Sept. 26, 2006
Notre Dame sophomore center back Carrie Dew (Encinitas, Calif.) has been named the BIG EAST Conference women’s soccer defensive player of the week, in addtion to being named by Soccer America, Soccer Buzzand TopDrawerSoccer.com to their weekly national teams of the week. Dew scored the gamewinning goal in the Sept. 24 win over Louisville (2-0) while leading an Irish defense that held the Cardinals to no shots on goal (four total) and one corner kick, handing Louisville its first loss of the season. Two days earlier, Notre Dame owned a 1-0 lead at Cincinnati in a game that was called off due to lighting after 50 minutes of play (the Bearcats had just two shots, one shot on goal and one corner kick).
Dew’s goal versus Louisville came in the 74th minute and represents the latest that Notre Dame has scored its first goal in a game this season. The clutch strike was the first goal of the season for Dew (fourth of her career), after missing the first four games of the 2006 season while playing with Team USA at the Under-20 World Championship. Senior center back and team captain Kim Lorenzen was injured late in the first half versus Louisville and did not play in the second half, making Dew’s effort all the more important in that matchup of BIG EAST unbeatens.
Notre Dame last weekend continued to dominate possession, both on the ground and in the air. The 5-foot-10 Dew displayed her tremendous athleticism to spearhead Notre Dame’s control of the heading duels while also showing her all-around skills with a quick, athletic strike on the opening goal.
Dew joined senior midfielder Jen Buczkowski and junior outside back Ashley Jones as the only field players to log all 90 minutes versus Louisville (she also had played all 50 minutes vs. Cincinnati).
Six members of the Notre Dame defense have been honored by the BIG EAST this season, with senior defensive midfielder and Jones previously being named BIG EAST defensive player of the week while three others – Lorenzen, senior left back Christie Shaner and junior goalkeeper Lauren Karas – have been named to the BIG EAST weekly honor roll.
Notre Dame is number-one in all four of the major national rankings – by the NSCAA (coaches association), Soccer America, Soccer Times (a poll of 16 top coaches) and Soccer Buzz (women’s soccer website) – for the first time this season. The Irish have been atop the Soccer Times poll for five straight weeks and have spent the past month as the No. 1 team in the NSCAA and Soccer Buzz rankings. Florida State had been atop the Soccer America rankings until losing last week to Florida State.
The upcoming Friday-night game (Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m.) between Notre Dame and West Virginia will rank among the top showdowns in the history of Alumni Field, as the Mountaineers currently are sixth in the NSCAA rankings and seventh in each of the other national rankings. WVU leads the nation in scoring (3.60 goals per game) and goal margin (+27; 36-4) while the Irish are second in scoring margin (+28; 30-2) and fourth in goals per game (3.33).
Notre Dame is the only team in the nation currently ranked among the top-five for both scoring and goals-against average (2nd; 0.22). West Virginia ranks 8th nationally in GAA (0.38) to join Notre Dame and Navy (8th with 3.00 gpg; 4th with a 0.30 GAA) as the only teams in the top-10 for both scoring and defense.
Michele Weissenhofer currently leads the nation in points per game, assists and assists per game (photo by Marcus Snowden).
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Boston College (3.56) and Middle Tennessee (3.40) are the only other teams scoring at a higher clip than Notre Dame, which trails just one team – yet another BIG EAST squad, Villanova (0.17) – among the national GAA leaders. Notre Dame and Villanova each have allowed just two goals this season while four other teams have yielded three goals.
Notre Dame also ranks fifth nationally in shutouts (7) – behind Villanova (9), Purdue (9), Wisconsin-Milwaukee (8) and UTEP (8) – and eighth in save percentge (.909). The Irish (9-0-0) and Navy (10-0-0) are the only teams out of 301 in Division I that have won all their games this season. Four others have at least one tie but no losses, with those teams including BIG EAST members WVU (8-0-2) and Villanova (10-0-1), plus Maine and Rice (each 8-0-1).
Lauren Karas has allowed just two goals – by top-25 teams Mississippi and Santa Clara – while playing the bulk of the minutes during Notre Dame’s 9-0-0 start (photo by Pete LaFleur).
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Freshman forward Michele Weissenhofer currently leads the nation in points per game (2.33), assists and assists per game (1.22). Her 21 total points rank fourth nationally and trail only one player from a top-25 team (Portland’s Megan Rapinoe, with 22). She ranks just two points shy of the national leader Kala Morgan of Middle Tennessee (23), with LSU’s Michelle Makasini owning 22 points. Weissenhofer is the only player in the nation with 11 assists, followed by one player with nine and two with eight assists each.
Karas is on pace to set several Notre Dame single-season records, currently ranking fourth nationally in goals-against avg. (0.27) and 12th in save pct. (.895). Navy’s Lizzie Barnes (0.12) is the national GAA leader, followed by Villanova’s Jillian Loyden (0.18) and Rice’s Amy McClintock (0.23).