Sept. 22, 2006

The number-one ranked Notre Dame women’s soccer team’s game at Cincinnati was postponed due to lightning, with the Irish owning a 1-0 lead after 50 minutes of play. The teams waited until almost midnight – in hopes of resuming play – before ultimately canceling the game.

A minimum 70 minutes of game time is required for the score to become official. A possible makeup game would be held after the regular season, on Oct. 24, if it has a bearing on the BIG EAST Conference postseason seedings. The top five teams in each of the two eight-team divisions will advance to the BIG EAST tournament.

Friday’s score and statistics will be wiped away from the season totals and a full 90-minute game would be played if there is a makeup. Freshman forward Michele Weissenhofer had scored midway through the first half, for what would have been her sixth goal of the season. At the time of the stoppage, Notre Dame held an 11-2 edge in total shots and a 4-1 margin in corner kicks.

Louisville’s game at DePaul on Friday night also was halted due to lightning, with the Cardinals holding a 2-0 lead after 62 minutes of play (that game ultimately was called off, after a delay of 2:31).

Notre Dame returns home to face Louisville on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. It will be the first home game for the Irish in exactly three weeks and will mark the start of a five-game homestand.

Notre Dame is riding a 31-game home unbeaten streak (30-0-1, spanning all of the 2004-06 seasons) that is the longest in the program’s 19-year history and fifth-longest in the Division I women’s soccer record book (one shy of fourth place on that list). The Irish also are unbeaten at home in their past 66 games versus BIG EAST opponents (65-0-1), dating back to the middle of the 1995 season.

Louisville goalkeeper Joanna Haig – a transfer from the Iowa State team that lost to Notre Dame in the 2006 season opener (9-0) – played alongside ND sophomores Brittany Bock and Carrie Dew during the past eight months with the U.S. Under-20 National Team. Bock, Weissenhofer and fellow Irish freshman Amanda Clark are former teammates of UL’s Shannon Smyth, with the Olympic Development Region II program (they were coached by Karen Ferguson, UL’s current head coach). Another Louisville player, Jen Avila, is a product of the Neuqua Valley High School program that also produced ND’s Bock, Clark and Weissenhofer.