Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/7/18
From Staff Report
Jackie Lanzalotto said Notre Dame Academy’s 7-6 win today over national power St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes (VA) at its annual Spring Fling was a landmark win for the Irish.
“This is huge for our program,” said the senior goalie. “Our coaches, Xan Zimatore and Maura Wilson, started coaching at Notre Dame my freshman year and since then our team has been working year-round for a win against a nationally ranked program like SSSA, and it is great to be able to do it as a senior.”
Notre Dame (3-1) had suffered a 10-9 loss to St. Johns College (DC) on Friday at the Spring Fling, which annually attracts many ranked teams. St. Stephen’s (10-2) entered play this weekend as the No. 5 team in the Inside Lacrosse rankings.
But the Irish scored twice to break a 5-5 tie and after the Saints drew within 7-6 Lanzalotto (eight saves) made a great stop on a free position shot with 1.8 seconds left to preserve the thrilling win.
“My mind was really clear and focused,” said Lanzalotto on the clinching save. “I knew that if I made the save we would win and I just went for it without hesitation and confidence in myself that I could save whatever shot came at me.
“We went out today knowing that we had nothing to lose. Saints Stevens and Agnes is a great team, but we believed that we could win and we never let up.”
Notre Dame took an early 3-0 lead as Claire Gola, Kelly Coyle (two goals) and Hannah Gillespie (three goals) scored. SSSA came back to tie the game at 3-3, but ND led, 5-3, at halftime.
“The defense was the key to our win today,” said Zimatore (head coach). “Our gameplan going in to the game was to play solid team D and be aggressive when we needed to. Our veteran defense composed of SJ Quigley, Lily Allen, Abby McNamee, Morgan O’Brien, Belle McHugh and Lindsey Barnes really stepped up and played together.”
Lanzalotto said the Irish players are united this season.
“We were successful today because we played as a team. Our ‘slogan’ this year is ‘Rise as One’, and we did that today,” she said. “When someone made a mistake, another player was there to back her up and keep the momentum going.
“We also adjusted well to how SSSA was playing. We figured out what was working best on draws, defense, transitions and how to best score on attack. We played as ‘one’ today because everybody worked together- attack, mids, defense and me.”
What are Notre Dame’s goals this year?
“In the beginning of the season, our team came up with a list of goals for this year,” Lanzalotto said. “We want to win the Inter-Ac and PAISAA. That is our goal every year and I believe that this team, this year can do it.
“We have a great schedule this year, especially this month and we are really looking forward to tough competition from both Inter-Ac and other great PA teams. Today’s game was only our fourth game this season so we’re just getting started!”
Notre Dame statistics
Hannah Gillespie- 3G, 1A, 2CT
Kelly Coyle- 2G, 1GB
Georgie Gorelick- 1A
Mikayla Dever- 1A, 2GB
Claire Gola- 2G, 1DC
Maggie O’Brien- 1GB, 4DC
Sarah Jane Quigley- 3GB
Lily Allen- 2 CT
Morgan O’Brien- 1GB, 1 CT
Lindsey Barnes- 2GB, 1CT
Belle McHugh- 2GB
Jackie Lanzalotto- 8 Saves (including game winner with 1.8 seconds left)
