Only a two-hour bus ride away, Notre Dame is the closest opponent for the women’s lacrosse team. It’s also the closest thing to a rival that the four-year-old Wildcat team has.
“Its always a big game for each team,” defender Courtney Koester said. “Eventually, it could be worse than the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry, but it always makes it fun.”
The No. 3 Cats (4-0) took the lead in the all-time series Thursday as they beat the No. 20 Fighting Irish 18-11 at Notre Dame’s home opener in South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame fell to 1-1.
In the teams’ two contests last year, including a first-round matchup in the Cats’ first NCAA Tournament appearance, Northwestern won. In the second match, NU ended the Fighting Irish’s season, tying the series at two games apiece.
The game marked the second time this season that the Cats beat a top-20 team. They beat No. 6 North Carolina on Feb. 20.
The Cats have outscored their opponents 59-22 in their last three games, after they defeated Oregon 21-2 and Denver 20-9.
NU never trailed to Notre Dame. The Cats snatched a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes before the teams traded goals to a 5-4 tally. Then the offensive streaks began.
“I think our offense really hit our stride out there,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said.
The Cats scored four straight goals in 5:38 to make it 9-4 before the Fighting Irish went on a five-goal run to tie it up with a little more than 18 minutes remaining in the game.
The Cats then went on their own five-goal scoring spree. The Cats’ defense kept the pressure up until the 18-11 finish.
Sophomore Aly Josephs led NU with five goals, and Kristen Kjellman had four goals and two assists after missing most of last weekend’s games recovering from a cold.
Lindsey Munday had three goals and five assists. She leads the Cats in scoring with 20 points.
Amonte Hiller attributed the offensive bursts to winning draw controls, which NU dominated with 21 draws to the Irish’s eight.
“Each team can score pretty easily,” Koester said “So once we were able to get possession, we were able to score.”
Reach Courtney McCarty at [email protected].
