had single goals on the afternoon. Duquesne got two goals from Ashley Wood and one each from Janna Faulkner and Sarah Cates in their season-opening game.

The win for Notre Dame was a landmark victory as it was the 100th win in the program's 12-year history and the 100th win for head coach Tracy Coyne, the only coach the program has ever had. With the win, Notre Dame goes to 2-0 on the season while the Dukes fall to 0-1. The Irish are now off until Sunday, Feb. 24 when they travel to Ohio State for a 2:30 p.m. game with the Buckeyes.

It took the Irish a little over three minutes before they would break through on Duquesne goalkeeper Caitlin Carducci but when they did they would score the first five goals of the contest. Blaney found the back of the net at 26:48 for her fifth goal of the season. Byers scored two goals 22 seconds apart at 22:27 and 22:05 to make it a 3-0 game.

McKinney extended her Notre Dame record point streak to 41 games at 21:31 off a nifty give-and-go with Keena who would pick up three points in the game. McKinney, the senior All-American candidate, now has 100 goals and 46 assists in her streak that started during her freshman year in 2005. Byers then set up Billings at 11:35 for her third goal of the season to give the Irish a 5-0 lead.

The Dukes broke through on the Irish and goalkeeper Erin Goodman (Jr., Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) with 8:02 left in the opening half when Wood beat her off a free-position shot. Notre Dame would then run off the last six goals of the half to take an 11-1 lead at halftime. Byers and Keena alternated the next four goals over the next 5:04 before Blaney broke the run on a free-position shot at 1:49. Byers, the Irish goal and point scoring leader last season closed the half with a free-position goal with 1.9 seconds on the clock, giving the All-American candidate a five-goal, one-assist first half.

The Irish picked up where they left off in the second half as Heather Ferguson scored an unassisted goal at 27:28 and then Byers closed out her day with a goal at 25:03 to build the Notre Dame lead to 13-1. The Dukes scored two of the next three goals as Faulkner and Wood sandwiched goals around an Irish goal by Jackie Doherty to make it a 14-3 game.

Stoeckert and deMello got the final Notre Dame goals of the game at 5:25 and 4:09, both players getting their first goals of the season. For deMello, her goal was the first of the junior attacker's career. Cates closed the scoring with 1:28 left in the game for the final score of 16-4.

On the afternoon, the Irish peppered both Carducci and back-up goalkeeper Liz Walker with 37 shots on goal. Carducci played 46:07, making nine saves while giving up 14 goals. Walker had four saves in 13:53 of playing time, surrendering two goals. Goodman played the first 51:08 and gave up three goals while making seven saves. Sophomore Amy Winik (Freehold, N.J.) made her first career appearance, playing the final 8:52. She surrendered one goal while making one save.

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2008-02-17