No. 11 Notre Dame celebrated St. Patrick's Day with an 18-9 victory over Rutgers to start Big East play. The Irish (7-1, 1-0) increased their winning streak to six games.
Leading Notre Dame were senior attack Jillian Byers and junior attack Gina Sciosia. Byers owns the Irish points record with 259, including 34 this season after scoring four goals on seven shots. Sciosia brought her point total to 38 with two goals and six assists.
Following Byers and Sciosia were sophomores Ansley Stewart and Kaitlin Keena. Stewart scored three goals on her three shots while Keena netted two of her five shots on goal and made an assist. Also scoring for the Irish were sophomores Kailene Abt, Shaylyn Blaney and Jackie Doherty and senior Beth Koloup. Freshmen Megan Sullivan and Maggie Tamasitis both came off the bench to make their first appearances in a game, Sullivan scoring twice and Tamasitis once.
In goal, senior goalie Erin Goodman played 47 minutes and made seven saves. She was relieved with 12:23 left to play by junior Amy Winik, who closed out the game.
Leading the Rutgers scoring were senior midfield Michelle Poole with three goals and junior midfield Mary Cryan with two.
The game was the 10th meeting of the two teams and the seventh win in the series for the Irish, including going 4-1 at home against the Scarlet Knights. This is the second consecutive win in the series for the Irish, after defeating the Scarlet Knights 20-9 at Rutgers last season.
Next up for the Irish is a third consecutive home game. They will take on California (4-5) in a nonconference game Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at the Loftus Sports Center.
