Senior Jillian Byers became Notre Dame's all-time point leader after scoring five goals in No. 12 Notre Dame's 17-8 victory over No. 16 Stanford Saturday at the Loftus Sports Center.
"Jillian's performance was outstanding, she was very relaxed and in the flow of the game," Irish coach Tracy Coyne said. "We never talked about the record, she just played hard for the team and for the win."
Byers' five-point performance gave her a career total of 238 points.
Also pacing the Irish (3-1) was junior Gina Sciosia's four goals and one assist, sophomore Shaylyn Blaney's three goals, freshman Maggie Tamasitis' one goal and two assists and sophomore Ansley Stewart's one goal and one assist.
"This was a huge game for us. Not only is there a rivalry between our schools, but Stanford is a great team and tested us," Coyne said. "This game was revenge for a tough loss last year. We capitalized on a lot of their errors early on to put it away."
Sophomore midfielder Kailene Abt put the Irish on the board first just 34 seconds into the first half. The teams traded goals until Byers took off, scoring four consecutive goals to put the Irish up 6-2.
Sciosia and sophomore Jackie Doherty netted scores of their own before the end of the half to bring the score to 9-3.
Stanford struck first in the second half, but within minutes Blaney had an answer for Notre Dame. The Irish went on another four-goal run late in the period to seal the win.
"We weren't happy about our win last weekend over Ohio State, we felt that we hadn't been executing well," Coyne said. "In practice we focused on the fundamentals and it paid off. They started to get rough and foul at the end, but we remained focused on the game and got the win."
Senior Erin Goodman earned the win in goal, compiling 13 saves in just under 53 minutes of play. Junior Amy Winik snagged two saves in the final seven minutes.
"All of our early season games are important for the national picture. This win was big, but we have a lot of tests coming up on our spring break trip," Coyne said. "To accomplish our goals and stay at the top level of national competition we need to continue to keep focused and handle each game one at a time."
Notre Dame will travel to Dartmouth Friday for the first game of a three-game spring break road trip.
