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Notre Dame's Pearl & O'Neill Named March 29 Women's National Collegiate Club Midwest Division Co-Players of the Week
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- Meghan Pearl (Sr., Cary, Ill./Cary-Grove) and Betsy O'Neill (Sr., Danville, Calif./San Ramon Valley) of No. 5-nationally ranked the University of Notre Dame combined to lead the Fighting Irish versus No. 1 the University of California-Los Angeles (5-4 L), No 2 the University of Michigan (4-2 W), No. 8 Michigan State University (5-3 W) and Lindenwood University (11-4 W) at the Miami (Ohio) Invitational to share the March 29 Women's National Collegiate Club Midwest Division Player of the Week award.
The award marks O'Neill's second consecutive Player of the Week nod as she also earned the March 22 Midwest Division honor.
On offense, Pearl sprinted 15-of-16 swim-offs in the four games with 14 victories (4-for-4 vs. MSU, 3-for-3 vs. Lindenwood, 3-for-4 vs UCLA, 4-for-4 vs. Michigan), while tallying two goals and five steals. The squad leader on counter-attacks and often the first defender back, she helped Notre Dame outscore its opponents 24-14 on the weekend. Facing the top-two ranked teams in the country, she played every minute of both games against No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Michigan to hold the top team teams in the country to only seven goals.
Behind Pearl, O'Neill played 14-of-16 quarters in net for the Irish allowing 11 goals with 30 saves for a 3.12 goals per quarter/0.78 goals per period average.
Overall, she stopped seven shots against Michigan State and UCLA, five versus Lindenwood and 11 against Michigan.
