Sept. 1, 2006
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Michele Weissenhofer’s throw-ins produced header goals from fellow freshman Amanda Clark and junior Amanda Cinalli, as the Notre Dame women’s soccer team defeated 19th-ranked USC in Friday night’s first-round action of the Inn at Saint Mary’s Classic. With the win, Notre Dame pushed its home unbeaten streak to 30 games (29-0-1, since the end of the 2003 season) – best in the program’s 19-year history and fifth-longest in the NCAA Division I record book.
Notre Dame (3-0-0) – ranked as high as number-one in the national polls – also extended the program’s second-longest scoring streak to 39 games while improving to 253-0-1 all-time when claiming a 2-0 lead. The Irish held a 13-1 shot edge and 10-1 corner-kick margin in the first half but were unable to get the ball past goalkeeper Veronica Simonton, who made five of her six saves in the opening 45 minutes. Notre Dame ultimately finished with a 23-2 edge in total shots and did not surrender a shot on goal in the game, although USC had some key chances when the game still was 0-0 and 1-0.
Weissenhofer – the niece of forrmer Notre Dame football linebacker Ron Weissenhofer – leads the Irish in scoring this season with nine points, on two goals and five assists.
It was the first women’s soccer game between Notre Dame and USC, two schools that have a longstanding rivalry on the football field.
The Irish continued to play without sophomores Brittany Bock and Carrie Dew, who will be wrapping up play at the Under-20 World Championship with Sunday’s third-place game versus Brazil (in Moscow, Russia). USC (1-1-1) also has a player, forward Amy Rodriguez, on the U.S. Under-20 team.
In Friday’s opening game, Santa Clara used early goals from Katherine Reynolds and Brittany Klein, plus a late strike by Elyse Shegler, to defeat Harvard 3-0. Santa Clara – which also owns a claim to the No. 1 national ranking this week – will meet Notre Dame in a showdown game on Sunday at 1:30 (live on ESPN-U), following the USC-Harvard matchup. SCU also is missing a pair of top players, Jordan Angeli and Amanda Poach, who currently are playing in Russia with the U.S. U-20s.
Notre Dame showed a strong and steady workrate all night, with its trademark pressure all over the field. Weissenhofer and her fellow starting forwards (Kerri Hanks and Cinalli) were flying around the attacking third all night but struggled with their finishing. Senior midfielders Jen Buczkowski and Jill Krivacek combined with freshman Courtney Rosen in forming a solid midfield that controlled the majority of possession – while the back line – comprised of Clark, seniors Kim Lorenzen and Christie Shaner, and junior Ashley Jones – limited the visitors to just a handful of chances.
Lauren Karas was not credited with an official save but the junior goalkeeper had several key plays, particularly in the second half (when USC generated all six of its corner kicks). Karas was strong in all aspects of her game, with a couple key rushes off her line, some key moments when she boxed away corner-kick crosses and several booming punts that kept the visitors chasing.
Notre Dame has proven in recent years to be a quick-strike offense and that was the case in the 59th minute of Friday’s game, as Weissnhofer and longtime teammate Clark connected on the unique set play. Clark’s role in the goal illustrated how dangerous and versatile the Irish players are (up and down the lineup), as the rookie raced into the box from her central defender spot and redireced her header into the far-right sidenetting (58:14).
The focused play of Karas and the rest of the Irish defense proved crucial during the rest of the half, as the second goal did not come until the 83rd minute. The sequence was similar to the first goal, with Weissenhfer providing her special service from the left sideline and Cinalli connecting on the flying header for the key two-goal margin (82:29).
The earlier SCU-Harvard game featured just 14 total shots and five shots on goal (one by Harvard).
NOTES – Weissenhofer’s five assists already match Cinalli’s freshman-year total in 2004 (former ND standout Katie Thorlakson had just 3A as a freshman but later finished with 73 for her career, second-most in NCAA history) … Hanks had 15A in 2005 as part of her 71-point rookie season … ND’s 13 goals this season have come from 8 different players … the Irish have won 230 straight when claiming a 2-0 lead … since 1993, teams making their first visit to Alumni Field have gone just 3-41-1 vs. the Irish in those games … ND’s all-time record in series openers now is 77-25-2 (.745), including 44-5-0 since ’93 and 51-8-0 in all series openers at home (26-3-0 since ’93) … ND is 22-3-2 all-time in home tournament games, with a 77-25 scoring edge … the Irish are 16-1 in their past 17 regular-season tournament games (since losing to SCU and Portland in 2002) … Cinalli’s 66 career points (22G-22A) are 24th in ND history, two behind Kara Brown … ND’s 21 overall goals this fall (including the two exhibition games) have included 8 goals on set plays (at least one in each of the five games) … the ND seniors are 70-7-2 (.899) in their career and have yet to be outshot … the only ND classes with a better win pct. are the classes of 1998 (.921), 1997 (.903) and 1999 (.901) … Buczkowski has appeared in all 79 of the games during the past four seasons (Shaner in 78, Lizzie Reed in 75,Lorenzen in 72 and Krivacek in 71) … those five players have combined to log 375 career games played with the Irish … the Irish are 20-1 during the past two seasons when Lorenzen is in the starting lineup … ND has won 21 straight games at Alumni Field (since a scoreless tie with Rutgers late in the 2004 regular season).
ND HEAD COACH Randy Waldrum – “I thought the effort and competitiveness we had tonight was tremendous. I thought we were a little bit flat in the offensive end and did not have the sharpness we needed in the final third. If we had scored an early one, I think we would have scored a lot more. They are a very disciplined team, aggressive and disruptive. That makes it hard to get a rhythm against them and they have a very good goalkeeper as well. Part of it has to go to their credit. … We are so good in the air and so good on those dead-ball situations where we go in and combat for every ball in the air. … Lauren Karas was outstanding in goal tonight. She came up big on one of the last corner kicks and punched it out. Another time, she got up and grabbed the ball when it was bunched up there in the second half. … Once we got the first goal, they had to take a risk and threw more numbers forward and once they started doing that, we didn’t adjust like we’d like to and started turning the ball over. At that point, they were going for the equalizer and we just needed to be a little bit more patient with the ball.”
Amanda Clark – “We had enough chances and pressure on the ball that we knew we eventually would get one in. … We had a lot of corner-kick chances but that’s just a matter of working better on our positioning. It’s easily fixable stuff because we all are quite capable in the air. … There was a lot of pressure all over the field and we had a lot of opportunities up front when we broke them down. It was just a matter of us putting it in at the final third. … Before with my other teams, I played like a stopper. Kim Lorenzen and Christie Shaner and the other veterans are helping me a lot because we have a lot of experience back there. We are working a lot on our positioning in practice.”
Michele Weissenhofer – “There was some frustration at halftime because the forwards were running our heads off and we pressured all aroud the field and the backs did awesome and brought it back up. We had a ton of chances. We have to make sure we get more of our chances in. … On Sunday, we need to take care of the ball more and finish more of our chacnes. This could easily have been a 5-0 game. … Soccer is such a great team sport and we have so many players who can step in any give other player’s a breather. It’s a big part of this program that we pressure the ball a lot, at every position.”
USC COACH JIM MILLINDER – “The first half, we weren’t very good. We were nervous and apprehensive and Notre Dame came out and it was like a wave. But that’s NCAA Tournament type of stuff. We held on and got to halftime and made a couple of ajustments in the second half and had our chances. On the goals, it was a communication issue. We started spreading the ball quicker and were attacking the flanks better – but they are very good. They are the best team we have played in the last two or three years. They are physical, they’ve got good size. They can keep it with their one- and two-touch. They’ve got pace up front. They’ve got defenders who can win balls. … [Amy] Rodriguez could have made a difference. She is just a different class. But I thought the girls in the second half had some great chances and we were a touch or knockdown away from getting the equalizer. But it’s a good measuring stick for us. … To lose a player like Rodriguez, she is a game changer. But it gives these other kids a lot of experience and opportunity. … It’s tough to come into a hostile environment and play the number-one team in the country. It’s not going to be easy and we knew that and were a little intimidated the first half. But we hung on and all you need is one chance. Veronica [Simonton] was very good in goal tonight. Now we know what we need to go out and work on. … Harvard has a lot of good players. I watched them play today and if they would have got that penalty kick early on, it would have changed the game a little bit.”
USC (1-1-1) 0 0 – 0
Notre Dame (3-0-0) 0 2 – 2
ND 1. Amanda Clark 1 (Michele Weissenhofer) 58:14; ND 2. Amanda Cinalli 2 (Weissenhofer) 82:29.
Shots: USC 1-1 – 2, ND 13-10 – 23
Corner Kicks: USC 0-6 – 6, ND 10-1 -11
Saves: USC 6 (Veronica Simonton), ND 0 (Lauren Karas)
Fouls: USC 16, ND 12
Offside: USC 1, ND 4
Yellow Cards: Stacey Strong (USC) 13:40, Ashley Nick (USC) 18:01, Jen Buczkowski (ND) 50:54
Santa Clara (3-0-0) 0 0 – 3
Harvard (0-1-0) 0 0 – 0
SCU 1. Meagan Snell 1 (Katherine Reynolds) 9:04; SCU 2. Brittany Klein 1 (Kiki Bosio) 19:05; SCU 3. Elyse Shegler (-) 74:50.
Shots: SCU 6-4 – 10, HARV 2-2 – 4
Corner Kicks: SCU 4-2 – 6, HARV 2-0 – 2
Saves: SCU 1 (Meagan McCray 1, Julie Ryder 0), HARV 1 (Lauren Mann)
Fouls: SCU 9, HARV 4
Offside: SCU 1, HARV 2