Nov. 4, 2007

Full-Color Game Program/Game Notes in PDF Format

BIG EAST QUARTERFINAL – Rutgers vs. #10 Notre Dame … Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007 … Alumni Field (Notre Dame, Ind.)

(note: program best viewed via PDF link – also includes “Tale of the Tape” statistical comparison, team rosters, action photos and ND headshot sheet)

GAME NOTES – The winner of today’s quarterfinal (a quick rematch of ND’s 3-1 win at RU on Nov. 28) moves on to face the winner of the Georgetown at UConn game (the other quarterfinals: Villanova at West Virginia; Marquette at Louisville) … Rutgers emerged from a first-round game at St. John’s on Thursday (0-0/-2 in PKs, with Erin Guthrie stopping SJU’s first two; VU beat USF 2-0 in the other 1st-round game) … both of next week’s BIG EAST semifinals (Nov. 9; 5:00 and 7:30) and the BIG EAST title game (Nov. 11; noon) will be televised live on CSTV (all three games are at WVU; the title game also will air on other BIG EAST affiliates) … Notre Dame is riding a 10-game win streak (nation’s longest active streak) that includes a 34-5 scoring margin and four shutouts, while allowing only 67 shots (6.7/gm), 23 shots on goal (2.3/gm) and 16 corner kicks (1.6/gm) in the win streak … ND has won 256 consecutive games when taking a 2-0 lead and owns 76 straight wins when scoring 3-plus goals (also 155-1-0 in the past 156 games when scoring 3-plus, since 1995) … the Irish are 47-2-2 in their past 51 home games (2004-07) but have two losses this season at Alumni Field … ND’s all-time record at Alumni Field (199-16-4/.917, from 1990-2007) includes a .961 win pct. against teams not ranked in the NSCAA top-25 (136-4-3) … ND is 8-0-0 in the BIG EAST quarterfinals and owns a 27-2-0 overall record in the BIG EAST Tournament … the Irish are in quest of their 10th BIG EAST Tournament title in 13 years of league membership (1995-2001, ’05, ’06) … Rutgers is 4-9 all-time in the BET, including a runner-up finish to ND in 2006 (4-2, at UConn; RU advanced past UConn on OKs in the ’06 quarters and beat WVU 3-2 in the semi’s) … ND posted a 2006 quarterfinal win over SJU (3-0) and then beat Marquette in a 2-0 semifinal … the Irish are 44-3-0 (.936) in all-time home games during the BIG EAST (12-0-0) and NCAA (32-3-0) tournaments (ND swept all 14 of its postseason games at Alumni Field during the 2004-06 seasons) … ND owns a 13-year home unbeaten streak vs.. BIG EAST teams (77-0-1) and is unbeaten in 35 straight overall games versus BIG EAST opponents (34-0-1; since mid-2005), the 7th-longest conference unbeaten streak in the 26-year history of D-I women’s soccer (two shy of the ND record) … the Irish have not been outshot in 67 straight vs. BIG EAST teams (since mid-’02) … RU is the only visiting BIG EAST team since 1995 to depart Alumni Field without a loss (0-0, in 2004).

THE SERIES – ND owns a 14-1-2 edge (6-0-1 at Alumni Field) in the history of the series with Rutgers (50-8 scoring margin) … ND is unbeaten in the past seven vs. RU (6-0-1) … the Irish beat the Knights 4-0 in the first year of the Randy Waldrum era (’99) but have failed to win by more than three goals since ’99 (2-0 in 2000, 1-2 in ’01, 1-0 in ’02/OT, 3-0 in ’03, 0-0 in ’04, 1-0 in ’05/OT, 2-0 and 4-2 in ’06, 3-1 in ’07) … current national-team midfielder Carli Lloyd, then a freshman, scored twice in the 2001 upset of ND (2-1) … ND’s Kerri Hanks has 4G-4A in four career games vs. RU … Hanks scored in OT to win the 2005 game at Rutgers (1-0, assisted by Brittany Bock and Katie Thorlakson) … Hanks scored two early goals vs. RU in the 2006 BIG EAST title game (the first, at 0:57, is the quickest postseason goal in ND history).

RUTGERS RESULTS – The Scarlet Knights own wins this season over Lehigh (2-0), Bucknell (2-1), Monmouth (1-0), Long Island (3-0), Fairleigh Dickinson (5-0), Georgetown (2-1), St. John’s (1-0), Syracuse (2-0) and DePaul (2-0), plus ties vs. Villanova, UConn and SJU (all 0-0), and losses to Santa Clara (1-2), Stanford (1-4), Seton Hall (0-1), Princeton (1-5), Providence (0-1), Louisville (0-3), Cincinnati (1-2) and ND (1-3).

IRISH TEAM NOTES – ND ended the regular season with 10 straight wins for the second time in the program’s history (first time since ’97) … it is the 13th double-digit win streak in 20 seasons of ND women’s soccer … ND has gone unbeaten in October each of the past four seasons (32-0-2) … the Irish went unbeaten in the BIG EAST regular season for the eighth time (fifth time unbeaten) … one month into ’07, ND was under .500 (3-4-1) after losing to four top-25 teams (three by 2-1, two in OT) … five weeks later, the Irish now find themselves in position to make a run at a top-8 seed in the NCAA Tournament while owning a season win total (13) that is just two shy of the national lead (only nine teams have more wins than ND) … despite its slow start, ND ranks 10th in the nation with 2.7 goals/gm (33 in past nine games, or 3.7/gm in that span) … Florida State (3.29), Texas A&M (2.94) and Missouri (2.71) are the only teams ranked among the top-25 that are scoring at a higher clip than ND … the Irish have scored only 17 first-half goals (in 18 games) but have totaled 31 goals in the second half or OT … ND senior class is 85-9-3 (.892).

ND PLAYER NOTES – Kerri Hanks (61G-50A last week became only the third player in D-I women’s soccer history (the others are ND’s Jenny Streiffer and UNC’s Mia Hamm) ever to reach 50G-50A prior to her senior season (the 19 all-time 50-50 players now include five from ND) … top scorers in the current 10-game win streak include: Brittany Bock (10G-3A), Hanks (5G-9A) and Susan Pinnick (5G-2A) … Hanks now has scored (14) or assisted (17) on 31 goals in her career on set-play/deal-ball situations … she enters the postseason riding a nine-game point streak … ND’s 13 seasons in the BIG EAST have produced a 118-8-4 record (.923) in BIG EAST regular-season games … senior M Ashley Jones still has yet to miss a game in her ND career (97) and is tied for 12th on the ND career games played list … Jones (3.96 cum. GPA; accounting) and Bock (3.25; marketing) currently are under consideration for Academic All-America honors … Bock has 17 header goals and five rare header assists in her ND career … senior goalkeeper Lauren Karas enters the postseason with a 48-4-1 career record … Karas allowed only three goals during the 2007 BIG EAST regular season … junior left back Elise Weber (2G-6A) is one of just a handful of ND defenders in the current decade who have registered double-digit points in a season … Hanks is the only player in the nation with double-digit goals and 10-plus assists (10G-9A), with her 35 total points ranking 7th in the nation while her 13 assists are 2nd-most … Bock and Hanks are tied for 28th nationally in goals (11) … the Irish have three players with 30-plus career goals (Hanks with 61, Bock 35, Amanda Cinalli 34), the first Irish team since 1999 that can make that claim (the 1998 offense had six players with 30-plus career goals) … Cinalli missed a game for the first time in her four-year career (at Syracuse; also four more DNP), due to a hamstring injury … sophomore center back Haley Ford has missed 14 straight due to her own nagging hamstring injury … Ford’s absence actually has impacted the ND offense, as freshman M/F Lauren Fowlkes has shifted to a starting center back role (alongside Dew) … all four of freshman Rose Augustin’s goals have come in the past nine games … Bock recently was named national player of the week in back-to-back weeks, after totaling 4G-1A vs. Syracuse and St. John’s and 4G-1A vs. Georgetown and Villanova (first ND player in 10 years to score four-plus goals in back-to-back weeks) … Bock is one of only six Irish players ever to score the first three goals in a game (vs. Syracuse), as are current ND players Hanks and Michele Weissenhofer).