UConn Rolls Past Notre Dame, 13-10

BOX SCORE

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (April 1, 2005) – Tracy Mullaney scored five goals and became the University of Connecticut women’s lacrosse team's all-time leading scorer as the Huskies rolled to a 13-10 win over Notre Dame on Friday evening at the Fighting Irish’s Moose Krause Field. UConn improves to 6-2 with the win and evens its record at 1-1 in BIG EAST play. The Fighting Irish slips to 2-6 overall and 0-2 in league action. It is only the second time in seven tries that UConn has defeated Notre Dame, which began the 2005 season ranked at No. 20 in the nation. It is UConn’s first ever win in South Bend and extends its school-record road winning streak to eight games, dating back to March 27, 2004.

Mullaney’s five goals give her 177 career points, surpassing the 173 accumulated by current assistant coach Pam Lowie from 1999-2002. It was Mullaney’s 27th career hat trick (one shy of Lowie’s UConn record) and the sixth time she has recorded at least three goals in UConn’s eight outings this year. It is Mullaney’s second five-goal output of the year and the fourth time she has scored at least five goals in a game during her career. She also netted five goals this year in UConn’s win over UC-Davis on March 9.

Although less historic than Mullaney's five goal game, but equally important to the victory, Shannon Burke had a career high-tying four goals of her own to help pace the Husky offense. The speedy sophomore midfielder now has 17 goals on the year after netting 24 in her promising rookie campaign a year ago.

The game opened with a flurry of goals as each team scored twice in the opening five minutes, including strikes from Mullaney and Burke. Four Fighting Irish goals would give the team a 6-4 lead with 8:08 to play in the half, but UConn would put away the contest by scoring each of the following seven goals, and nine of the next 10 overall. Mullaney scored twice before the break, while Burke and Laura Trzasko each scored in the half’s final minute, to give UConn an 8-6 cushion at the break. The second half opened with two goals each by Burke and Mullaney, plus one each by Tanya Kotowicz and Notre Dame’s Caitlin McKinney as UConn went up by a 13-7 score. Notre Dame scored each of the game’s last three goals over the final 18 minutes, but those merely closed the final score to 13-10 as the Huskies led comfortably throughout the final 30 minutes in a game where they simply outplayed their opposition.

Jennifer Wong played 47:10 in the net for UConn, giving up eight goals and making 10 saves. Kristen Haldeman played the final 12:50, and gave up two goals while making three saves. Carol Dixon played 53:04 for Notre Dame in goal where she allowed 11 goals and made six saves. Katie Linhares played the other 6:56, giving up two goals with no saves.

UConn returns to action on Sunday when the Huskies travel to Evanston, Ill. to face No. 1 Northwestern (9-0) at 2:00 p.m. ET.