Irish Get First Win Of The Season In 19-4 Road Victory At Ohio University
Meredith Simon paces Irish attack with seven-point game.

Junior midfielder Meredith Simon paced the Irish to a 19-4 win at Ohio University on Tuesday. She had a career-high seven-point game (three goals, four assists) to pace the Notre Dame attack.

March 11, 2003

Athens, Ohio - Coach Tracy Coyne's Notre Dame women's lacrosse team had a little too much time to think about their opening game loss to sixth-ranked Cornell and the Ohio University Bobcats paid for it.

Since losing to the Big Red, the Irish had gone nine days between games after Sunday's contest at Brown University in Providence, R.I., was cancelled due to snow.

On Tuesday afternoon in southeast Ohio, the Irish scored early and often as they ran up a 19-4 win over Ohio University at Peggy Pruitt Field. The win improves the Irish to 1-1 on the season while Ohio falls to 1-2.

Junior Meredith Simon (Flemington, N.J.) paced the Notre Dame attack with a career-best seven-point afternoon (three goals and four assists). Senior all-American candidate Danielle Shearer (Hampstead, Md.) was right behind her with six points (three goals and three assists) and freshman Crysti Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) scored the first three goals of her career in the romp.

In all, 13 Notre Dame players got on the scoresheet in the win. Anne Riley (Sr., Marblehead, Mass.) was the only other multiple-goal scorer for the Irish as she scored twice.

Ohio took an early lead, scoring just 1:50 into the game on a goal by Becky Oxman. Shearer scored a pair with Riley and Lauren Fischer (Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) making it 4-1 less than 10 minutes into the game.

The Bobcats Lindsey Hart cut the lead in half at 18:27, but from there Simon dominated the remainder of the half. Over the next 12 minutes, the junior midfielder would score three times and pick up two assists as the Irish built the lead to 10-3 at the half.

In the second half, the Irish outscored Ohio by a 9-1 margin for the final of 19-4.

On the afternoon, the Irish outshot Ohio by a 37-12 margin. Senior Jen White (Annapolis, Md.) played the first half, giving up three goals with two saves in 30 minutes of action. Sophomore Carol Dixon (Pennsauken, N.J.) saw her first collegiate action in the second half, giving up one goal and making one save.

The 11th-ranked Irish return to action on Saturday, March 15 when they open the BIG EAST schedule at Chestnut Hill, Mass., against the Boston College Eagles. That game will now be played at 11:00 a.m. at Alumni Stadium on the Boston College campus.

SCORING SUMMARY

First-Half Scoring

Team Time Score Goal Assist

OU 28:10 0-1 Becky Oxman ND 27:34 1-1 Danielle Shearer ND 27:23 2-1 Anne Riley Meredith Simon ND 23:05 3-1 Lauren Fischer Angela Dixon ND 20:30 4-1 * Danielle Shearer (2) OU 18:27 4-2 * Lindsey Hart ND 15:57 5-2 Meredith Simon Eleanor Weille ND 12:36 6-2 Meredith Simon (2) Danielle Shearer ND 8:48 7-2 Crysti Foote Meredith Simon (2) ND 8:28 8-2 Crysti Foote (2) Meredith Simon (3) OU 7:57 8-3 Lynz Keys Lindsey Hart ND 3:02 9-3 Meredith Simon (3) Danielle Shearer (2) ND 1:54 10-3 * Anne Riley (2)