| Elon (0-2, 0-0 CAA) at No. 18 Notre Dame (2-2, 0-1 ACC) |
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ELON, N.C. – Elon University women's lacrosse will travel to No. 18/17 Notre Dame on Sunday, Feb. 25, for a 1 p.m. game against the Fighting Irish. The contest will air on ACC Network Extra.
THE SERIES
Last season, Elon and Notre Dame met for the first time with the Fighting Irish winning 16-7 at Rudd Field. The loss snapped Elon's four-game winning streak to open the season. Sloane Kessler led Elon with three goals.
Jacie Cooper also added a pair of tallied while
Shannon Horan and
Stephanie Asher rounded out Elon's scoring. Notre Dame's Courtney Fortunato paced the Irish with four goals while Nikki Ortega and Casey Pearsall each added three apiece.
SCOUTING NOTRE DAME
The Fighting Irish stand at 2-2 on the season with tough losses to No. 6 Boston College by the score of 13-11 and Friday night to No. 7 USC 11-8. Both of Notre Dame's losses this season are at home. It also beat Jacksonville and Stetson in back-to-back days in Florida. Nikki Ortega leads Notre Dame with 12 goals on the year. She also has four assists for 16 points. Andie Aldave has been strong on draws, collecting 31 in just four games thus far.
LAST TIME OUT
Though
Kelsey Dupere scored to make it 2-1 early in the Saturday, Feb. 17, game at No. 14 Virginia, UVA went on a 6-0 run to go up 8-1 nearly 14 minutes in and Elon couldn't climb back in falling 17-4 in Charlottesville, Va.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
This week in the national polls, Elon is receiving votes in the IWLCA coaches poll but fell out of the Inside Lacrosse media poll. To start the year, Elon was No. 21 in the IWLCA poll, which marks the first time Elon opened a campaign ranked in program history.
PRESEASON HONORS
Stephanie Asher became the first player in program history to earn Preseason All-America accolades when she was named an Inside Lacrosse honorable mention in early February. The recognition came on the heels of Asher and
Alexis Zadjura being named Preseason All-CAA honorees. Asher has now been a Preseason All-CAA honoree three years in a row and Zadjura was an honorable mention in 2017 before making First Team in 2018.
ADDITIONS ABOUND
After graduating its first four-year class after the 2017 season, Elon welcomed eight new faces to the program for 2018. Of those players, four represent the state of New Jersey (
Quinn Daly,
Meri Curtin,
Taylor Pani and
Claire Smesko), three hail from New York (
Mae McGlynn,
Ashley Duggan and
Allie Cerrone) and one from North Carolina (
Lundy Fine).
ELON ON LSN
Elon will have two of its CAA games feature on LAX Sports Network's CAA Game of the Week initiative. First, the Phoenix will visit Hofstra on Friday, April 6, on LSN before coming home to take on Towson on Friday, April 13, on the network. Additionally, the CAA Championship semifinals and finals are set to air on LSN. The 2018 season marks the second year the CAA has partnered with LSN to expand the reach of CAA lacrosse.
2017 TIDBITS
-Three CAA teams, including Elon, went to the NCAA Tournament. It marks the most in one tourney since 2001 when James Madison, Loyola (Md.) and William & Mary all went dancing.
-Two programs - Elon and Colorado - were added prior to the start of the 2014 season. Both teams went to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 in their fourth year of competition. Elon lost to Virginia in the first round and Colorado fell 13-7 to UMass, also in the first round.
-A year ago, Elon posted a program-record 13 wins. It also made its first trip to the CAA title game after beating second-seeded Towson on a
Stephanie Asher goal in overtime. Asher set the new program record for goals scored (58) and points (69).
AGAINST NATIONALLY-RANKED FOES
Elon owns a record of 4-16 with all four of those wins coming in the last two seasons. Last year alone, it's defeated No. 13 Virginia, No. 19 Virginia Tech and No. 17 Towson. Against the ACC, Elon is 3-11 with two of those victories coming in 2017.
UP NEXT
This Thursday, March 1, Elon will come home for the first time to take on High Point at Rudd Field. Opening draw is set for 6 p.m. Elon is 13-4 against Big South foes to date and is 3-1 against High Point, but has won three in a row in the series after losing the opener.
--ELON--
