Senior forward/tri-captain Melissa Henderson became the eighth Notre Dame player to earn three first-team all-BIG EAST citations when she picked up her third award as one of four Fighting Irish played recognized on Thursday at the 2011 BIG EAST Awards Banquet in Morgantown, W.Va.

Four Irish Players Honored During BIG EAST Women's Soccer Awards Banquet

Nov. 3, 2011

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Four Notre Dame women’s soccer players received honors during Thursday night’s BIG EAST Conference Awards Banquet at the Lakeview Golf Resort & Spa in Morgantown, W.Va. Two of the three Fighting Irish senior captains — forward Melissa Henderson (Garland, Texas/Berkner) and defender/midfielder Jessica Schuveiller (Plano, Texas/Plano West) collected first-team all-conference citations (the 17th consecutive year Notre Dame has had multiple first-team honorees), while sophomore midfielder Mandy Laddish (Lee’s Summit, Mo./Lee’s Summit) was a second-team all-BIG EAST choice and freshman forward Lauren Bohaboy (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita) was selected for the BIG EAST All-Rookie Team.

In addition, Notre Dame was named the recipient of the third annual BIG EAST Fair Play Award, which is given to the school which accumulates the fewest fouls, yellow cards and red cards (based on a weighted point system — one point per foul, five points per yellow card, 10 points per red card) during the course of the conference season. It’s the first time the Fighting Irish have received that honor after they logged just 77 points during BIG EAST play (67 fouls, two yellow cards, zero red cards).

Henderson becomes the eighth Notre Dame player to be a three-time first-team all-BIG EAST selection, having also earned that status in 2008 and 2010 (she was a second-team choice in 2009). The veteran striker currently leads the BIG EAST and ranks among the top eight in the nation in goals (4th – 18), points (6th – 43), goals per match (6th – 0.95) and points per match (8th – 2.26), while also placing first in the conference in shots (72), tying for fourth in assists (7) and sharing fifth in assists per match (0.37).

In BIG EAST matches, Henderson tied for first in points (24) and points per match (2.18), while sharing second in goals (10) and goals per match (0.91). What’s more, she has a school record-tying three hat tricks this season (two in conference play), and her four goals against DePaul on Oct. 21 tied a BIG EAST record for goals in a regular-season conference match, a mark last set more than 13 years ago.

Awards have been plentiful for Henderson once again this season. She is a Hermann Trophy candidate and has been named to national teams of the week a total of eight times by four different media outlets (Soccer America – 3, Top Drawer Soccer – 2, Our Game Magazine – 2, CollegeSoccer360 – 1). Henderson also was named the Soccer News Net National Player of the Week on Oct. 24 (after her four-goal performance vs. DePaul, which tied seven school records). In addition, she was a two-time BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and three-time BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll pick.

For her career, Henderson is tied for fourth in school history with 70 goals (second-most among active NCAA Division I players) and ranks ninth in Fighting Irish annals with 165 points, while holding the school record for career match-winning goals (24) and a piece of the Notre Dame mark for career hat tricks (6).

Schuveiller garnered first-team all-conference status for the second time in her career, having also done so in 2009 (she was a second-team honoree last year). The first three-time captain in the program’s 24-year history, Schuveiller has been instrumental in Notre Dame’s late-season surge that has seen the Fighting Irish go unbeaten in seven of their last eight matches, tallying five of her career-high six goals and adding two assists since moving to the midfield from her traditional center back position in late September. She also was named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 3, in addition to making national teams of the week by Soccer America and Our Game Magazine.

One of the toughest players ever to don the Notre Dame uniform, Schuveiller has started all 97 Fighting Irish matches and played in 95.1 percent of her team’s minutes since she set foot on campus four seasons ago. In that time, she has helped Notre Dame post 78 wins (tied for second-most by any senior class in the nation in 2011), including 55 shutouts and a 0.72 goals-against average (GAA).

Laddish, who earned BIG EAST All-Rookie and Soccer America All-Freshman Team honors last year, tied Henderson for the team lead with seven assists, while also adding one goal and ranking ninth in the conference with 52 shots this season. She was named to the Notre Dame adidas Invitational All-Tournament Team on Sept. 4 after chalking up a goal and four assists in the two-match competition.

Bohaboy was one of the top newcomers in the BIG EAST this year, tallying six goals and 15 points. During conference action, she tied for fifth in the conference in goals (6) and goals per match (0.55), while sharing ninth in the loop in points (14) and points per match (1.27). On Oct. 3, she was named the BIG EAST Rookie of the Week and made the Top Drawer Soccer and Our Game Magazine national teams of the week after piling up three goals in a pair of 3-0 wins over Connecticut and Providence the prior weekend.

Notre Dame will be back on the pitch at 3 p.m. (ET) Friday when it takes on Louisville in the BIG EAST Championship semifinals at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium in Morgantown, W.Va. The match, which will be televised live to a national cable audience by CBS Sports Network (formerly CBS College Sports), marks the 15th time the Fighting Irish have reached the conference tournament semifinals since joining the BIG EAST in 1995.

In addition to live television coverage of Friday’s Notre Dame-Louisville tournament semifinal, live stats and a live interactive chat for that match also will be available on the new Irish UNDerground blog (www.UND.com/blog).

For more information on the Notre Dame women’s soccer program, join the Fighting Irish women’s soccer news Twitter page (@NDsoccernews) or sign up for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the “Fan Center” pulldown menu on the main page at UND.com.

— ND —