Women’s Lacrosse: NOTRE DAME BEATS MICHIGAN. AGAIN.

Notre Dame dominated Michigan tonight. It feels good to write that.

The most recent bludgeoning occurred inside Loftus Sports Center, where the Irish women’s lacrosse team led from wire-to-wire — just like the 37-0* blood-letting that happened when these two schools met on the football field the last time.

Tonight’s score was 14-8, which is sort of like the 2-to-1 wins the men’s hockey team posted twice in three nights against their inferior neighbors to the north back in January. Oh, those two teams play again at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday in the Frozen Four, in case you’ve been living under a rock.

The women redeemed their male counterparts, who inexplicably failed to protect Arlotta Stadium when the Maize and Blue visited March 21. Freshman midfielder Maddie Howe was tonight’s hero -- as she is most every time the Irish take the field — with three goals to add to her team high 26 as well as three assists. Sophomore attack Jessi Masinko added four goals of her own and freshman phenom Andie Aldave added three goals from midfield.

Junior goaltender Samantha Giacolone stoned eight Michigan shots to collect the victory.

The Irish women are now 3-0 all-time against Michigan.

I don’t have the full stat sheet yet, so here’s a different — and fun — kind of table:

UPDATE: Coach Christine Halfpenny talks to UND.com after the game:

On the keys to the fast start and maintaining the lead in the second half: “We had a fantastic first half. We were very organized in what we were doing and made great adjustments on both ends of the ball. We were able to get more possessions from the hustle stats, the ground ball battle was huge and we did a fantastic job winning that battle. Our defense fueled our offense, getting the stops we needed and helped maintain the lead in the second half.”

On the continued improvements this season: “We were almost 100 percent on clears and that is a goal of ours so that is very exciting to see that improvement. [I’m] really excited to see us lessen our turnovers and we are getting better every time out. It is April and we are looking like a team this is really starting to gel and get to postseason form which isn’t too far away.”

* Don’t you “well actually” me in the comments.