Sept. 5, 2006

Notre Dame junior forward Amanda Cinalli and senior midfielder have received the respecgive BIG EAST Conference offensive and defensive player-of-the-week honors, after playing lead roles in wins over 19th-ranked USC and a Santa Clara team that was ranked as high as No. 1 in the country. Cinalli also collected national player-of-the-week honors from Top Drawer Soccer – with national honors from Soccer America and Soccer Buzz still to be annouced, as of Tuesday night – while junior goalkeeper Lauren Karas was named to the BIG EAST weekly honor roll.

Five different Notre Dame players already have been honored by the BIG EAST this season, as week-one saw freshman forward Michele Weissenhofer named the league’s rookie of the year while senior center back Kim Lorezen was a BIG EAST honor-roll selection.

Cinalli earned offensive MVP of Notre Dame’s Inn at Saint Mary’s Classic, after factoring into four of the team’s five goals during the pair of wins over top-20 opponents. She scored the key second goal in the win over USC, flicking home a header after Michele Weissenhofer’s throw-in in the 83rd minute. Two days later, Cinalli had the primary assist on Krivacek’s 64th-minute tying goal versus Santa Clata before scoring twice to cap Notre Dame’s three-goal surge in a span of nine minutes. She tied career highs with two goals and five points in the win over the Broncos.

Krivacek was named defensive MVP of the Inn at Saint Mary’s Classic, after spearheading the effort that allowed just one combined goal, 16 total shots, 10 shots on goal and 11 corner kicks in the weekend action. Her shift from defensive midfielder to more of an attacking role helped fuel the comeback versus Santa Clara, with her well-placed leftfooted shot in transition providing the game-tying goal.

Karas – tabbed the top goalpeer of the tournament – rose to the challenge of facing two top-20 teams while improving her career record to 15-1-0 after wins over #19 USC (2-0) and #1 Santa Clara (3-1). She registered a career-best nine saves in the win over Santa Clara, including eight straight after allowing an early goal. Karas also had some key moments in the USC game, snuffing out several goal chances for the Trojans in that game that was 0-0 and 1-0 for most of the time.

The strong week-two play of Cinalli, Krivacek and Karas helped Irish overcome the absence of two of top players – attacking midfielder Brittany Bock and center back Carrie Dew – who returned this week from competing with Team USA in Russia, at the Under-20 World Championship.

Cinalli scored the key second goal in the win over USC, flicking home a header after Weissenhofer’s throw-in in the 83rd minute. She then had the primary assist on Krivacek’s 64th-minute tying goal vs. SCU, on a well-played ball into the box. Cinalli scored minutes later in that game, on a sharp header at the far post after a low cross from Weissenhofer (the play was set up by a short throw-in from Ashley Jones) – and she capped her big weekend with a strong individual effort, avoiding three SCU defenders before sending her leftfooted strike into the upper right corner of the net for the 3-1 final.

Cinalli’s nine points this season (4G-1A) give her 71 for her career (24G-23A), good for 23rd on the Notre Dame career scoring charts.