This Week: Notre Dame College women's lacrosse looks to extend their winning streak to three when they face Davis & Elkins College, on March 30, at 1 p.m. The Falcons come back home to face No. 17 Grand Valley State University, on April 2, at 12 p.m.
Records: NDC is now sitting at 2-5, with an MEC record of 1-0. Davis & Elkins has not dipped into conference play yet, but currently has an overall record of 0-7. Grand Valley has a record of 5-4, but they have played five ranked opponents already, beating two of them (No. 22 Mercyhurst, No. 24 Colorado Mesa).
Coaches Corner: Ben Morhac enters year number four on the sideline at Notre Dame and has put together a record of 26-17 (18-2 MEC). David Pomeroy is in his second season at D&E. Last season, the Senators went 5-11. Mackenzie Lawler is now in her fifth season with GVSU, putting together a record of 53-13.
Rankings: Grand Valley State is No. 17 in the latest Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) top 25 poll.
Series History: After first meeting in 2019, the Falcons are 5-1 against Davis & Elkins, including three wins against the Senators last season. Since 2012, NDC has an 0-5 mark against Grand Valley.
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame played twice last week, grabbing two victories. In the Falcons' first home game of the season, they outscored Quincy University, 8-2, from the 9:03-mark in the second quarter until the end of the game in an 11-8 victory.
Jamira Mashore led the way with three goals,
Joselyn Storm added two and six other had one goal.
Piper Hammond won five draw controls and caused five turnovers. In the first conference matchup of the campaign, NDC did not have much of an issue getting past West Virginia Wesleyan. The Falcons won, 24-2, which included winning the second quarter, 8-0, and the fourth quarter, 5-0.
The Falcons swept the MEC weekly awards for the week. Offensive Player of the Week,
Jamira Mashore, totaled seven goals and six assists over two games last week, while Defensive Player of the Week,
Piper Hammond, totaled seven caused turnovers and won 10 draw controls over the two games.
Piper Hammond is currently tied for sixth in the country with 2.57 caused turnovers per game. She has 18 caused turnovers and 28 draw controls this season, leading the team in both.
Grace Nickoloff leads the team with 10 goals, while
Kendal Johnson has nine goals.
Joselyn Storm and
Jamira Mashore each have eight goals.
Annika Duncan has been the goalkeeper for most of the season and has 33 saves.
Noting the Senators: Davis & Elkins has not played since March 11. Already this season, they have already traveled up and down the east coast. To start the season, the Senators played in Georgia, they then played two contests in South Carolina, two games in New York and a game in Philadelphia, Pa.
In their latest game, the Senators lost, 11-4, to Chestnut Hill College. The contest was tied at two in the first four minutes of the game, before Chestnut Hill went on a 9-2 run to close the game. Ari Hinton had two goals for D&E and Marissa Cuevas saved 15 shots on goal.
Goalkeeper Marissa Cuevas is second in NCAA Division II in saves per game (15) and ranks fifth in both save percentage (.533) and total saves (105). Ari Hinton leads the team with 13 goals, while Morgan Rogers has seven assists. Thayer Karl leads the team with 15 draw controls.
Noting the Lakers: Grand Valley State's game this week at Davenport was postponed, so the Lakers have not played since March 24. Last Friday, GVSU beat Concordia St. Paul, 17-10. In that contest, the Lakers were dominant in the first three quarters and took a 15-5 lead, but Concordia put together a small comeback to start the fourth quarter, and scored five consecutive goals. Molly Bursinger led the Lakers with five goals and Hailey Crittenden added three. Both players had two assists. GVSU had 14 more draw controls (22-8) than Concordia St. Paul.
This season, the Lakers have allowed double-digit goals in seven games. Last season, they allowed just four opponents to reach double-digits.
Grand Valley State is fifth in the country with an average of 17 draw controls per game. Molly Bursinger ranks 27th in Division II with a 5.44 draw controls per game. Bursinger also leads the team with 13 caused turnovers and 49 draw controls. Maddy Champagne (42) also has over 40 draw controls. Kate DeYoung (21), Bursinger (21), Champagne (20) and Maggie Hammer (20) have all scored at least 20 goals this season for GVSU. DeYoung and Champagne both have 10 assists.
