Oct. 30, 2010
Full Notes Package in PDF Format 
2010 ND Women’s Soccer — Match 19
BIG EAST Championship — Quarterfinal
#3/5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (15-1-2 / 9-0-2 BIG EAST) vs. Connecticut Huskies (9-8-3 / 4-5-2 BIG EAST)
DATE: October 31, 2010
TIME: 1:00 p.m. ET
AT: Notre Dame, Ind. – Alumni Stadium (2,500)
SERIES: ND leads 20-4-4
1ST MTG: UCONN 5-4, ot (10/6/95)
LAST MTG: Tie 1-1 (10/15/10)
WEBCAST: UND.com (live) (Patrick Brown, p-b-p / Adam Llorens, color)
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Storylines
- Notre Dame will be playing Connecticut in the BIG EAST Championship for the 10th time, but the first outside of the tournament final (where the Fighting Irish are 8-1 all-time against the Huskies).
- Notre Dame is 35-2-1 all-time in BIG EAST Championship play, including a 17-0-0 record and a 63-4 scoring margin when playing at home. Included in that run is an 11-0 home record in the BIG EAST quarterfinals with a 45-1 scoring margin.
No. 3/5 Irish Kick Off Postseason Sunday Against Connecticut
Following a largely-successful 2010 regular season, the slate is wiped clean for No. 3/5 Notre Dame, as the Fighting Irish kick off postseason play at 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday with a BIG EAST Championship quarterfinal match against Connecticut at Alumni Stadium.
Notre Dame (15-1-2, 9-0-2) is unbeaten in its last 13 matches, following a win and a draw to close out the regular season (and a four-match road trip) last weekend. The Fighting Irish picked up a 1-0 victory at Villanova on Oct. 22 before a 1-1 draw at Georgetown two days later.
Freshman forward Adriana Leon had the game-winning goal at Villanova, and junior forward Melissa Henderson netted a penalty kick at Georgetown, while senior goalkeeper Nikki Weiss logged her seventh solo shutout of the year at VU.
Rankings
- Notre Dame is No. 3 in the latest NSCAA poll and No. 5 in the new Soccer America poll.
- Connecticut is not ranked.
A Quick Look At The Fighting Irish
For the 13th time in its 16-year BIG EAST affiliation, Notre Dame (15-1-2, 9-0-2) has clinched a conference regular-season title, earning the National Division crown for the sixth consecutive year with its 3-1 win at Providence on Oct. 17.
In a season which has seen numerous teams around the country go through ups-and-downs, the Fighting Irish have remained largely rock solid, with only an overtime loss at 13th-ranked UCLA (2-1) on Sept. 10 and a pair of 1-1 draws at Connecticut (Oct. 15) and Georgetown (Oct. 24) blotting their resume. As such, Notre Dame has been a staple in the top 10 of the national rankings all season long, currently standing third in the NSCAA poll and fifth in the Soccer America poll, while also standing fifth in the latest NCAA RPI rankings released Tuesday.
Junior forward Melissa Henderson (14G-7A) staked her claim to the BIG EAST goal- and point-scoring crowns, tallying 10 goals, four assists and 24 points during conference play. Senior forward/midfielder Rose Augustin is having a career year with nine goals (plus a team-high eight assists) and 26 points, having become the 26th member of Notre Dame’s 20G-20A club (she now has 27G-21A in her career).
On the defensive side, Notre Dame continues to be one of the nation’s best, ranking ninth in the land in goals-against average (0.54), while allowing only 10 goals all year (two on own-goals). Co-captains/center backs Lauren Fowlkes and Jessica Schuveiller have teamed with goalkeeper Nikki Weiss to form the core of the Fighting Irish defense, with Weiss having allowed just seven goals in 18 BIG EAST regular-season matches since she took over as the full-time starter more than a year ago.
Scouting Connecticut
One of the traditional powers in the BIG EAST, Connecticut (9-8-3, 4-5-2 BIG EAST) advanced to the conference tournament quarterfinals with a 3-0 victory over Louisville in a first-round match on Thursday afternoon in Storrs, Conn.
Junior forward Jessica Shufelt got the Huskies on the board with her sixth goal of the season in the 36th minute, before senior forward Elise Fugowski drove the dagger into Louisville’s hopes, scoring with four seconds left in the first half. Freshman midfielder Devin Prendergast completed the UConn scoring in the 87th minute, with junior goalkeeper Jessica Dulski making three saves to earn her fourth shutout of the season.
Graduate student forward Angelika Johansson has a team-high seven goals this season and is tied with Shufelt for the team’s point lead with 15. Dulski has started all 20 matches in goal for Connecticut, posting a 1.03 goals-against average (GAA) in addition to her four clean sheets.
Head coach Len Tsantiris is in his 30th season at his alma mater, having posted a 483-152-46 (.743) record.
The Notre Dame-Connecticut Series
Notre Dame leads the all-time series with Connecticut, 20-4-4, including a 12-1-0 record at home.
The teams will be meeting for the second time in a little more than two weeks. Back on Oct. 15 in Storrs, Conn., they finished in a 1-1 draw after Melissa Henderson’s goal in the 78th minute was matched by Linda Ruutu’s equalizer with 2:35 left in regulation.
Sunday will mark the 10th time the Fighting Irish have faced the Huskies in the BIG EAST Championship, but the first time outside of the title match. Notre Dame is 8-1 against UConn in the conference tournament, including a 3-0 record at home (all decided by one goal).
The last time the Fighting Irish and Huskies played in the BIG EAST Championship, it was in the 2008 final at old Alumni Field, with Notre Dame earning a 1-0 overtime win on Henderson’s goal at 96:58.
Other Notre Dame-Connecticut Series Tidbits
- Both head coaches rank among the top five active Division I skippers in the country in terms of career wins. Connecticut’s Len Tsantiris is second with 483 victories, while Notre Dame’s Randy Waldrum is fifth with 354 wins.
- In terms of winning percentage, Waldrum is third (both all-time and among active Division I coaches) with a .791 success rate, while Tsantiris is 11th among active coaches and 12th all-time with a .743 winning percentage.
- Between them, Notre Dame and Connecticut have played in the title match in 15 of the previous 17 BIG EAST Championships (including nine head-to-head matchups), dating back to the tournament’s debut in 1993. The lone exceptions came in 1994 (St. John’s edged Boston College, 1-0, in the final) and 2003 (Villanova shaded BC, 7-6 on penalties after the teams played to a 1-1 draw).
- Notre Dame and Connecticut have won 13 of the first 17 BIG EAST postseason titles, with the Fighting Irish earning 11 crowns and Connecticut winning in 2002 and 2004. Besides the aforementioned St. John’s and Villanova wins, the other conference titleists have been two host schools — Providence (defeated UConn, 1-0 in 1993) and West Virginia (defeated Notre Dame on penalties, 5-3, after 1-1 draw in 2007).
Irish In The BIG EAST Championship
- Notre Dame is competing in the BIG EAST Championship for the 15th time in its 16-year league membership (all but 2002), having won the BIG EAST postseason crown 11 times (1995-2001, 2005-06, 2008-09).
- The Fighting Irish are 35-2-1 (.934) all-time in BIG EAST Championship play, including a 17-0 record at home, where Notre Dame has outscored those 17 conference foes by a combined 63-4 margin.
- Since the BIG EAST added a quarterfinal round in 1998, the Fighting Irish have played host to a quarterfinal every year they have made the tournament (all but 2002), winning all 11 of those contests by a combined 45-1 score. Former league member Miami (Fla.) pushed an injury-riddled Notre Dame squad to overtime in 2003 before Amanda Guertin secured a 2-1 victory on her “golden goal” 2:54 in the extra period.
- Since that Miami game, the Fighting Irish have shut out their last six BIG EAST Championship quarterfinal opponents, downing St. John’s (7-0), Georgetown (6-0), St. John’s again (3-0), Rutgers (2-0), Cincinnati (5-0) and South Florida (5-0), chronologically.
- Notre Dame is 14-0-1 in its last 15 BIG EAST Championship games, dating back to a 2-1 loss at Connecticut in the 2004 conference final. In 2007, the Fighting Irish battled host West Virginia to a 1-1 double-overtime stalemate in the title game before the Mountaineers prevailed on penalty kicks, 5-3.
- The Notre Dame senior class is 15-0-0 all-time in postseason games at home (4-0 at the new Alumni Stadium), shutting out 12 of those 15 opponents and posting a combined 44-5 scoring margin.
Match #18 Recap: Georgetown
Junior forward Melissa Henderson scored her team- and BIG EAST-leading 14th goal of the season to put No. 4/5 Notre Dame on top of Georgetown in the 74th minute, but the Hoyas got a late equalizer and two of the conference’s top squads wound up playing to a 1-1 double-overtime draw in a wildly-entertaining regular season finale on a sun-drenched Oct. 24 afternoon at North Kehoe Field in Washington, D.C.
With the tie, the Fighting Irish extend their NCAA Division I-record unbeaten streak against conference opponents to 77 matches (72-0-5) and lengthen their current unbeaten streak to 13 in a row (11-0-2). The 2010 campaign marks the first time Notre Dame has ever recorded multiple draws during conference play (either in the BIG EAST or in its previous membership in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference), and it’s only the fourth time in the program’s 23-year history that the Fighting Irish have registered two-or-more ties in a single season (the others coming in 1991, when they had three draws, and 1995 and 2007, when they logged two ties).
Notre Dame (15-1-2, 9-0-2 BIG EAST) appeared headed for another late-match win following Henderson’s goal, which came at 73:31 via a penalty kick after she was hauled down in the box. However, Georgetown (13-5-1, 7-3-1) got back on level terms with 4:09 remaining on Camille Trujillo’s goal off a scramble in the area. The Fighting Irish outshot the Hoyas, 3-1 in the two overtime periods, but the two sides wound up sharing the spoils when the final whistle blew.
Senior goalkeeper Nikki Weiss (Redding, Conn./Immaculate) was magnificent between the pipes for Notre Dame, making a career-high eight saves, including several giant stops during the first half when she recorded six of her saves. Georgetown’s Jackie Desjardin matched Weiss nearly stop for stop, finishing with six saves.
For the day, GU held a narrow 18-16 edge in total shots, with a 9-7 margin in shots on goal. The teams nearly split the corner kick tries (8-6 Hoyas), while Notre Dame was charged with 11 of the 17 fouls in the match, as well as both offside calls.
Match #17 Recap: Villanova
Freshman forward Adriana Leon scored midway through the first half and No. 4/5 Notre Dame kept Villanova on its heels for much of the match during a 1-0 BIG EAST Conference victory over the Wildcats on a blustery cold Oct. 22 afternoon at the West Campus Soccer Complex in Villanova, Pa.
With the win, the Fighting Irish picked up a victory at a location that has traditionally been very difficult for Notre Dame, with this marking the fifth one-goal margin in their last six visits to suburban Philadelphia.
Leon netted her second goal of the year, and her first career game-winning score, at 22:45 of the first half with a volley from close range off a cross from senior forward/midfielder Rose Augustin. Notre Dame outshot Villanova, 19-6 in the contest, including an 8-3 edge in shots on goal. The Fighting Irish also earned all six corner kicks during the match.
Senior goalkeeper Nikki Weiss went the distance in the Notre Dame net, making three saves to record her seventh solo shutout of the season and the 10th clean sheet for the Fighting Irish this year. Jami Kranich tallied seven saves in the Villanova goal to keep the hosts in the running.
Mel-Rose Place
No signs of Billy, Jane, Michael or Sydney, but so far this season, Notre Dame has taken on the look of Mel-Rose Place. Specifically, the offensive duo of junior forward Melissa Henderson and senior forward Rose Augustin have combined for more than half (23) of the 40 Fighting Irish goals and 61 of 112 points through 18 matches this season.
Henderson A Trend Setter
If you’re looking to spot a trend in Notre Dame’s success during the past three seasons, look no further than junior forward Melissa Henderson. Since the Garland, Texas, native arrived in South Bend, she has scored 49 goals (third-most among active Division I players, and 11th in school history) and added 14 assists, good for 112 career points (tied for 16th in school history).
This season, Henderson is once again among the national offensive leaders, ranking sixth nationally in points (35) and eighth in goals (14). She also has distributed a career-high seven assists in 2010, matching her combined total from her first two seasons at Notre Dame.
These markers have been particularly valuable to Fighting Irish fortunes. In fact, during Henderson’s career, Notre Dame is 32-0-2 when she scores a goal, something she’s done in 11 matches this year, including seven of the past nine outings. The Fighting Irish also are 39-0-2 all-time when Henderson tallies a point, which she has done in 14 matches this year and 21 of the past 28 contests, dating back to last season.
Quickstrike Offense, Part I
Junior forward Melissa Henderson and senior forward Rose Augustin scored 47 seconds apart (at 23:51 and 24:38) midway through the first half of the Sept. 5 win over Texas Tech at Alumni Stadium. It was the fastest two-goal flurry for Notre Dame since Sept. 28, 2008, at Cincinnati, when Henderson scored 33 seconds after Courtney Rosen found the back of the net.
Quickstrike Offense, Part II
Junior forward Melissa Henderson’s goal just 1:11 in Notre Dame’s win at Loyola Marymount on Sept. 12 was the fastest opening tally by the Fighting Irish since Dec. 7, 2008, when Kerri Hanks scored only 16 seconds into the NCAA national championship match against North Carolina in Cary, N.C. (setting an NCAA College Cup record in the process).
Henderson’s goal against LMU also was the sixth-fastest opening score in the 12-year Randy Waldrum era (1999-present).
Getting The Jump On The Opposition
In nine matches this season, Notre Dame has scored the opening goal inside the first 15 minutes of play.
In addition, the Fighting Irish have scored within the opening 30 minutes in 13 of their last 16 matches, after waiting until the second half to find the back of the net in their first two contests of the year.
Lead, Follow Or Get Out Of The Way
With the potency of the Notre Dame offensive attack, most opponents have chosen the third option. In fact, the Fighting Irish have led or been tied for 1,638:56 of 1,664:02 minutes this season (98.5% of the elapsed game time). The only time Notre Dame has trailed this season was for a grand total of 25:06 (19:09-44:15) at No. 13 UCLA on Sept. 10.
Department of Defense
Notre Dame opened this season with four consecutive shutouts, marking the second time in three years (but just the third time in school history) that the Fighting Irish have started with four clean sheets. The other instances occurred in 1995 (eight in a row) and 2008 (four in a row).
This season, Notre Dame has allowed just 10 goals (two of which were own-goals) and ranks ninth in the nation in goals-against average (0.54) and 14th in shutout percentage (0.56/match).
In fact, the Fighting Irish actually have taken almost as many shots on goal (150) through 18 matches than their opponents have total shots (160).
Looking at the larger picture, Notre Dame has allowed 0-1 goals in 31 of its last 33 matches, dating back to Oct. 4, 2009, at Pittsburgh. Prior to a 2-1 overtime loss at 13th-ranked UCLA on Sept. 10, the Fighting Irish had a 19-match streak of allowing one goal or fewer, the fifth-longest streak in school history and their longest since Oct. 25, 2002-Oct. 26, 2003, when the Fighting Irish yielded a goal or fewer in 24 consecutive matches.
During this current 33-match defensive run (which coincided with the installation of senior Nikki Weiss as Notre Dame’s full-time starting goalkeeper), the Fighting Irish are 28-2-3 with 20 shutouts (14 solo and six shared by Weiss), a 78-17 scoring margin and a 0.59 goals-against average (GAA).
In the program’s 23-year history, Notre Dame is 404-10-17 (.957) when holding the opposition to 0-1 goals.
ND Seniors Among Nation’s Best
The 2010 Notre Dame senior class currently joins its North Carolina counterpart as the most successful group in the country on the basis of total victories, with a four-year record to date of 81-11-5 (.861) that includes three consecutive trips to the NCAA College Cup and an appearance in the 2008 national title match.
The .861 winning percentage compiled by the Fighting Irish seniors is fourth-best on the national scene.
And Juniors Aren’t Half Bad Either
Like their senior teammates, the Fighting Irish juniors share the national lead with North Carolina (and Stanford) in total wins by the Class of 2011, with a three-year record to date of 62-6-3 (.894), including two trips to the NCAA College Cup and a berth in the 2008 title match. The Notre Dame junior class also currently ranks third in the nation with an .894 winning percentage.
That record could be even more impressive when one considers that three of those six losses occurred in a nine-day span (Sept. 4-13) last season. The only other losses were late-game one-goal setbacks to North Carolina in the past two College Cups (2-1 in the ’08 final, 1-0 in the ’09 semifinals) and earlier this season at 13th-ranked UCLA (2-1 in OT on Sept. 10), along with a 0-0 draw at Pittsburgh last year (a match in which Notre Dame outshot the Panthers, 25-7) and 1-1 draws this season at Connecticut and Georgetown.
Fresh-Faced Contributors
Part of Notre Dame’s success this season can be traced to the poised and rapidly maturing play of its freshmen, four of whom are now among the starting XI for the Fighting Irish.
Midfielders Mandy Laddish and Elizabeth Tucker wasted little time in getting their feet wet at the college level, having earned starting nods in virtually every match this season (Laddish all 18, Tucker 16). Laddish ranks fourth on the team in total minutes (1,544) by a field player, while Tucker (a two-time BIG EAST Rookie of the Week selection) is third on the team — and tops among all conference freshmen — with seven goals, three assists and 17 points, while standing second on the team with four game-winning goals (all of those marks are among the top 10 in the BIG EAST).
On Sept. 12 at Loyola Marymount, defender Kecia Morway became the third rookie in the starting lineup (she has gotten the call 12 times this season), while forward Adriana Leon got her first starting nod on Oct. 1 vs. Syracuse. Leon, who has started six times to date, potted her first career goal on Sept. 24 against Cincinnati and added the game-winning score on Oct. 22 at Villanova.
One other Notre Dame freshman note: during the final 10 minutes of the first half at Northwestern on Sept. 19, the Fighting Irish had five freshmen on the pitch at the same time, as starters Laddish, Tucker and Morway were joined by Leon and midfielder Rebecca Twining, the latter of whom was making her college debut.
Sunday School
Notre Dame is unbeaten in its last 17 matches on Sunday (15-0-2) and owns a 34-2-3 (.910) record in the past 39 contests when closing out the weekend, dating back to September 2007 (when the Fighting Irish lost three consecutive Sunday matches to nationally-ranked Stanford, Oklahoma State and Penn State, all by 2-1 scores and the first two in overtime).
Irish Thinking Pink In October
Following the success of this past spring’s jersey auction at the Mexico exhibition match to benefit Camp Whatcha-Wanna-Do (which raised nearly $3,000 for the Fort Wayne camp for children with cancer), the Notre Dame women’s soccer team once again gave fans the shirts off their backs.
During its home matches against Seton Hall and Rutgers on the weekend of Oct. 8-10, the Fighting Irish wore special white/pink uniforms to support Kicks Against Breast Cancer, a national soccer initiative to raise funds for breast cancer research. From Sept. 24-Oct. 11, fans had the opportunity to bid on these autographed, game-worn jerseys by going to the official Notre Dame athletics auction web site at www.UND.com/auctions.
Proceeds from this auction (which topped $5,000) will go directly to Kicks Against Breast Cancer. For more information on this worthwhile cause, visit www.kicksagainstbreastcancer.org.
We Love The New Digs
Alumni Stadium is quickly earning a reputation as not only one of the nation’s finest college facilities, but also a truly intimidating place for visiting teams. In fact, following Notre Dame’s loss to top-ranked North Carolina in its first match at the new stadium (Sept. 4, 2009), the Fighting Irish have reeled off 23 consecutive victories, outscoring their opponents, 62-6 in that span while recording 18 shutouts.
Beasts Of The BIG EAST
With a 1-1 draw at Georgetown on Oct. 24, Notre Dame now owns an NCAA Division I-record 77-match unbeaten streak (72-0-5) against BIG EAST opposition, dating back to a 4-1 loss at No. 15 Marquette on Sept. 30, 2005. In that time, the ties were scoreless draws at Connecticut (Oct. 13, 2006) and Pittsburgh (Oct. 4, 2009), and 1-1 deadlocks at No. 12 West Virginia in the 2007 BIG EAST final (won by the Mountaineers on penalties, 5-3, but the result is recorded as a tie), as well as this season at Connecticut (Oct. 15) and Georgetown (Oct. 24)
Not only is Notre Dame’s current conference unbeaten streak an ongoing NCAA Division I record, but it also is threatening some other marks in other NCAA divisions. The present Fighting Irish string is the fourth-longest in NCAA history across all divisions, with Notre Dame having eclipsed Division II record holder Metro State (Colo.) and its 71-match unbeaten run on Oct. 8 with a 2-1 victory over Seton Hall at Alumni Stadium (the other four members in the top five of this all-time category are Division III schools).
Division III Hardin-Simmons University (Texas), is the current all-division record holder with a 111-match unbeaten streak against conference opponents, dating back to 2003 (the Cowgirls also have an active 130-match unbeaten run in regular season league play).
Since joining the BIG EAST 15 years ago, the Fighting Irish are 143-8-7 (.927) all-time in regular-season conference matches, 35-2-1 (.934) in the BIG EAST Championship, and hold a 742-92 scoring edge dating back to that first league season in 1995.
What’s more, Notre Dame maintains a 15-year, 99-match home unbeaten streak (98-0-1) against BIG EAST teams, with Connecticut the lone conference team ever to defeat the Fighting Irish at home (5-4 in overtime on Oct. 6, 1995, at old Alumni Field). The only result separating Notre Dame from a 99-match conference home winning streak has been a 0-0 draw with Rutgers on Oct. 22, 2004, also at old Alumni Field.
Our Fearless Leader
Now in his 12th season at Notre Dame, head coach Randy Waldrum ranks fourth on the NCAA Division I all-time winning percentage list with a .791 (354-85-23) mark in his 21 years in the women’s game. He also is fourth among active coaches for career winning percentage, while his 354 career wins rank fifth on the all-time NCAA Division I charts — Waldrum earned his 350th career victory on Oct. 3 vs. St. John’s at Alumni Stadium.
A two-time National Coach of the Year (2008 by the NSCAA, 2009 by Soccer America), Waldrum has led Notre Dame to seven NCAA College Cups, four NCAA finals and the 2004 national championship. He is second in NCAA Division I history with seven College Cup appearances and four title-game berths in his storied career.
The 2-0 Guarantee
Notre Dame is 324-0-1 all-time when claiming a 2-0 lead and is unbeaten in its past 301 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 213 Fighting 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 old 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 old Alumni Field (Irish won 3-2), and most recently, Villanova on Oct. 12, 2008 in Villanova, Pa. (ND won 3-2 in OT).
Three … Is The Magic Number
Scoring three goals has meant virtually an automatic win in Notre Dame women’s soccer history, with a 293-3-1 (.988) record in those games, including a 195-1-0 (.995) mark since Oct. 6, 1995.
Golden Domers Golden In OT
Overtime has usually been the right time for Notre Dame, as the Fighting Irish are 20-4-11 (.729) all-time in the Randy Waldrum era (since 1999) when going to an extra period or two, with the Sept. 10 loss at 13th-ranked UCLA snapping a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2) in added time, dating back to the 2007 season.
Since the UCLA loss, Notre Dame has drawn twice in overtime (at Connecticut on Oct. 15 and at Georgetown on Oct. 24, both 1-1 finals), making the Fighting Irish unbeaten in nine of their last 10 extra-time contests.
Three current Notre Dame players have scored “golden goals” in their college careers — senior forward/midfielder Rose Augustin (Oct. 12, 2008 at Villanova), junior forward Melissa Henderson (Nov. 9, 2008 vs. Connecticut in BIG EAST final) and junior defender Jessica Schuveiller (Nov. 6, 2009 vs. St. John’s in BIG EAST semifinal).
Captains’ Choice
Senior defender/midfielder Lauren Fowlkes and junior defender Jessica Schuveiller have been selected to serve as Notre Dame’s captains this year, according to a preseason vote of their teammates. Fowlkes is in her first season as a team captain, while Schuveiller is a second-year captain after becoming the first non-senior to wear the armband for the Fighting Irish since Amy Warner in 2002.
New Ways To Follow The Fighting Irish
The Notre Dame women’s soccer program has expanded its reach this season through a number of media outlets. Most notably, the Fighting Irish have created three Twitter accounts for fans to follow the team on a daily basis — one is operated by head coach Randy Waldrum (@NDCoachWaldrum), a second by assistant coach Ken Nuber (@NDSoccer) and a third by associate media relations director Chris Masters (@NDsoccernews).
In addition, the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.UND.com) is featuring live in-game blogs for all Fighting Irish home matches this season, allowing fans to ask questions, make comments and share in the excitement of Notre Dame women’s soccer right from their own computers.
These blogs, along with live in-game stats (courtesy of the CBSSports.com College Gametracker) and other special features, are available through the UND.com Women’s Soccer Gameday Central page, which is posted on-line within 24 hours of each home contest.
ND Supporters Group Debuts In 2010
Fans are encouraged to be a part of the new Notre Dame soccer supporters’ group, The Rakes of Mallow. This student-based organization is attending all Fighting Irish home games this year and aims to create a special home pitch atmosphere unlike any in college soccer. To learn more, visit The Rakes of Mallow web site (www.rakesofmallow.net).
Next Up: BIG EAST Semifinal
With a victory on Sunday over Connecticut, Notre Dame would advance to the BIG EAST Championship semifinals on Friday in Piscataway, N.J., at Rutgers’ Yurcak Field. It would mark the 15th semifinal berth in Notre Dame’s 16-year conference affiliation, a streak interrupted only when the Fighting Irish didn’t qualify for the 2002 tournament.
Rutgers travels to West Virginia on Sunday in the other BIG EAST quarterfinal on Notre Dame’s side of the bracket. The Fighting Irish took on RU earlier this season on Oct. 10 at Alumni Stadium, earning a 3-2 victory on Senior Day behind a goal and two assists from senior forward/midfielder Rose Augustin.
Notre Dame has not played WVU this season, having last faced the Mountaineers on Oct. 2, 2009, in Morgantown, W.Va., pulling out a 3-2 overtime victory on Taylor Knaack’s goal 41 seconds into the first extra session.
— ND —