July 30, 2005
Two veteran Notre Dame players and a pair of incoming freshmen currently are competing with FC Indiana at the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) national championship weekend, in Agawam, Mass. FC Indiana – which also will return to high-level action next week in the Open Cup national semifinals – plays in the WPSL’s second semifinal on Saturday, July 30 (7:00 EDT), vs. the New England Mutiny, with the consolation and championship games set for Sunday (2:00 and 5:00).
The final games of the season for the 20-team WPSL are being played at Agawam High School’s Harmon Smith Stadium, with the Mutiny serving as the host team. FC Indiana won the central division title (4-0-0, also playing several other exhibitions this summer) while New England was the east-division champion. Saturday’s early semifinal features west division champion California Storm vs. wild-card entrant Steel City Sparks (both of those teams feature former ND players, see below).
FC Indiana has emerged as one of the top women’s soccer clubs in the nation this summer, with international players and former WUSA standouts complementing the current college and high school players on the team.
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FC Indiana features four players with Notre Dame connections:rising juniors Christie Shaner (D) and Nikki Westfall (G) and incoming freshmen Brittany Bock (M) and Kerry Inglis (M/D). Bock has totaled four goals and an assist in action with FC Indiana this summer while Inglis (1A) and Shaner each have scored a goal. (Note that another player on the team, Lindsay Jones, is a former Goshen High School product and is not the Lindsey Jones who played at Notre Dame and at South Bend’s Adams High School.)
FC Indiana clinched the division title last weekend after a 5-2 road win over the Houston Stars, with Bock scoring in the win while playing the full 90 minutes (as did Shaner, with Inglis playing the final 30). The Goshen-based club also had posted an earlier 6-0 home win over Houston (Bock had 1G-1A, Westfall picked up the shutout and Inglis logged 60 minutes as a starter) while also downing the Trinidad and Tobago National Team, 3-0 (Shaner scored in that game while playing the full 90 minutes, as did Bock and Westfall).
In addition to the Notre Dame contingent, FC Indiana also includes twins Julie and Nancy Augustyniak (who starred at Clemson and in the WUSA), former BIG EAST forward Katie Barnes (West Virginia), Mexican national teamer Fatima Leyva and Paty Perez (who have faced the Irish in several spring scrimmages at Alumni Field), Kansas University All-America forward Caroline Smith and Jamaican national-team player Hishamar Falconer.
Notre Dame’s Nikki Westfall (back left) and Kerri Inglis (lower right) helped FC Indiana win the Region 2 title earlier this summer, qualifying the team for th upcoming Open Cup national semifinals.
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The New England Mutiny – which lost to the Storm in the 2004 WPSL final – have plenty of current and former UConn players on their roster, among them Margaret Tietjin, Kathleen Frank, Alisse Kosloski, Karlyn Miselis of UConn, Mary Frances Monroe (who also played at UCLA), Megan Schnur and Marie Spinelli. The Mutiny roster also includes former Colgate goalkeeper and current Mexican national teamer Jennifer Molina and Boston College forward Kia McNeill.
Former Notre Dame All-American/Academic All-American Monica Gonzalez is one of the defensive leaders for the California Storm, a team that also includes the likes of former Santa Clara/U.S. National Team player Brandi Chastain, current Stanford players Lindsey Hunt and Leah Tapscott, Brazilian star and WUSA alum Sissi, former UNC/Tennessee player Kim Patrick, former Portland standout and current U.S. national teamer Shannon MacMillian and former SCU midfielder Leslie Osborne.
The Steel City Sparks roster does not include as many familiar names, aside from a pair of former ND players – M/D Lindsey Jones (the South Bend Adams HS product) and midfielder Randi Scheller – plus BIG EAST players such as Pittsburgh goalkeeper Jamie Pelusi and West Virginia’s Ashley Weimer. Scheller missed all of the 2003 and ’04 seasons due to a major hip injury and has opted to use her NCAA-approved sixth year of eligibility by playing at the University of Pittsburgh in the upcoming season (she graduated from Notre Dame in the spring of ’05).
Incoming Notre Dame freshman Brittany Bock – shown here playing with the U.S. Under-17 National Team – has scored in two recent games with FC Indiana.
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FC Indiana also will play in the Open Cup semifinals on Friday. Aug. 5 (10:00 a.m.) at Frisco Sports Complex in Dallas vs. an Ajax America team that features two current U.S. National Team starters (former ND standout midfielder Shannon Boxx and forward Abby Wambach, who played collegiately at Florida). Ajax is based in southern California and will be representing Region 4 (FC Indiana won the Region 2 title earlier this summer). The other Open Cup semifinal will feature the Texas-based DSC Titans from Region 3 and the German Hungarians (based out of Pennsylvania) from Region 1, with the championship game set for Aug. 6.
The WPSL has existed since 1998 and currently includes 20 teams from throughout the U.S.
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Also see www.fcindiana.com and www.wpsl.info for additional information on the WPSL (and be sure to check back to und.com in upcoming days for complete updates on the main Irish players currently competing in championship events throughout the nation and worldwide).