US Lacrosse Magazine released the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Women’s Preseason Top 20 on Jan. 8. Team-by-team previews will be unveiled on uslaxmagazine.com throughout January and will also appear as part of the magazine’s NCAA preview edition that mails to US Lacrosse members Feb. 1 — opening day of the 2018 college lacrosse season.
No. 14 Notre Dame
2017 Record: 11-8 (4-3 ACC)
Coach: Christine Halfpenny (7th year)
All-Time Record: 218-141
NCAA Appearances: 12
Final Fours: 1
Championships: 0
Notre Dame coach Christine Halfpenny views the 2017-2018 season as a changing of the guard for her team. And no wonder: For the first time in 14 years, nearly twice as long as Halfpenny’s tenure, the Irish will open a season without a single player who has previously been named an All-American.
By comparison, Notre Dame had three returning All-Americans last year and four the year before, all of whom are now gone.
“Our classes of ‘16 and ‘17 were really the nuts and bolts of what we’ve been playing for so long,” Halfpenny said. “This team has lots of new faces.”
The last two Irish classes included All-Americans Cortney Fortunato, the Notre Dame’s No. 2 all-time scorer, and Casey Pearsall, the school’s No. 2 career draw controller and No. 5 on the assist list. Defender Alex Dalton also earned All-American honors in 2015. Those three departed after last season, a year after Barbara Sullivan, a two-time Tewaaraton finalist and three-time first-team All-American defender.
To put the Irish’s youth movement this season in full perspective, the team has a total of just four seniors, only two of whom — captains Molly Cobb and Sydney Cardozo — were full-time contributors in 2017.
But if the Irish lack experience, they are not short of talent. All four classes currently on the roster arrived in South Bend as top-five recruiting classes, according to Inside Lacrosse, including the incoming one. The 2015 class, juniors this season, were ranked No. 3, higher even than the now-departed group with Fortunato and Pearsall.
“We lost a lot of playmakers,” Halfpenny said. “But we have some kids who have been waiting for it to be their time.”
As an example, Halfpenny points to junior like Jessie Masinko as a player with talent who has waited her turn.
“She’s a pure goal scorer around the crease,” Halfpenny said. “She had a huge fall for us.”
Four other juniors will give the Irish some stability: Samantha Lynch (37 goals) and Nikki Ortega (18 goals and 18 assists) are the team’s top returning scorers, and goalie Samantha Giacolone and defender Hannah Proctor will anchor the defense.
“We’ve got a lot of reliability back there between the pipes and on our defense,” Halfpenny said.
The Irish also will dip into their incoming freshman class, including Andie Aldave, who, like Fortunato in 2013, is the nation’s No. 1 incoming freshman. Two of her fellow newcomers, Kaci Messier and Bridget Deehan, also were highly touted recruits.
Three Irish midfielders — Makenna Pearsall, Jenn Casadonte and CeCe Biagini — return from ACL injuries that cut short their 2017 season. In all, Notre Dame lost four players to knee injuries last year, the most Halfpenny had seen on a team since her time at William and Mary.
“I guess it’s every sixth or seventh year,” she said. “We’ll have to watch ourselves in 2023 or something.”