Oct. 11, 2007
Full-Color Game Program/Game Notes in PDF Format
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NCAA WOMEN’S SOCCER – Georgetown vs. #17 Notre Dame … Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 … Alumni Field (Notre Dame, Ind.)
The Notre Dame women’s soccer team (7-4-1, 5-0-0 BIG EAST) – winners of four straight and ranked as high as 17th in the national polls – opens a four-game homestand at Alumni Field on Friday, Oct. 12, versus Georgetown. The Irish have not lost at home against a BIG EAST team since 1995 and are riding a 29-game overall unbeaten streak vs. BIG EAST foes. Notre Dame has faced several top teams this season and is listed 10th in the Albyn Jones national power rankings (at soccerratings.com).
(note: see PDF for full-color game program/notes, including team rosters with updated stats for all players, an ND headshot sheet and action photos)
GAME NOTES – Notre Dame is riding a four-game win streak that includes a 14-2 scoring margin while allowing only 22 shots (5.5/gm), seven shots on goal (1.8/gm) and five corner kicks (1.3/gm) in the win streak … ND is looking to extend its 13-year home unbeaten streak versus BIG EAST teams (72-0-2) … the Irish also have a 29-game overall unbeaten streak against BIG EAST foes (28-0-1), since mid-2005 … ND has won 252 consecutive games when taking a 2-0 lead and owns 71 straight wins when scoring 3-plus goals (also 150-1-0 in the past 151 games when scoring 3-plus, since 1995) … the Irish are 43-2-2 in their past 47 home games (2004-07) but have two recent losses at Alumni Field … ND’s all-time record at Alumni Field (196-16-4/.917, from 1990-2007) includes a .961 win pct. against teams not ranked in the NSCAA top-25 (133-4-3).
THE SERIES – Notre Dame holds a 12-1-0 series lead on Georgetown (79-9 scoring edge), including a pair of home wins in 2005 (6-1, 6-0 in BIG EAST quarterfinals) and a 1-0 win at GU in 2006 … last year’s defensive battle saw ND own a 14-8 shot edge (6-1 in shots on goal), with the Irish goal coming when Carrie Dew headed in a rightside free-kick corner kick from Kerri Hanks … GU’s only shot on goal in that game came in the 88th minute … the Irish opted to rest two starters (Kim Lorenzen and Brittany Bock) in the ’06 game with the Hoyas … Hanks has 10 points (3G-4A) in three career games vs. GU while other ND players with points vs. the Hoyas include Amanda Cinalli (2G-2A), Bock (1G-2A), Ashley Jones (1G), Becca Mendoza (1G) and Susan Pinnick (1A) … ND’s 2005 regular-season win over GU (6-1) saw the Irish score three times in a span of only 51 seconds, the quickest 3-goal flurry by one team in the 26-year history of Division I women’s soccer (Bock, Katie Thorlakson and Annie Schefter scored those goals) … ND’s 2004 win at GU (2-1) saw Cinalli score the game-tying goal shortly before halftime while Jen Buczkowski scored the gamewinner with only 44 seconds left in regulation (one of four times in ND history – and the first since 1994 – that the Irish have scored the GWG in the final minute of play) … that thrilling end reversed the fortune of ND’s previous visit to GU’s Halpern Field, a 4-3 loss that represents a rare defeat for the Irish when scoring 3-plus goals … ND is 254-3-1 (.986) all-time when scoring 3-plus and has won 155 of its past 156 (all except the game at GU) when scoring at least three goals) … the Irish hold a 7-0-0 series margin vs. the Hoyas at Alumni Field (42-2 scoring edge).
THE BIG EAST RACE – Notre Dame (5-0-0; 15 pts) already owns a six-point cushion atop the BIG EAST National Division standings, followed by Louisville (9; 3-2-0), Seton Hall (7; 2-2-1), Georgetown (6; 2-2-0), Villanova (6; 1-1-3), Rutgers (5; 1-2-2), Cincinnati (3; 1-4-0) and DePaul (3; 1-4-0) … UConn and West Virginia are co-leaders of the American Division (13; 4-0-1), followed by Marquette (9; 3-2-0), St. John’s (9; 3-2-0), South Florida (4; 1-2-1), Syracuse (4; 1-3-1), Pittsburgh (3; 1-4-0) and Providence (3; 1-4-0).
IRISH NOTES – Junior M/F Brittany Bock was named national and BIG EAST player of the week, after totaling four goals and an assist in wins last week at Syracuse and St. John’s … Bock became the 23rd different ND player ever to post a hat trick in a game (vs. Syracuse) but is one of only six Irish players ever to score the first three goals in a game (as are current ND players Kerri Hanks and Michele Weissenhofer) … Bock and Hanks currently lead the BIG EAST with five goals each in conference play … Hanks leads the BIG EAST overall in points (23; 17th in nation) and goals (8; 22nd nationally) while ranking second in assists (7; 11th in nation) and she is one of four players in the nation with seven-plus goals and seven-plus assists … despite its slow start, ND ranks 27th in the nation with 2.33 goals/gm (13 in past three games, or 4.3/gm in that span) … .. in league play this season, the Irish lead the BIG EAST in scoring (3.60 goals/gm) and goal margin (+16; 18-2) while ranking second in shots (19.8/gm) and shutouts (3), and fourth in goals-against avg. (0.40) … the depth of ND’s potent offense can be seen in the fact that the Irish now have three players with 30-plus career goals (Hanks with 58, Amanda Cinalli 34, Bock 30), the first Irish team since 1999 that can make that claim (the record-setting 1998 offense finished the season with six players who had 30-plus career goals) … five different ND women’s soccer players have been named national players of the week over the past two seasons, with the others including Cinalli, Carrie Dew, Weissenhofer and Hanks (all in ’06) … Hanks (Sept. 21, vs. DePaul) and Bock are the first ND teammates to post hat tricks in the same regular season since Amy Warner (vs. Providence) and Meotis Erikson (vs. Georgetown) did so in 2000 … Weissenhofer (Nov. 24, 2006), Hanks and Bock each have turned in hat tricks over the span of ND’s past 15 games … Hanks and Bock are the only ND players ever to score goals 1-2-3 in a road game … Cinalli missed a game for the first time in her four-year career (at Syracuse), due to a hamstring injury (Ashley Jones has played in all 91 games from 2004-07) … sophomore center back Haley Ford has missed eight straight games due to a 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) … ND had won 37 straight when scoring first, prior to the 2-1 loss to Penn State on Sept. 23 … Hanks (5) is one shy of tying Jenny Heft’s ND record for career hat tricks (6) … Hanks has been involved in 25 goals in her ND career that have come on set-play/dead-ball situations: six free-kick goals, four penalty-kick goals, nine corner-kick assists and six free-kick assists … ND’s challenging first 11 games (including two exhibitions) saw the Irish face eight top-20 teams (UNC, Virginia, Florida, Santa Clara, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Penn State and Louisville) … Cinalli matched her career-high with a five-point game (2G-1A) in the 4-2 win over Princeton … Hanks scored on direct free kicks vs. Princeton and OSU, en route to being named offensive MVP of the Inn at Saint Mary’s Classic (also 1A vs. Princeton) … the 2-1 OT loss to Oklahoma State halted ND’s 43-game home unbeaten streak (41-0-2), third-longest in NCAA history … that was the first time the Irish had lost when Hanks scored (now 36-2-0, from ’05-’07) … ND’s 27-game regular-season unbeaten streak (25-0-2) ended the previous weekend at #3 Santa Clara (7-1) … the 2-1 loss to Stanford ended ND’s OT unbeaten streak at 21 games (14-0-7) … ND played to a scoreless tie with Michigan in the ’07 regular-season opener, despite a 28-6 shot edge and 10-1 corner-kick margin … that game ended ND’s home win streak at 32 games (3rd in D-I history) … the crowd vs. Michigan (3,264) is the largest ever for an official (non-exhibition) ND women’s soccer home game … the 2-0 win at #7 Florida saw ND endure two rain delays totaling nearly five hours of stoppage … 13 of Bock’s career goals with the Irish have come on headers, in addition to four rare corner-kick assists in her career … ND’s exhibition games included a 2-2 tie with preseason #1 North Carolina (rare quick rematch of the NCAA title game) and a 3-1 win over #11 Virginia (in Ft. Wayne) … the crowd for the UNC game (3,412) was an Alumni Field record for a women’s soccer game and is the biggest crowd at the facility since the 1994 ND-SMU men’s soccer game (3,502) … there was an unprecedented 1,318 presold tickets for the ND-UNC game … Hanks is the 39th player in D-I history to reach 40 career goals and 40 assists (now 58G-44A, in 62 GP) while Cinalli recently became ND’s 12th with 30G-30A (34G-30A).
HOYAS NOTES – Georgetown has emerged as a potential NCAA Tournament team, thanks to last week’s 2-1 win at Marquette and some respectable scores against Villanova (1-0 loss) and Rutgers (2-1 loss) … Toni Marie Hudson scored twice in the win over Marquette while Sara Jordan had 1G-1A … the Hoyas’ other game last week (at USF) was called off due ti heavy rains … GU’s other wins this season home come versus Richmond (1-0), Manhattan (1-0), George Washington (5-0), Stony Brook (2-0), American (1-0), St. Joseph’s (5-1), Delaware (3-1) and Seton Hall (1-0) … the Hoyas also have lost to James Madison (1-2) … GU returned seven starters and 19 of 23 letterwinners from its 2006 team that went 5-9-5 and finished 7th in the BIG EAST National Division (2-7-2).
FRIEND OR FOE? – Notre Dame’s Susan Pinnick and Georgetown’s Sara Jordan were teammates with the Carmel Commotion club program, as were ND’s Elise Weber and GU’s Stephanie Zare on the Chicago-based Eclipse Select … another ND player from the Chicago area, Erica Iantorno, played alongside Zare with the NSA club.
CONFERENCE COMMAND – Following the recent win over Cincinnati, Notre Dame is riding a 13-year, 74-game home unbeaten streak versus BIG EAST opponents (73-0-1; tie vs. Rutgers in ’04) and has an active 29-game overall unbeaten streak against BIG EAST teams (28-0-1, since a 2005 loss at Marquette) that ranks as the eight-longest conference unbeaten streak in NCAA Division I women’s soccer history (third-longest by an ND team) … ND’s all-time record in BIG EAST regular-season games is 110-8-4 (.918), plus 27-2-0 in the BIG EAST Tournament and 2-1-0 in NCAA Tournament games vs. BIG EAST teams (all vs. UConn) – for an overall record of 139-11-4 versus BIG EAST teams (from 1995-2007) … the Irish have not been outshot in 61 straight games vs. BIG EAST teams (since mid-2002).