Feb. 26, 2006
Stanford, Calif. - The No. 20 Cardinal women's lacrosse team dropped a close contest to No. 17 Notre Dame this afternoon in double-overtime at Maloney Field. The 12-11 loss marked the third time in the last four meetings that a match between the Cardinal and the Irish was decided by a single goal. With the loss, the Cardinal falls to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the MPSF, while the Irish remain undefeated at 2-0 overall and 0-0 in conference play.
Both teams started the match strong on the defensive end, holding each other scoreless for the first 19 minutes of play. With 11:08 left to play in the first period, however, sophomore Anna Brown was fouled by Notre Dame's Kristin Hopson, earning her a free position shot. Brown netted the attempt, which broke open a five-goal Stanford scoring run. In the final seven minutes of the match, the Cardinal would score four more goals while holding the Irish scoreless for the first 29 minutes of play. Sophomore attacker Daphne Patterson led the Cardinal on the run, scoring two of her four goals in the five-minute span. Attacker Crysti Foote put the Irish on the board with an unassisted goal with 39 seconds left in the half, but the Cardinal remained in command, 5-1.
In the first minutes of the second half, Irish freshman Jill Byers netted two quick goals to bring her team back into the game. Stanford rallied in the next ten minutes, however, scoring four of the next five goals to take a 9-4 lead. In the run, Patterson, Sarah Bach, Bis Fries and Liz Piselli all notched goals for the Cardinal.
With nine minutes left to play, Notre Dame started a rally of its own, stunning the Cardinal with five goals in four minutes, including three in a 30 second span. The tying goal came on an unassisted shot by Byers with 4:49 left to play.
Stanford showed determination in the first overtime, however, as Piselli netted an unassisted goal in the first minute of the extra period. Yet, Foote would fight back to even the score in the third minute of the six minute overtime period. The Cardinal refused to let down, as the squad won the draw control and set up Patterson for another goal, taking the lead with less than two minutes on the clock. With just 12 seconds left, Notre Dame responded with a goal by sophomore Mary Carpenter on a pass from Byers, however. The teams entered the second overtime period knotted at 11-11.
Notre Dame's Megan Murphy won the draw to start the sudden death overtime period, forcing the Cardinal to stop the Irish on the defensive end. Stanford successfully defended two shots by the Irish, but a shot by Byers in the second minute would get past Cardinal goalkeeper Laura Shane to end the match.
The Cardinal was led in scoring by Patterson, with four goals on the afternoon. Piselli notched her second hat trick of the weekend while Megan Burker, Brown and Bach each contributed a goal to round out the scoring for the Cardinal. In the cage, Shane recorded her most impressive performance of the year, collecting 21 saves in the match. Notre Dame was led by Byers with five goals and an assist.
The Cardinal returns to the field on Friday for a 7 p.m. match-up with conference opponent UC Davis. On Sunday, the Cardinal will take on No. 13 Vanderbilt in a 1 p.m. start. Both matches will take place at Maloney Field on the Stanford campus.