COLUMBUS, Ohio – Despite a second-half rally, Ohio State dropped a 14-11 decision to No. 11 Notre Dame in women's lacrosse this afternoon on OSU's North Turf Field.

The Irish led 8-3 at the half and outshot the Buckeyes 27-13 in the first stanza. Ohio State rallied in the second period, scoring eight goals and outshooting Notre Dame 17-14 in the second half. OSU closed the gap to 13-11 with 1:34 to play when Maghan Beaudrault scored on a goal from Brittney Zerhusen.

Beaudrault led Ohio State with four goals, while Jessica Patane and Kristen Slahor added three goals each. Amanda Shimp had the other goal for Ohio State. Goalie Kristen Gilwee saved 20 shots. Jillian Byers and Shaylyn Blaney had four goals each for Notre Dame.

"I really liked our play the second half. If there had been five more minutes, the outcome may have been different, because we had tremendous confidence and momentum down the stretch," said Sue Stimmel, Ohio State head women's lacrosse coach. "The first half, we were a little hesitant and some of the fouls disrupted our rhythm, but the second half, we matched an excellent Notre Dame team."

Ohio State, now 2-1, travels to the West Coast for games Friday at Cal-Davis and Sunday at California. Notre Dame is 3-0 on the season.

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Columbus, Ohio) -- Freshman midfielder Shaylyn Blaney (Stony Brook, N.Y.) had four goals and one assist and junior Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) had her third consecutive game with four or more goals, scoring four times in Notre Dame's 14-11 win over Ohio State on Sunday afternoon.

Caitlin McKinney (Sr., Lafayette Hill, Pa.) added two goals while Kaitlin Keena (Fr., Vienna, Va.), Kailene Abt (Fr., Huntington, N.Y.), Shannon Burke (Jr., Baltimore, Md.) and Jackie Doherty (Fr., Ellicott City, Md.) added single goals in the Irish win.

Maghan Beaudrault led Ohio State with four goals with Jessica Patane and Kristen Slahor adding three each. Amanda Shimp scored the final Buckeye goal.

The win improves 11th-ranked Notre Dame to 3-0 on the season while Ohio State falls to 2-1. The Irish have now won three straight in the all-time series with the Buckeyes.

Blaney, who has scored 10 goals with three assists in her first three games, staked Notre Dame to a 3-0 lead as she scored the game's first three goals in a span of 8:49. Byers and Keena tacked on single goals to give the Irish a 5-0 lead with 17:20 left in the first half on the way to an 8-3 halftime lead.

The Buckeyes halted that run as Slahor (13:02) and Patane (11:03) each scored over a two-minute span to make it 5-2.

Byers and McKinney returned Notre Dame to a five-goal advantage at 7-2 with 8:56 left in the half as they scored 53 seconds apart.

Beaudrault collected her first goal of the game at 7:13 and Byers scored the final goal of the half with 2:06 remaining for the 8-3 score going into the intermission.

The Irish opened the lead to 12-4 by scoring four of the first five goals of the second half.

Byers picked up her fourth of the game and 15th of the season at the 1:07 mark of the second and half and was followed by Doherty's goal at 25:24 that made it 10-4.

Shimp scored her only goal of the afternoon for the Buckeyes at 22:59 only to see McKinney get an unassisted goal at 21:46 and Blaney close out her four-goal day at 18:37 for the 12-4 Notre Dame lead.

Beaudrault and Abt traded goals at 17:15 and 13:42 respectively as the Irish lead stayed at eight goals by a 13-5 margin.

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2008-02-24