The women’s lacrosse team’s defense continued to struggle this Saturday as No. 12 Notre Dame (3-0) exploded offensively to beat the No. 19 Red (0-2, 0-0 Ivy), 20-7.
“Giving up 20 goals is a definite defensive problem,” said head coach Jenny Graap, “but I think the whole game was a struggle in many other aspects.”
The Red scored the first goal of the match off the stick of junior Lindsay Steinberg only 1:17 into the game. However, this was the only time the Red would hold the lead. The Irish managed nine goals in a little under 12 minutes to take a lead that would last the rest of the game.
“In the opening 10 minutes of the game, the opposition just exploded on us,” Graap said.
After Notre Dame bombarded Cornell for its fifth consecutive goal in the first six minutes of the match, Graap made the decision to pull starting goaltender, senior Ashley Charron. Charron did not register a save. However, Graap refused to say that the goaltending was the problem.
“It’s certainly not their fault by any means,” Graap explained. “There were a lot of turnovers and a lot of bad decisions on the attack [as well]. Notre Dame would run down the field and execute a nice fast break, and in any situation that’s not the goalie’s fault.”
By halftime, the Irish held a 14-4 lead, and despite a much better defensive second half, the Red could not muster the offense to overcome the ten-goal deficit.
Ten different Notre Dame players registered goals on the night, while five players had at least three points.
“We have to mend in some ways,” Graap said in reference to getting ready for Hofstra this Friday.
“We have to look at the film and really analyze. Individuals need to take responsibility for the way they played, [but] after we get through that educational process, we have to start building ourselves back up and get our confidence back up.
“After that game we were just at a real low,” Graap concluded.
Archived article by Michael Pandolfini