Aug. 19, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame senior All-America forwards Kerri Hanks (Allen, Texas/Allen) and Brittany Bock (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) have been named to the 47-player watch list for the 2008 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy, which is presented annually to the nation’s top Division I women’s soccer player. Notre Dame is one of 13 teams to place more than one player on this year’s Hermann Trophy watch list, with Hanks being the lone previous winner on the ’08 preseason Hermann Trophy chart.
A three-time All-American (twice on the first team) and the 2006 Hermann Trophy recipient (the first sophomore to garner the honor), Hanks is poised to become only the fourth multiple winner of the award, and the first to do so in non-consecutive years. The three multi-year Hermann Trophy recipients are North Carolina’s Mia Hamm (1992-93) and Cindy Parlow (1997-98), and Portland’s Christine Sinclair (2004-05), with Hamm and Parlow going on to successful careers with the U.S. National Team and Sinclair currently playing for the Canadian National Team (alongside former Notre Dame All-Americans Candace Chapman and Melissa Tancredi).
Also a three-time first-team all-BIG EAST Conference pick and a unanimous choice on this year’s preseason all-league team, Hanks has led the nation in assists during each of the past two years (22 in 2006; 21 in 2007). In ’06, she joined Hamm as the only players ever to finish a season as the national leader in both goals (22) and assists (22) and became just the 11th Division I player to post 20 goals and 20 assists in a single season. She enters her senior season with 64 goals and 58 assists, putting her within range of becoming the third NCAA Division I player ever to amass 70 goals and 70 assists in her career (the others are Hamm and former Notre Dame All-American Jenny Streiffer), while only five Division I players have even reached the 60G-60A milestone.
Hanks owns an assortment of more than 60 records at Notre Dame, and she is on the verge of adding even more top marks to her resume during the coming season. She needs 17 goals to break Jenny Heft’s school record for career goals (80 from 1996-99), and she is 26 points shy of breaking Streiffer’s Irish mark for career points (211 from 1996-99). Hanks also could finish as high as second on the NCAA (and Notre Dame) career assists chart, with former Irish four-time All-American Holly Manthei holding the record (129 from 1994-97) and Hanks’ former teammate, Katie Thorlakson, in second place (73 from 2002-05). Incidentally, should she be selected for All-America honors this season, Hanks would be the 23rd four-time All-American in Division I history and the fourth in Notre Dame annals, joining Manthei, Jen Grubb (1996-99) and Anne Makinen (1997-2000).
Bock emerged as one of the nation’s top offensive threats last season, showing tremendous versatility with her play on both the forward and midfield lines. In 2007, she earned first-team All-America honors and joined Hanks and recently-graduated forward (and current volunteer assistant coach) Amanda Cinalli on the Hermann Trophy final-15 (semifinalists) list. Bock comes back this year as the reigning BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year after leading the conference in goals (16) a season ago, and she recently earned top billing from the league’s coaches once again as the ’08 BIG EAST Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and a unanimous selection to this year’s All-BIG EAST Preseason Team. A team co-captain for 2008, Bock is one of 17 players in school history with 100 career points (40G-20A) and she looks to join Thorlakson (2004, 2005) as the only Irish players to be named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year more than once.
Notre Dame is one of only two programs to field three or more different recipients of the prestigious Hermann Trophy, with Cindy Daws (1996) and Makinen (2000) joining Hanks in this elite sorority. The 2008 Hermann Trophy winner will be selected by Division I head coaches who are current members of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). The list of 15 semifinalists will be chosen by a coaches committee in November, with the three finalists revealed in early December. All three will be invited to a news conference on Jan. 9, 2009, at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, where the winner will be announced, with a presentation banquet to follow.
Ranked fifth in the preseason NSCAA poll, Notre Dame will open the 2008 season at 7:30 p.m. (ET) Friday when it plays host to Michigan at Alumni Field. Tickets for this, and all Irish soccer games this season, can be purchased through the Notre Dame Athletics Ticket Office (574-631-7356; second floor of the Joyce Center inside Gate 1), on-line through the official Notre Dame athletics web site by clicking here, or at the Alumni Field box office on game night.
Fans attending Friday’s game also are reminded that, due to construction in the Athletics Quad, parking for all Notre Dame home soccer games this season is limited to the Eck Baseball Stadium and Joyce Center parking lots, with access to Alumni Field via the south end of Eck Baseball Stadium and the pathway between the stadium’s right field wall and the soccer practice field.
— ND —