Sept. 27, 2008
Full Notes Package in PDF Format 
2008 ND Women’s Soccer — Game 10
#1/1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (9-0-0 / 2-0-0 BIG EAST) vs. Cincinnati Bearcats (5-4-0 / 1-1-0 BIG EAST)
DATE: Sept. 28, 2008
TIME: 1:00 p.m. ET
AT: Cincinnati, Ohio – Gettler Stadium (1,400)
SERIES: ND leads 7-1-1
1ST MTG: ND 4-0 (9/14/91)
LAST MTG: ND 6-1 (9/30/07)
MEDIA: None
LIVE STATS: UND.com
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Storylines
- Notre Dame takes the field at Cincinnati’s Gettler Stadium as the No. 1 team in the nation for the second time in three years.
- The Irish are unbeaten (5-0-1) in six previous trips to the city of Cincinnati.
No. 1 Irish Back On The Road Sunday At Cincinnati
On the heels of another balanced offensive performance, No. 1 Notre Dame looks to wind up the month of September on a high note when it travels to Cincinnati Sunday for a 1 p.m. (ET) BIG EAST Conference game against the Bearcats at Gettler Stadium.
Notre Dame (9-0) used another of its trademark first-half blitzes to charge past visiting Louisville, 4-1, on Friday night at Alumni Field. Senior All-America forward and Hermann Trophy candidate Kerri Hanks bracketed the Irish scoring summary on Friday, converting on passes from Julie Scheidler (16:36) and Brittany Bock (71:34). Sophomore midfielder Erica Iantorno came off the bench to add a goal and an assist (giving her a team-high six helpers this year), while freshman midfielder Courtney Barg became the 14th different Notre Dame player to score a goal this season.
The Irish now have outscored their nine opponents this year by a combined 30-3 margin, and they remain one of only three unbeaten and untied Division I teams in the country (along with LSU and Oklahoma State).
Rankings
- Notre Dame is ranked No. 1 in the latest NSCAA and Soccer America polls.
- Cincinnati is not ranked.
A Quick Look At The Fighting Irish
Notre Dame rolls out one of its deepest teams in years, with 19 monogram winners (including nine starters) back from last season’s squad that went 19-5-2 (11-0-0 in the BIG EAST) and advanced to the NCAA College Cup semifinals for the ninth time in the past 14 years. The Irish also bring back a powerful offensive punch, with 83.3 percent of their goalscoring (55 of 66) returning.
As if that weren’t enough, Notre Dame welcomes a highly-regarded nine-player freshman class to campus, with three of those incoming players having earned multiple national All-America honors during their prep or club careers.
Leading the way for Notre Dame this season are two of the country’s premier front-line players (and ’07 NSCAA first-team All-Americans) in senior forward Kerri Hanks and senior forward/midfielder Brittany Bock.
A three-time All-American and the ’06 Hermann Trophy recipient, Hanks (9G-2A) continues to blaze new trails through the NCAA and Irish record books, having led the nation in assists the past two seasons, and aiming to become the third Division I player ever to log 70 goals and 70 assists in her career (73G-60A entering Sunday’s game). She twice has earned national honors from Top Drawer Soccer (Player/Team of the Week) and once from Soccer America (Team of the Week) after earning her second consecutive Offensive MVP award at the Inn at Saint Mary’s Classic with a school record-tying sixth career hat trick vs. Loyola Marymount.
Bock (1G-2A), one of the Irish co-captains in 2008, emerged as a genuine offensive threat last season, leading the team in goals and finishing second with 36 points (16G-4A). The reigining BIG EAST Co-Offensive Player of the Year, Bock earned the league’s Offensive Player of the Week honor on Sept. 8, as well as a spot on the Soccer America National Team of the Week after scoring the game-winning goal in a 1-0 victory at No. 3/2 North Carolina on Sept. 5.
Another key player for the Irish this season is senior center back and co-captain Carrie Dew, the 2006 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year who made a successful recovery from an ACL injury late in the ’06 regular season with a solid ’07 campaign. She is the two-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week and Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week honoree, after leading Notre Dame to four consecutive shutouts to open this year (the first time the Irish have done that since ’95).
A Quick Look At Cincinnati
Under first-year head coach Michelle Salmon, Cincinnati has alternated wins and losses through its first nine games, coming into Sunday’s game with a 5-4 overall record (1-1 in BIG EAST play).
The Bearcats are returning home this weekend after a five-game road trip, which ended Friday afternoon with a 2-1 win at DePaul. Junior midfielder Melissa Bigg got UC on the board with her second goal of the season in the 38th minute, before senior forward Kristin May tacked on an insurance goal (her first of the year) in the 54th minute. That allowed the Bearcats to withstand a Blue Demon score seven minutes later and keep DePaul at arm’s length for the final half-hour of action.
Freshman midfielder Julie Morrissey (3G-2A) leads Cincinnati with eight points, while junior forward Erin MacDonald (2G-3A) is second on the team in scoring and goals, and tops in assists.
Junior goalkeeper Andrea Kaminski (1.39 GAA, .733 SV%) is in her third season as the Bearcats’ everyday starter, having opened all nine UC games this season, logging a shutout at Xavier on Sept. 12.
Salmon came to Cincinnati following two seasons as the head coach at Ball State (2006-07) and six years at the helm of Maryland-Baltimore County (2000-05). She has a combined record of 77-66-14 (.535) in eight-plus seasons, although Sunday will mark her first-ever matchup against Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame-Cincinnati Series
Notre Dame holds a 7-1-1 series lead against Cincinnati, including wins in each of the teams’ three meetings (by a combined score of 13-1) since the Bearcats joined the BIG EAST in 2005. The Irish also are 2-0-1 in three prior visits to Cincinnati, most recently earning a 3-0 win on Oct. 24, 2006.
An individual game listing for this series can be found on page 98 of the 2008 Irish women’s soccer media guide.
The Last Time ND And Cincinnati Met
Five different Notre Dame players found the back of the net as the 24th-ranked Irish enjoyed their most productive offensive game of the 2007 season in a 6-1 win over Cincinnati on Sept. 30, 2007, at Alumni Field.
Ohio native Rose Augustin scored her first career goal in the 16th minute to get Notre Dame going, with Susan Pinnick adding another score less than five minutes before halftime. Kerri Hanks then scored off an Ashley Jones assist (54:47) and set up Brittany Bock’s goal in the 68th minute before Michele Weissenhofer capped the outburst with a pair of goals in the final 6:13.
Notre Dame finished with a 24-5 shot advantage, including a 15-2 edge in shots on goal. The Irish also took three of the four corner kicks in the game.
Other Notre Dame-Cincinnati Series Tidbits
- Notre Dame and Cincinnati have three common opponents this season — Michigan, DePaul and Louisville. The Irish opened the season by defeating UM, 7-0 back on Aug. 22 at Alumni Field, before taking a 1-0 win at DePaul on Sept. 19 and a 4-1 win over UofL on Friday night. Meanwhile, UC downed visiting Michigan, 2-1 on Aug. 29, fell to Louisville, 3-0, on Sept. 19, and then won at DePaul, 2-1 on Friday afternoon.
- Notre Dame sophomore midfielder Rose Augustin and Cincinnati senior forward Kristin May were teammates for two seasons (2003-04) at Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Poll Position
Notre Dame took over the No. 1 ranking in all of the major national polls last week, with the Irish now having earned the top spot in the nation in four of the past five seasons (and five of the 10-year Randy Waldrum era, with Waldrum joining North Carolina’s Anson Dorrance as the only coaches with five top-ranked seasons in this decade).
Notre Dame last was ranked No. 1 in 2006, assuming that post in all the polls by the end of the season’s first month and carrying it through to the NCAA College Cup final, where the Irish fell to North Carolina, 2-1 (one of only two blemishes in a 25-1-1 season).
Notre Dame remains the only team in the country to own the No. 1 ranking in the NSCAA poll in four of five years from 2004-08. All-time, the Irish are 77-6-3 (.913) as the nation’s top-ranked squad.
As has become the custom on the Notre Dame campus, the traditional lighted #1 sign has reappeared atop Grace Hall, and a #1 flag now flies outside the Irish athletic department offices at the Joyce Center (see note on pp. 26 of this year’s media guide).
This year’s women’s soccer ranking marks the ninth consecutive academic year (starting in 2000-01) that Notre Dame has fielded at least one top-ranked team, with women’s basketball, fencing, baseball and ice hockey also reaching the top of their respective polls during that span.
Beasts Of The BIG EAST
Following Friday night’s win over Louisville, Notre Dame now owns a school-record 40-game unbeaten streak (38-0-2) against BIG EAST opposition since a 4-1 loss at No. 15 Marquette on Sept. 30, 2005. In that time, the only ties were a 0-0 draw at Connecticut (Oct. 13, 2006) and a 1-1 deadlock at No. 12 West Virginia in last year’s BIG EAST final on Nov. 11 (WVU won 5-3 on PKs, but the game is recorded as a tie).
Since joining the BIG EAST, the Irish are 114-8-4 (.921) all-time in regular-season conference games, 29-2-1 (.922) in the BIG EAST Tournament, and hold a 640-76 scoring edge dating back to that first league season in ’95.
What’s more Notre Dame maintains a 13-year, 80-game home unbeaten streak (79-0-1) versus BIG EAST teams, with Connecticut the lone conference team ever to defeat the Irish at Alumni Field (5-4 in OT on Oct. 6, 1995).
Hanks=History
With each passing game, senior All-America forward and Hermann Trophy candidate Kerri Hanks reaches more career milestones in both the NCAA and Notre Dame record books, continuing to stamp herself as one of the greats in the history of women’s college soccer.
On Sept. 19 at DePaul, Hanks reached four more milestones in one fell swoop, thanks to her second-half goal. It was her 70th career goal, making her the fourth D-I player to amass 70 goals and 60 assists (others are North Carolina’s Mia Hamm, Notre Dame’s Jenny Streiffer and Jennings), and it gave the talented striker 200 career points, making her the 18th player in Division I history to reach that landmark.
On Friday night against Louisville, Hanks scored twice to move into 17th place on the D-I career points list with 206 points (73G-60A), passing Missy Wycinsky of William & Mary (202 from 1996-99). Up next is North Carolina’s Robin Confer (209 from 1994-97), with Hanks standing just five points shy of the Notre Dame all-time record held by Streiffer (211 from 1996-99).
The national leader in assists the past two seasons (22 in ’06; 21 in ’07), Hanks also looks ahead to the historic 70G-70A club, a landmark achievement that only two players (Hamm and Streiffer) in the history of Division I women’s soccer have managed to attain (and neither got beyond 72G-72A).
Setting The Table
Set plays and dead-ball situations now have accounted for 61 (20G-21A) of Kerri Hanks’ 206 career points (73G-60A), representing nearly 30 percent of her points with the Irish. Her 20 goals have come on free kicks (10), penalty kicks (9-for-9, including 2-for-2 this year), or directly on a corner kick (1), while her 21 assists have been via corner-kick (13) or free-kick (8) services.
Staying A-Head Of The Game
Nearly half (20) of the 41 career goals scored by senior forward/midfielder Brittany Bock have come on headers, including eight last season (seven of her final eight scores in ’07 came via headers). Bock also has four rare header assists in her career.
Our Fearless Leader
Tenth-year Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum reached a career milestone on Sept. 21 at No. 17/16 Penn State. With the 3-1 Irish victory, Waldrum became the eighth active Division I head coach to record 300 career wins — he now has a record of 301-79-20 (.778) in 19 seasons (including six at Tulsa and three at Baylor).
For a complete list of the active members of the Division I 300-victory club, see the accompanying chart in the PDF version of these notes.
Lead, Follow Or Just Get Out Of The Way
With the potency of the Notre Dame offensive attack, most opponents opt for the third option. In fact, the Irish have not trailed at any point this season and have led for 555:23 of 810 minutes this season (68.6% of the elapsed game time). In addition, Notre Dame has been tied in the second half just four times (0-0 at No. 3/2 North Carolina, 0-0 and 1-1 against No. 12/11 Duke, 0-0 at DePaul) for a combined total of 35:06, taking no more than 22:17 (at DePaul) to break any of the four ties and move in front.
Three Of A Kind
Notre Dame is one of only three Division I teams that still are unbeaten and untied through the first month of the season. The others are: LSU (7-0) and Oklahoma State (9-0).
Getting The Jump On The Competition
Notre Dame’s quick start this season has been fueled by its lightning-fast beginning to either the first or second half.
In six games (including all five home games), the Irish have scored a goal in the first 20 minutes of play, with senior forward Kerri Hanks owning the fastest strike of the season (penalty kick at 2:39 vs. Loyola Marymount on Aug. 29). That marked the 11th-fastest goal of the Randy Waldrum era, and the quickest since Nov. 5, 2006, when Hanks struck 57 seconds into the BIG EAST final against Rutgers (a game the Irish ultimately won, 4-2).
In two of its three road games, Notre Dame has been scoreless at halftime, but taken the lead less than five minutes into the second half. Against No. 3/2 UNC, senior forward Brittany Bock scored at 50:21, then against No. 12/11 Duke, Bock fed Hanks for a score only 69 seconds after emerging from the locker room.
No Soup For You
For the second time in program history, the first time since 1995 and the first time in the Randy Waldrum era, Notre Dame opened its season with four consecutive shutouts, blanking Michigan (7-0), Loyola Marymount (4-0), No. 21/12 Santa Clara (2-0) and No. 3/2 North Carolina (1-0). The Irish actually put together a string of 419:44 scoreless minutes to begin this season (437:44 dating back to the end of last year), before the run was snapped on Sept. 7 when Duke scored at 59:19 off a corner kick that deflected in off an Irish defender.
The 1995 squad reeled off eight consecutive shutouts to begin what would be a 21-2-2 season, culminating with the program’s first national championship.
Spreading The Wealth
In an early example of the incredible depth of this year’s Notre Dame squad, the Irish had seven different players score goals in the season-opening 7-0 whitewash of Michigan (including three who tallied their first career goals). That matched the largest number of goalscorers in one game during the 10-year Randy Waldrum era (since ’99), and the most since the 2005 season opener (an 11-1 rout of New Hampshire on Aug. 26 in the TD Banknorth Classic at Burlington, Vt.).
For the season, 14 different Notre Dame players, representing all four classes, have scored at least one goal, with only two individual multi-goal games thus far (Kerri Hanks’ hat trick against Loyola Marymount on Aug. 29; Melissa Henderson’s two-goal game against SMU on Sept. 12). In addition, 18 different players have registered at least one point this season, with freshman midfielder Courtney Barg the latest to join that club with her first collegiate goal Friday night against Louisville.
The Notre Dame single-season records for goalscorers (17) and point scorers (20) both were set in 1996.
Game #9 Recap: Louisville
Senior All-America forward and Hermann Trophy candidate Kerri Hanks scored twice and sophomore forward Erica Iantorno added a goal and an assist as No. 1 Notre Dame remained unbeaten this season with a 4-1 victory over BIG EAST Conference foe Louisville on Friday night before a season-high crowd of 2,264 fans at Alumni Field.
Hanks posted her second multi-goal game of the year, converting on a right-side cross from sophomore defender Julie Scheidler at 16:36. Hanks then capped the evening with her second score (and ninth of the year) off an assist from fellow senior All-America forward Brittany Bock at 71:34, a mere 16 seconds after Louisville scored its lone goal of the game on a goal-mouth scramble.
Iantorno continued to cement her reputation as Notre Dame’s “super sub,” registering her three-point night less than 10 minutes after coming on as a substitute at the 31-minute mark. First, she streaked down the right flank and sent a cross into the box that junior forward Michele Weissenhofer dummied beautifully. That left freshman midfielder Courtney Barg wide open at the penalty spot and after dribbling to her right around a defender, she ripped a low shot back to her left inside the post for her first career goal (33:35).
Less than seven minutes later, senior defender Elise Weber sent a ball from the left wing into the box, where Louisville goalkeeper Chloe Kiefer mishandled the sphere and Iantorno easily slammed the loose ball into an empty net for her third goal of the year (40:32).
Junior goalkeeper Kelsey Lysander made a season-high four saves, all in the second half, to procure her ninth win in as many opportunities this year. Notre Dame outshot the Cardinals, 23-10, including an 11-5 edge in shots on goal, and owned a 7-3 advantage in corner kicks.
Hanks Adds To Her Trophy Case
For the second time this season senior All-America forward and Hermann Trophy candidate Kerri Hanks was tapped for a spot on the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week, following her choice as National Player of the Week on Sept. 1. She also was named to the BIG EAST Conference Weekly Honor Roll for the third time this season on Monday.
Hanks scored the gamewinning goals in both Notre Dame victories last week, tallying the lone score in the 78th minute of the conference opener at DePaul, then adding a 20th-minute goal at Penn State to cap off a two-goal strike in a 123-second span.
You Stay CLASS-y, Notre Dame
Senior All-America forwards (and Hermann Trophy candidates) Kerri Hanks and Brittany Bock are two of the 30 nominees for the 2008 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s top senior player based on their dedication and achievement in four areas: Classroom, Character, Community and Competition. Notre Dame is one of five schools with multiple nominees for this year’s award, joining BYU, Clemson, Duke and USC.
Both Hanks and Bock have exemplified the term “student-athlete” in their career. After enrolling at Notre Dame in the spring of 2005 (due to playing in the FIFA Under-19 World Championships the previous fall, Hanks worked hard to graduate one semester early (with her Class of ’08 teammates), earning her bachelor’s degree in sociology this past May.
Bock earned ESPN The Magazine Third-Team Academic All-America status last year while compiling a 3.365 cumulative GPA as a marketing major. She also garnered dean’s list honors in the spring 2008 term with a 3.70 GPA, and had a sharp 3.834 GPA this past summer.
A national media committee will select the 10 finalists in October, with the official ballot opened for nationwide fan voting on Oct. 9. That fan balloting, coupled with votes from coaches and media, will determine this year’s recipient, who will be announced at the NCAA Women’s College Cup Dec. 5-7 in Cary, N.C.
The Magic Number
Scoring three goals has meant virtually an automatic win in Notre Dame women’s soccer history, with a 268-3-1 (.987) record in those games, including a 170-1-0 (.994) mark since Oct. 6, 1995. The Irish also are 365-9-15 (.958) when holding the opposition to 0-1 goals.
Most impressively, Notre Dame is 291-0-1 all-time when claiming a 2-0 lead and is unbeaten in its past 268 contests when going ahead 2-0 (dating back to a 3-3 tie with Vanderbilt on Sept. 15, 1991, in Cincinnati). In fact, just one of the past 181 Irish opponents to face a 2-0 deficit have failed to even force a tie, something achieved by three opponents in Notre Dame history: Duke on Oct. 17, 1993, in Houston (Irish won 3-2), Connecticut on Nov. 10, 1996, in the BIG EAST final at Alumni Field (ND led 2-0, later tied 2-2 and 3-3, ND won 4-3), and Duke on Nov. 30, 2007, in the NCAA quarterfinals at Alumni Field (Irish won 3-2).
You Can Put It On The Board
Notre Dame has scored a goal in 34 consecutive games, dating back to a scoreless draw with Michigan to open last season. The current 34-game goal streak is the fourth-longest in school history, and it’s the longest since a 49-game run from Oct. 24, 2004-Oct. 8, 2006.
The school record is 55 straight games with a goal from Aug. 29, 1997-Sept. 17, 1999, while the next streak ahead of the current Irish run is a 36-game string from Oct. 19, 1995-Dec. 6, 1996.
A Little Added Face Time
Notre Dame is slated to play on television twice during the 2008 regular season. The Irish made their Big Ten Network debut on Sept. 21, posting a 3-1 win at No. 17/16 Penn State. On Oct. 19, Notre Dame travels to Storrs, Conn., for a BIG EAST matchup with Connecticut which will be shown live on CBS College Sports.
In addition to its commercial TV coverage, Notre Dame enjoys an extensive broadcast footprint on the Internet. All of the Irish regular-season home games are slated to be broadcast live on the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.UND.com), with supplemental live stats information provided by CBS College Sports Online’s GameTracker service.
Fans also can follow the Irish on their cell phones by signing up for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system. This free service is available by logging on the women’s soccer page at www.UND.com and scrolling down the right-hand sidebar.
Finally, the Notre Dame Sports Hotline (574-631-3000) remains a reliable resource for all the latest Irish athletics information. Regular updates on the Notre Dame women’s soccer program can be found by calling the Hotline, then selecting option 4 and pressing “2”.
The Golden Girls
Former Notre Dame standouts Kate (Sobrero) Markgraf (’98) and Shannon Boxx (’99) helped the United States successfully defend its Olympic gold medal with a 1-0 overtime win over Brazil in the 2008 title game on Aug. 21 in Beijing, China. Both players started and played all 120 minutes in the final on the way to earning their second consecutive gold medal.
The duo join fencer Mariel Zagunis (’10) as Notre Dame Olympians with multiple gold medals. Markgraf also matches Zagunis’ career total of three medals (Markgraf won silver with the USA at the ’00 Sydney Games), a standard also equalled by former track & field great Alex Wilson (’32).
Parking Changes
Due to ongoing construction within the Notre Dame Athletics Quad (including the new Irish soccer stadium tentatively set for completion in June 2009), parking for Irish soccer games this year is limited to the Eck Baseball Stadium and Joyce Center lots. Fans may ride the complimentary shuttle bus from the Eck Stadium lot, or walk around the north end of Eck Stadium (behind the left-field wall) before entering at the south end of Alumni Field.
Next Game: South Florida
Notre Dame will kick off its 20th anniversary weekend gala next Friday, Oct. 3, when it plays host to South Florida at 7:30 p.m. (ET) in a BIG EAST cross-divisional game at Alumni Field. The Irish and Bulls have met just once before, a 4-0 Notre Dame win in Tampa three years ago.
— ND —