Sept. 16, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame senior tri-captain Justin Ratcliffe (Miami, Fla.) has been honored by the BIG EAST Conference as the league’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Ratcliffe led his fifth-ranked Irish squad to a 1-0-1 week, which included a 2-1 double overtime victory against seventh-ranked Furman in the second game of the Mike Berticelli Memorial Soccer Tournament. He shares the award with Chris Wingert of St. John’s, who earned the honor for the second straight week.
A cog defensively for the Irish in the midfield, Ratcliffe was instrumental in his team’s victory over the Paladins and in the squad’s 1-1 tie with Cornell. In the first game of the tournament, he helped limit the Big Red to just nine shots in 110 minutes of action. In the Furman game, Ratcliffe and the Irish held the Paladins to without a shot in 17 minutes of overtime and to just three shots in the final 52:29 of the contest. He was one of three Irish players named to the all-tournament team.
This is the first BIG EAST weekly honor for Ratcliffe during his career. In addition, he is the second Notre Dame player in as many weeks to be selected for one of the league’s weekly honors. Last week, teammate Kevin Goldthwaite was tabbed for defensive player-of-the-week honors.
He has been in the starting lineup in each of Notre Dame’s five game this season and has started all but six games his (54 starts in 60 career games).
The Irish are currently 3-0-2 on the season with two games this week scheduled against Bradley and Providence.