Defender/co-captain Carrie Dew and her fellow Irish seniors have won each of their three previous third-round games in the NCAA Championship by a combined 11-4 margin, including last year's stirring 3-2 victory at North Carolina.

Irish Trio Collects National And Conference Awards

Sept. 8, 2008

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – It was an award-winning Monday for the Notre Dame women’s soccer team, as three Irish players earned either national or BIG EAST Conference weekly honors for their play last week.

Senior defender and co-captain Carrie Dew (Encinitas, Calif./La Costa Canyon) was named to the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week after anchoring a Notre Dame defense that yielded just one goal and six shots on goal during victories over No. 3/2 North Carolina (1-0) and No. 12/11 Duke (3-1) at the Carolina Classic in Chapel Hill, N.C. It’s the second national weekly honor of the season for Dew, who also was a member of the Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week on Sept. 1. In addition, she is a two-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week this season, taking home the league’s first two weekly honors on Aug. 25 and Sept. 1.

Senior All-America forward and Hermann Trophy candidate Brittany Bock (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) was tapped as the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week after scoring the game-winning goal against North Carolina and assisting on Notre Dame’s first goal in the victory over Duke (tallying her first points of the 2008 campaign). Bock, the reigning BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year and the ’08 preseason pick to repeat that distinction, was a two-time BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week last season (Oct. 8 & 15) and became just the third player since 1995 to earn that honor in consecutive weeks.

Junior goalkeeper Kelsey Lysander (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo) completed the award-winning trio for the Irish on Monday, taking home her first career BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week designation. Lysander claimed the victory between the pipes in both wins at the Carolina Classic, shutting out UNC at home (on three saves) for only the seventh time since 1979 (fifth by an NCAA Division I opponent), then adding two saves in the tournament finale against Duke. For the season, Lysander has a 0.23 goals-against average (GAA) with two solo shutouts and a .909 save percentage, leading the BIG EAST (and ranking 16th in the nation) in GAA, and ranking third in both total shutouts and save percentage.

Notre Dame (5-0), which rose to No. 2 in the latest Soccer America poll (with the others to be released on Tuesday), will be back on the pitch at 7:30 p.m. (ET) Friday when it plays host to SMU at Alumni Field. Tickets for this, and all Irish home games this season, are available through the Notre Dame Athletics Ticket Office (574-631-7356; second floor of the Joyce Center via Gate 1), by going on-line to the official Irish athletics web site (www.und.com/tickets) or by visiting the Alumni Field ticket windows on game night.

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