Sept. 17, 2009
Full Notes Package in PDF Format 
2009 ND Women’s Soccer — Games 7 & 8
#14/13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-3-0 / 0-0-0 BIG EAST)
vs. DePaul Blue Demons (4-2-2 / 0-0-0 BIG EAST)
DATE: September 18, 2009
TIME: 7:30 p.m. ET
AT: Notre Dame, Ind. – Alumni Stadium (2,500)
SERIES: ND leads 4-0-0
1ST MTG: ND 6-0 (9/16/05)
LAST MTG: ND 1-0 (9/19/08)
vs. Northwestern Wildcats (3-3-1 / 0-0-0 Big Ten)
DATE: September 20, 2009
TIME: 1:00 p.m. ET
AT: Notre Dame, Ind. – Alumni Stadium (2,500)
SERIES: ND leads 2-0-0
1ST MTG: ND 3-0 (10/11/88)
LAST MTG: ND 11-1 (10/13/90)
Storylines
- Notre Dame owns a school-record 52-game unbeaten streak (50-0-2) against BIG EAST opposition, dating back to 2005.
- Since joining the BIG EAST, the Irish are 14-0 in conference openers, posting a combined 68-2 scoring margin in league lidlifters.
#14/13 Irish Back Home This Weekend To Entertain Windy City Duo
Following a rugged first month of the season that featured three opponents currently appearing in the top 12 of the NSCAA poll, No. 14/13 Notre Dame returns to the friendly confines of Alumni Stadium Friday to kick off BIG EAST Conference play with a 7:30 p.m. (ET) contest against DePaul. The Fighting Irish then will put the cap on their non-conference slate Sunday when they welcome Northwestern to town for a 1 p.m. (ET) contest.
Notre Dame (3-3) is coming off a tough two-match visit to the West Coast last weekend, as the Fighting Irish dropped 2-0 decisions at Santa Clara and against No. 3/2 Stanford, both in the SCU adidas Classic. Although Notre Dame had good scoring chances in both matches, the Fighting Irish wound up suffering consecutive losses for the first time in two seasons.
Senior defender Haley Ford and junior midfielder Rose Augustin were Notre Dame’s top performers last week and both earned a place on the all-tournament team.
Rankings
- Notre Dame is ranked 14th in the NSCAA poll and 13th in the Soccer America poll.
- DePaul and Northwestern are not ranked.
A Quick Look At The Fighting Irish
After driving all the way to the doorstep of history in 2008 with a magical 26-1-0 season that culminated just short of a national championship, Notre Dame returns many of the same players that helped propel the Fighting Irish to the top of the college soccer world for much of last year.
Not only does Notre Dame bring back 19 monogram winners and seven starters, but of those 19 returnees, 15 of them have starting experience under their belt. What’s more, the Fighting Irish have more than 60 percent of their goalscoring (52 of 83) back in the fold, along with many of the defenders that were responsible for registering 18 shutouts and a 0.44 goals-against average (both among the top five marks in school history).
Sophomore forward Melissa Henderson (17G-2A in 2008) was tabbed the BIG EAST Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and is one of 45 preseason candidates for the Hermann Trophy after a stellar rookie campaign that included five gamewinning goals, the last coming in overtime of the BIG EAST Championship game against Connecticut.
Junior midfielders Rose Augustin (6G-2A) and Erica Iantorno (5G-7A) also likely will factor in Notre Dame’s offensive attack this season. Meanwhile, junior holding midfielder Lauren Fowlkes (1G), another preseason Hermann Trophy choice, and sophomore defender Jessica Schuveiller (1G-1A) will anchor the Fighting Irish backline.
They will be supported by senior goalkeeper Kelsey Lysander, who set a single-season school record with 26 victories last season (and shared another record with 18 total shutouts). Lysander also ranked sixth in the nation last season with a 0.44 GAA and was named to the ’08 NCAA College Cup All-Tournament Team.
Scouting The Blue Demons
DePaul (4-4-2) enters Friday’s match having already equaled its win total from all of last season, with victories over Loyola-Chicago (4-0), Northwestern (3-2), No. 11 Missouri (1-0) and Butler (2-0). The Blue Demons also made their first-ever appearance in the national rankings, checking in at No. 20 in the Soccer America balloting on Aug. 31 after the win at Missouri.
Most recently, DePaul dropped a 2-1 decision at Wisconsin on Sept. 13. Junior midfielder Tara Strickland broke a 0-0 deadlock in the 55th minute when she scored off of a free kick from 25 yards out, but UW rallied with goals in the 76th and 89th minutes for the victory.
Strickland leads the Blue Demon offense with seven points on three goals and assist. Senior forward Shannon Williams is second on the team with a goal and three assists for five points. Williams and Strickland have each netted a game-winning goal, as have sophomore forward Arianna Foster and freshman forward Kelly Blumberg. Freshman goalkeeper Claire Hanold has played all 760 minutes in the DePaul net. In addition to posting a 4-2-2 record and five shutouts, she has recorded a 0.83 GAA and made 25 saves. Her five shutouts are tied with Marquette’s Natalie Kulla for the most among BIG EAST goalkeepers.
DePaul is coached by Erin Chastain, who is in her third season as the Blue Demons’ head coach. DePaul is 13-30-3 (.315) under Chastain.
The Notre Dame-DePaul Series
Notre Dame holds an all-time series advantage of 4-0-0 against DePaul, while also holding a 16-0 scoring edge versus the Blue Demons. Friday night’s contest marks the fifth consecutive year the Irish will open their BIG EAST slate versus the Blue Demons.
The teams first met in 2005, as DePaul joined the BIG EAST Conference and was placed with Notre Dame in the conference’s National Division. The Irish earned a 6-0 win in that first meeting. In 2006, Notre Dame travelled to DePaul for the first time and earned a 5-0 win. The Irish followed with a 4-0 home win in 2007.
Last season, the Blue Demons and Irish battled in a closely contested match that saw Notre Dame fight past a defensive-minded DePaul squad, 1-0, on the strength of a Kerri Hanks goal with just under 13 minutes remaining. Current junior midfielder/forward Erica Iantorno assisted on Hanks’ goal and current senior goalkeeper Kelsey Lysander played all 90 minutes to earn the shutout, making one save.
Iantorno, a native of Hinsdale, Ill., also had an assist versus DePaul in 2007 giving her two career points against the Blue Demons. With five points on two goals and an assist, senior forward/tri-captain (and Naperville, Ill., resident) Michele Weissenhofer is Notre Dame’s leading returning point scorer versus DePaul, notching all five of her points in 2006.
Scouting The Wildcats
Northwestern (3-3-1) was riding a three-match winning streak as it entered a home contest with BYU on Thursday night.
Prior to the BYU match, the Wildcats strung together victories over Loyola-Chicago (1-0 OT), at Penn (2-1) and at Yale (1-0). In that most recent win over Yale, freshman midfielder Kendall Thoreson notched the first goal of her college career in the 71st minute to secure the win.
Senior Kay Sampson leads the Northwestern offense with two goals and an assist for five points on the year, while Sampson’s classmate Alicia Herczeg also has netted two goals. Junior goalkeeper Carolyn Edwards has played all 655:39 in the Northwestern net. She has posted a 1.24 GAA, 23 saves and three shutouts.
Stephanie Erickson, who is in her fourth season as her alma mater’s head coach, has posted a 30-29-8 (.507) record at Northwestern. Overall, 2009 marks Erickson’s sixth season as a head coach, having previously led Harvard and (on an interim basis) Stanford for one season. Her career record is 61-36-11 (.616).
The Notre Dame-Northwestern Series
Notre Dame and Northwestern will meet for just the third time in history and the first time since 1990. The teams first met in 1988 when the Irish earned a 3-0 home win. The teams met in Notre Dame once again two years later, and the Irish prevailed with an 11-0 win.
Although they have not met in the regular season in nearly two decades, the teams have played in the spring season on several occasions. Both schools also participated (not against each another) in a landmark women’s soccer event this past spring, as they competed in the inaugural Kicks Against Breast Cancer Invitational at Chicago’s historic Soldier Field, home of the National Football League’s Chicago Bears.
Beasts Of The BIG EAST
With a win over Connecticut in the 2008 BIG EAST title game (1-0 in OT), Notre Dame now owns a school-record 52-game unbeaten streak (50-0-2) against BIG EAST opposition (second-longest in NCAA Division I history) dating back to 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 the 2007 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 123-8-4 (.926) all-time in regular-season conference games, 32-2-1 (.929) in the BIG EAST Tournament, and hold a 682-81 scoring edge dating back to that first league season in ’95.
What’s more, Notre Dame maintains a 13-year, 87-game home unbeaten streak (86-0-1) 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).
Senior Moments
The 2009 Irish senior class ranks as the second-most successful group in the country on the basis of wins, with a four-year record to date of 73-10-3 (.866) that includes three consecutive trips to the NCAA College Cup and appearances in the 2006 and 2008 national title games.
The .866 winning percentage compiled by the Notre Dame seniors is third on the national scene behind North Carolina and UCLA.
Pick Three For The Hermann Watch
Sophomore forward Melissa Henderson, junior defender/midfielder Lauren Fowlkes and senior midfielder Courtney Rosen have been named to the 45-player watch list for the 2009 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy, it was announced by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).
The Hermann Trophy is presented annually to the nation’s top Division I women’s soccer player, with Notre Dame’s Kerri Hanks earning the prestigious crystal ball trophy last year. In the process, Hanks became the fourth Fighting Irish player to collect the award, not to mention just the fourth two-time Hermann Trophy honoree since the award debuted in 1988, as well as the first two-time national player of the year (in any sport) in the 122-year history of Notre Dame athletics.
Game #5 Recap: Santa Clara
The No. 5/7 Notre Dame women’s soccer team saw its school-record 15-game road unbeaten streak come to an end Sept. 11 with a 2-0 loss at Santa Clara. The Broncos ended up with a 10-8 shot advantage on the Irish, including a slim 5-4 edge in shots on goal. SCU’s biggest margin of the night came from the corner flag, where the hosts owned a 10-2 spread on corner kicks.
Junior goalkeeper Nikki Weiss and senior goalkeeper Kelsey Lysander each played a half in the Notre Dame net, with Weiss making one save and Lysander stopping two shots.
Bianca Henninger earned the shutout in the Santa Clara goal, recording three saves, including a pair of big first-half stops early in a then-scoreless contest.
The Broncos broke the ice just past the midway point of the first half. After earning a free kick at the edge of the offensive third, Kiki Bosio took a quick restart and found Jordan Angeli unmarked in the right channel 25 yards from goal. The sixth-year senior then uncorked a rising blast that eluded Weiss and tucked under the cross bar to give SCU the lead at 23:52. Lauren Matheson scored the Broncos’ critical second goal at 62:06.
Game #6 Recap: Stanford
Despite several good scoring opportunities in both halves, a pair of Stanford goals less than three minutes apart early in the second half proved to be enough, as No. 5/7 Notre Dame fell to the No. 3/2-ranked Cardinal, 2-0, this past Sunday in second-day action at the Santa Clara adidas Classic.
In a rematch of last season’s NCAA national semifinal contest (won by the Irish, 1-0 in Cary, N.C.), Notre Dame battled emotionally-charged Stanford toe-to-toe during the first 45 minutes. However, the Cardinal’s Mariah Nogueira nodded in a free kick (55:13), and Christen Press converted a deflected shot with a goal from close range at 57:58 to send the Irish to their second consecutive loss.
Stanford (7-0) finished with a 16-7 edge in total shots, including a 6-2 margin in shots on goal. The teams also each earned three corner kicks in the match.
Senior goalkeeper Kelsey Lysander went the distance between the pipes for Notre Dame, making four saves, all in the second half. Kira Maker recorded the shutout in goal for Stanford, turning aside two shots.
The Henderson Effect
Sophomore forward Melissa Henderson has made quite an impact on the Notre Dame offense since arriving on campus last fall, netting 21 goals (including eight gamewinners) and adding three assists for 45 points in her first 33 games with the Irish.
In fact, through her first 33 games, Notre Dame is 15-0 when Henderson scores a goal and 17-0 when she picks up a point.
Irish Debuts
In Notre Dame’s season-opening victory over Wisconsin on Aug. 21 at old Alumni Field, four of the five active Fighting Irish freshmen made their collegiate debuts. Lindsay Brown, Leah Fisher, Jazmin Hall and Tereza Stastny all saw time on the pitch as Notre Dame blanked the Badgers, 3-0. A week later, Stastny made her first career start in the 2-0 win over Loyola-Chicago, also at Alumni Field.
Then in Notre Dame’s 3-0 conquest of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Sept. 6 at new Alumni Stadium, goalkeeper Maddie Fox made her Irish debut, playing the final 14:44 to share the shutout with Nikki Weiss. Fox also made two impressive saves in her first collegiate action to help preserve Notre Dame’s clean sheet.
The UW-Milwaukee game was notable for another Irish rookie as Stastny registered the first two points of her career by setting up both of Melissa Henderson’s first-half goals.
Your 2009 Captains
The 2009 Notre Dame squad features three first-time captains, with seniors Michele Weissenhofer and Courtney Rosen and sophomore Jessica Schuveiller all selected via a vote of their teammates.
Schuveiller’s selection is noteworthy, in that she is the first non-senior to serve as a team captain since Amy Warner was one of Notre Dame’s three captains in 2002 (her junior season). This year’s triumvirate also marks the first time since 2004 (Mary Boland, Gudrun Gunnarsdottir and Melissa Tancredi) that the Irish have named three captains.
Schuveiller Goes To Camp
Sophomore defender Jessica Schuveiller was among a group of 24 players invited by head coach Bill Irwin to compete at the United States Under-23 Women’s National Team Training Camp in suburban Cleveland this past summer (June 12-19).
Schuveiller made her first appearance at a U.S. National Team training camp, joining an extensive list of Notre Dame players who have competed for Team USA at the U-23 level. Most recently, three current Irish players — senior forward Michele Weissenhofer, junior defender/midfielder Lauren Fowlkes and sophomore forward Melissa Henderson — were part of the U-23 player pool, along with two recent Notre Dame graduates and current WPS players Brittany Bock (now with the Los Angeles Sol) and defender Elise Weber (competing for Saint Louis Athletica). Fowlkes also struck gold with the U.S. U-20 National Team at last December’s FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Chile.
Our Fearless Leader
Eleventh-year Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum reached a career milestone with last season’s 3-1 win over No. 17/16 Penn State on Sept. 21. With the win, he became the eighth active Division I head coach to record 300 career wins. He now has a record of 321-81-20 (.784) in 20 seasons (including six at Tulsa and three at Baylor). His winning percentage ranks fourth among active coaches, while his 321 wins are fifth on the NCAA Div. I career list.
Three … Is The Magic Number
Scoring three goals has meant virtually an automatic win in Notre Dame women’s soccer history, with a 280-3-1 (.988) record in those games, including a 182-1-0 (.995) mark since Oct. 6, 1995. The Irish also are 377-9-15 (.959) when holding the opposition to 0-1 goals.
Most impressively, Notre Dame is 305-0-1 all-time when claiming a 2-0 lead and is unbeaten in its past 282 contests when going ahead 2-0 (dating back to a 3-3 tie with Vanderbilt on Sept. 15, 1991, in Cincinnati). In fact, just two of the past 192 Irish opponents to face a 2-0 deficit have forced a tie, something achieved by four 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), Duke on Nov. 30, 2007, in the NCAA quarterfinals at Alumni Field (Irish won 3-2), and most recently, Villanova on Oct. 12, 2008 in Villanova, Pa. (Irish won 3-2 in OT).
Golden Domers Golden In OT
Overtime has usually been the right time for Notre Dame, as the Fighting Irish are 18-3-8 (.759) all-time in the Randy Waldrum era (since ’99) when going to an extra period or two.
Notre Dame went to OT in three games last season and emerged victorious all three times. On Oct. 12, Rose Augustin potted the gamewinner at 6:58 of the first overtime for a 3-2 win at Villanova.
On Nov. 9, Melissa Henderson followed Augustin’s model and scored at 6:58 of the first OT to give the Fighting Irish a 1-0 victory in the BIG EAST Championship final at Alumni Field. It was the first “golden goal” in BIG EAST postseason history.
On Nov. 21, Alumni Field was once again the site, as Kerri Hanks slotted home a penalty kick at 6:54 of the first overtime for a 1-0 win over No. 22/24 Minnesota in the third round of the NCAA Championship. It was the first “golden goal” for the Fighting Irish in the NCAA tourney since 2000, when Meotis Erikson’s goal at 4:59 of the first OT gave Notre Dame a 2-1 win over Santa Clara in the NCAA quarterfinals at Alumni Field.
Last season marked the first time Notre Dame had ever played multiple overtime games in the postseason (BIG EAST/NCAA Championship).
Rosen Sidelined
Senior midfielder/tri-captain Courtney Rosen is out indefinitely after breaking her left foot during preseason training. Rosen underwent successful corrective surgery on Aug. 13 and is in the midst of rehabilitating her injury.
Media Guide Correction
On page 53 of the 2009 Notre Dame women’s soccer media guide, the last name of senior defender/midfielder Amanda Clark’s grandfather (Joe Kopnisky) and uncle (Jack Kopnisky) was misspelled. The Notre Dame Sports Information Office regrets the error.
Our New Digs
Located just east of the Joyce Center and approximately 500 yards west of its predecessor, Alumni Stadium is the new home for Notre Dame soccer, having opened its doors Sept. 4 to an overflow crowd of 3,007 for its debut match against top-ranked North Carolina (the Irish men played three nights earlier, blanking Michigan, 5-0).
A state-of-the-art facility built at a cost of $5.7 million, Alumni Stadium has a permanent seating capacity of approximately 2,500 fans, along with grass berm seating on the east end of the grounds. The stadium also offers upgraded and expanded restroom and concession areas, elevator access to the main concourse level, as well as numerous amenities for both Fighting Irish soccer programs (expansive locker rooms with custom-made wood lockers, spacious team lounges with flat-screen plasma TVs and high-speed Internet access, and a fully-equipped athletic training center).
What’s more, Alumni Stadium features an LED scoreboard (installed by industry leader Daktronics), enhanced lighting structures and top-of-the-line sod for the pitch (cultivated in Fort Morgan, Colo., at Graff’s Turf Farms, which also has provided the turf for numerous facilities including Notre Dame Stadium, Wrigley Field, Busch Stadium and the new MLS grounds outside Denver and Salt Lake City).
In addition, media members will enjoy the spacious new air-conditioned press box, which includes power and high-speed Internet portals at every seat (along with wireless Internet capability), three individually-wired broadcast booths and an expansive, unblocked midfield vantage point, all of which make Alumni Stadium unlike any other on-campus facility in college soccer.
The construction of Alumni Stadium was made possible because of numerous generous donations, including those by lead benefactors Tom Crotty and Rob Snyder, both former Fighting Irish men’s soccer players.
Crotty was a three-year monogram winner from 1977-79, earning team MVP honors in 1979 before graduating the following spring with a degree in finance. He currently is general partner at Battery Ventures LP in Wellesley, Mass., while he and his wife, Shari, live in Southborough, Mass.
Snyder earned two monograms from 1980-83, piling up 23 goals and 22 assists (the latter figure ranking seventh in school history). He also potted a team-high 12 goals in 1981. A 1984 graduate of Notre Dame, Snyder went on to become founder and CEO of Stream Energy in Dallas, Texas.
Taking It To The Next Level
Notre Dame had 10 players appearing on opening-day rosters for the inaugural season of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009, ranking second among all colleges in that category. Four of those 10 (all members of the ’08 Fighting Irish NCAA runner-up squad) were selected in the league’s first-ever college draft back in January — Brittany Bock (first round, fifth overall, Los Angeles Sol), Kerri Hanks (first round, sixth overall, Saint Louis Athletica), Carrie Dew (second round, 12th overall, FC Gold Pride) and Elise Weber (third round, 21st overall, Saint Louis Athletica).
That quartet was joined by: Shannon Boxx (Los Angeles Sol), Jen Buczkowski and Christie Shaner (Sky Blue FC), Candace Chapman (Boston Breakers), and Amanda Cinalli and Melissa Tancredi (Saint Louis Athletica).
In addition, Kate (Sobrero) Markgraf was assigned to the Chicago Red Stars as part of the U.S. National Team draft, but sat out the ’09 season while on maternity leave (she gave birth to twins in June). Kelly Lindsey began the season as an assistant coach at Sky Blue FC, then took over as interim head coach at midseason before resigning late in the year.
Midseason trades saw Hanks sent to Sky Blue FC, while Shaner went out to Los Angeles. Shaner subsequently was sidelined for the season with a broken leg.
Of the 10 active Notre Dame alums in WPS, eight saw their teams advance to the league playoffs (all but Chapman and Dew). Led by arguably the world’s top defensive midfielder in Boxx and one of WPS’ top rookies in Bock (who played center back after never playing that position at Notre Dame), Los Angeles won the regular season title and the right to host the first-ever WPS Championship Game.
In the end, five Fighting Irish alums (tying North Carolina for the most representatives from one college) worked their way into the WPS final — Bock, Boxx and Shaner for L.A., along with Hanks and Buczkowski for Sky Blue FC. The New Jersey-based club then capped an amazing string of three playoff road wins in eight days with a 1-0 upset of Los Angeles to win the inaugural WPS Championship.
Boxx was subsequently named a starter for the first WPS All-Star Game, which took place at Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park in suburban St. Louis on Aug. 30.
On Sept. 16, Buczkowski was chosen by the Philadelphia Independence with the third overall pick in the 2009 WPS Expansion Draft, with Cinalli going one selection later to the Atlanta Beat.
Next Up: Cincinnati/Louisville
Notre Dame resumes BIG EAST play next weekend with games versus Cincinnati and Louisville. The Irish hit the road to take on the Bearcats at 7 p.m. (ET) on Sept. 25 before returning home to play Louisville on Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. (ET) in Alumni Stadium.
The latter match will air live to a national cable audience by CBS College Sports, the opener in a Notre Dame CBS CS doubleheader, with the Fighting Irish men hosting Cincinnati in the nightcap at 3:30 p.m. (ET).
— ND —