Nov. 27, 2006
Notre Dame women’s soccer sophomore forward Kerri Hanks – whose 50 career goals and 135 points have produced one of the top two-year starts in the 25-year history of Division I women’s soccer – is one of three finalists for the prestigious Missouri Athletics Club (M.A.C.) Hermann Trophy, presented to the nation’s player of the year. Hanks currently leads the nation in both goals (22) and assists (20), becoming just the 11th Division I player ever to reach 20 goals and 20 assists in a season, and she takes a career-best 11-game point streak into Friday’s NCAA semifinal versus Florida State, in Cary, N.C. (6:00 p.m. EST; live on ESPN-U).
Kerri Hanks is the seventh Division I player ever to reach 50 career goals prior to her junior season.
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The other finalists include North Carolina senior forward Heather O’Reilly and UNC sophomore midfielder Yael Averbuch. The announcement of the winner will take place later this week, with the details of that ceremony still being finalized due to all three finalists still competing with their teams. As of Monday night, it appears likely that the winner of the women’s trophy will be announced on Thursday, Nov. 30, in Cary – as opposed to the original plan of announcing both of the winners on Saturday, Dec. 2, in St. Louis (site of the men’s College Cup).
Irish junior forward Joseph Lapira is one of three finalists for the men’s M.A.C. Hermann Trophy – giving Notre Dame a chance for a first-ever sweep of the men’s and women’s awards. Lapira leads Division I men’s soccer in goals this season, with the same total as Hanks (22G). Soccer America magazine recently projected Hanks and Lapira to bring home the historic double win of the Hermann Trophy.
Hanks – who could join former UNC great Mia Hamm as the only Division I players ever to lead the nation in goals and assists for the same season – was one of the final-15 candidates for the 2005 Hermann Trophy and now joins Averbuch as a rare sophomore finalist. She could follow midfielders Cindy Daws (1996) and Anne Makinen (2000) as the third Notre Dame player to receive the Hermann Trophy, with Daws and Makinen both receiving the awards during their senior seasons. This marks the second straight season that an Irish player has been a finalist for the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy, as former forward Katie Thorlakson was the runner-up for the 2005 award.
With 135 career points (50 goals, 35 assists), Hanks has totaled more points over the course of her freshman and sophomore seasons than all but two previous players in the 25-year history of Division I women’s soccer. She is six points shy of joining Thorlakson and former SMU/Florida player Danielle Fotopoulos as the only players ever to post 70 points in multiple seasons, after totaling 71 points during her freshman season. She already owns or shares an assortment of 40 different Notre Dame women’s soccer scoring records.
Hanks has totaled 16 goals and 19 assists during the past 16 games and is riding an 11-game point streak.
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In 50 career games with the Irish, Hanks has had just three two-game goal “droughts” plus a “career-high” goal drought of only three games.
Here are additional updated notes on Hanks. Also look for more on Hanks later in the week, including quotes from her and Irish head coach Randy Waldrum – plus a sampling of comments from her Irish teammates and opposing coaches.
SUPER SOPHS – The 18 previous years of the Hermann Trophy (1988-2005) did not produce any sophomore winners of the prestigious award … the 18 recipients have included 13 seniors and only five juniors: UNC’s Kristine Lilly (1991), Mia Hamm (’92) and Cindy Parlow (’97), Penn State’s Christie Welsh (2001) and Portland’s Christine Sinclair (’04) … Hamm and Sinclair technically were fourth-year players during those junior seasons but each took a year off from college soccer earlier in their careers in order to play with their respective national teams (Hamm with the U.S. and Sinclair with Canada) … the finalist history of the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy is a bit sketchy from the early years and there have been some seasons where a larger group (such as 15) were named “finalists” … in recent years during which there was a smaller group of finalists (3-5), a handful of sophomores have been so honored as Hermann Trophy finalists, among them: former ND midfielder Anne Makinen (’98, one of five), the 2000 duo of PSU’s Welsh and Santa Clara’s Aly Wagner (two of five), Portland’s Sinclair (2002, one of four) and UNC’s Lindsay Tarpley (2003) and Heather O’Reilly (2004), both one of three.
A SCORER AND A SET-UP PLAYER – Hanks currently shares the national goalscoring lead (22, with Middle Tennessee’s Kala Morgan) while leading the nation in assists, with 20 … her primary competition to not finish atop either list actually comes from her teammate, freshman forward Michele Weissenhofer (18G-17A) … the other three teams in the 2006 NCAA semifinals include the following goal and assist leaders: UNC’s Yael Averbuch (16G) and Heather O’Reilly (15A), FSU’s Sel Kuralay (13G) and Becky Edwards (8A) and UCLA’s Lauren Cheney (19G) and Christina Demartino (7A) … three previous ND players have led the team in goals and assists for the same season: midfielder Anne Makinen (14G-15A, as a senior in 2000); forward Amanda Guertin (11G-11A, as a junior in 2002); and forward Katie Thorlakson (23G-24A, as a junior in 2004).
Hanks (22G-20A) is on pace to join Mia Hamm in the unique distinction of leading the nation in goals and assists during the same season.
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RARE 20-20 VISION – With her expanded assist ability this season, combined with her longrunning ability as a goalscorer, Hanks last week became the 11th player in Division I women’s soccer history to reach 20 goals and 20 assists in the same season (22G-20A) … four ND players (most from any school) are members of that elite 20-20 club: midfielders Cindy Daws (26G-20A) and Jenny Streiffer (22G-22A, both in 1996) and forward Katie Thorlakson (23G-24A, in 2004) … the other D-I players who have reached 20G-20A in a season include UCSB’s Karin Jennings (20G-26A, in ’86), UNC’s Mia Hamm (32G-33A, ’92), Robin Confer (20G-22A, ’97) and Lindsay Tarpley (23G-27A, ’03), UConn’s Sara Whalen (21G-22A, ’97), UNC Greensboro’s Kati Katanen (24G-20A, ’97) and Santa Clara’s Mandy Clemens (24G-23A, ’99) … Hamm’s 1992 totals remain the only time in D-I history that a player has totaled more goals and more assists in a season than Thorlakson’s output … with 2G-4A in Cary, Hanks would become the first ND player ever to reach 24G-24A in a season (and would join Hamm as the only 24-24 players in 25 years of D-I women’s soccer.
30-30 MILESTONE – Hanks is one of four Division I players ever to reach 30 career goals and 30 assists prior to her junior season (50G-35A) … others include former ND standout Jenny Streiffer (42G-40A, from 1996-97) and former UNC players Tisha Venturini (45G-34A; 1991-92) and Lindsay Tarpley (39G-42A; 2002-03) … Hanks, Streiffer and Tarpley are the only D-I players ever to reach 35G-35A before their junior seasons.
TWO-MONTH TEAR – Hanks has been on a roll since late September, factoring into nearly 70% of her team’s goals over that span (35 of 52, with 16G-19A) … she has totaled 51 points in that 16-game stretch (3.19 points per game).
FAST TWO-YEAR START – Only two players in Division I women’s soccer history have totaled more points over the course of their freshman and sophomores seasons than Hanks (135; 50G-35A) … former SMU player Lisa Cole has 147 points (60G-27A) during her first two seasons (1987-88) while UCSB legend Carin Jennings totaled 140 points spanning her freshman and sophomore seasons (60G-20A, 1983-84) … Hanks has more points as a freshman and sophomore than any D-I player in the past 18 years … she is the seventh D-I player to reach 50 goals before her junior season, with the others including: Jennings (60), Cole (60), BYU’s Shauna Rohbock (55; ’90-`91), Washington State’s Kim Lynass (55; ’90-`91), SMU’s Danielle Garrett (now Fotopoulos; 54; ’94-`95) and Campbell’s Jenn Stephenson (50; ’94-’95).
Hanks is on a four-year pace to become the seventh player in D-I history to reach 100 career goals.
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ELITE FOUR-YEAR PACE – With her career average of 2.70 points per game, Hanks is on pace to rank among the top career scorers in women’s soccer history … there are only seven D-I players who have finished with a higher career scoring avg. than Hanks’ current mark: Seton Hall’s Kelly Smith (3.41 career ppg), UCSB’s Carin Jennings (3.34), Portland’s Tiffeny Milbrett (3.32), SMU’s Lisa Cole (3.15), SMU/Florida player Danielle Garrett Fotopoulos (3.09), UNC’s Mia Hamm (3.02) and former North Texas player Marilyn Marin (2.71) … if Hanks matches her current career point total (135) in her final two seasons, the resulting 270 points would trail only Fotopoulos (284) and Hamm (278) … Hanks is averaging 1.0 goals per game for her career (50), which ranks 17th in ND history … she is on pace to become the seventh D-I player to reach 100 career goals, with that exclusive 100-goal club now including Fotopoulos (118), Sinclair (110), Hamm (103), Milbrett (103), Jennings (102) and Cole (101).
SET-PLAY SUCCESS – More than half of Hanks’ 20 assists this season (11 of 20) have come via corner-kick (7) or free-kick (4) services … she also has scored six career goals directly on dead-ball plays (four free kicks, two penalty kicks).
GOLDEN GIRL – The Irish are 32-0-0 during the past two seasons (2005-06) when Hanks scores a goal, as opposed to 14-3-1 when she fails to score.
40 ND RECORDS … AND COUNTING – Hanks already owns or shares an assortment of 40 Notre Dame scoring records … most notably, she has the best averages in ND history for career goals per game (1.00) and points per game (2.70), well on pace to break those marks shared by 1996-99 teammates Jenny Heft (0.83 gpg) and Jenny Streiffer (2.11 ppg) … some of the noteworthy ND records she has set this season include: points by a sophomore (64), career goals in postseason play (15, shares with two others); quickest to 30 (26 games), 40 (40 GP) and 50 (49 GP) career goals; quickest goal in a season opener (1:19, vs. Iowa State); and quickest goal in a postseason game (0:57, vs. Rutgers) … she is the only ND player ever to post a hat trick (vs. Oakland) and a 3-assist game (vs. Penn State) during NCAA Tournament play, with both of those games coming this season … Hanks joins former teammate Katie Thorlakson as the only ND players to reach 60 points in multiple seasons (71 in ’05, 64 in ’06) and this season joined Thorlakson as the only ND players ever to register six game-winning goals and six game-winning assists in the same season (Hanks is the only ND player with six GWGs in multiple seasons, both ’05 and `06) … Hanks also is the only ND player ever to total more than 20 goals in multiple seasons (28 in ’05, 22 in ’06) … she is the first ND player ever to register four career hat tricks prior to her junior season.
Hanks has points in 13 of the 14 postseason games during her career, with goals in 10 of those high-pressure games.
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SIX-WEEK SCORING STREAK – The scoreless tie at Connecticut on Oct. 13 marks the only time in the past 16 games that Hanks has failed to register a point (starting with the 3-1 win over #6 West Virginia, totaling 16G-19A in that span) … her current career-best, 11-game point streak includes 36 points (11G-14A; 3.3 ppg) … four previous players have registered points in 12-plus consecutive ND games: Katie Thorlakson (14; 10/14-11/25, 2005), Meotis Erikson (12; 9/21-10/31, 1997), Holly Manthei (12; 10/20-12/6, 1996) and Jenny Streiffer (9/27-11/3, 1996) … Anne Makinen technically had a 12-game point streak in the 1999 season (9/5-10/27) but there was a four-game stretch in which she did not play due to duties with Finland’s national team … Thorlakson also had a 12-game point streak that included the final 11 games of the 2004 season and the first game in 2005.
POSTSEASON POISE – Hanks has posted points in 13 of her 14 career games with the Irish, all but the 2005 NCAA quarterfinal loss at eventual NCAA champion Portland … she has goals in 10 of those 14 postseason games … Katie Thorlakson (27) is the only ND player with more career points in one postseason than Hanks (23, in 2006; 7G-8A) … Hanks already ranks third in ND history for career postseason points (42; 15G-12A), just one behind Anne Makinen (43) and 11 back of Thorlakson’s record (53), while her 23 career points in the NCAA Tournament (8G-7A) also are third in the ND record book, one behind Monica Gerard (24) and just six back of Thorlakson’s record (29) … Hanks recently tied the ND record for points in an NCAA Tournament game, with 3G-1A in the NCAA opener vs. Oakland … in that game, she became the first ND player to score or assist on the team’s first four goals in an NCAA Tournament game.
RARE GOAL DROUGHTS – Hanks had gone without a goal in three straight games just once in her ND career, earlier this season vs. USC, Santa Clara and TCU (Sept. 3-10) … she has just three two-game goal droughts spanning her 50 career games with the Irish: vs. Marquette and South Florida in 2005 (Sept. 30-Oct. 2), vs. Michigan and Louisville in 206 (Sept. 24-29) and vs. Rutgers and Connecticut in ’06 (Oct. 8-Oct. 13) … Hanks has not suffered a two-game goal-less streak during her current 16-game scoring tear.
OTHER RECORD-BOOK NOTES – Hanks already ranks 10th on the Notre Dame list for career goals (50), just five back of Katie Thorlakson and Rosella Guerrero, while her 135 career points rank 11th in ND history (seven behind Guerrero) … she is on a four-year pace (100G-70A; 270 points) to fly past the ND records for career goals (80, by Jenny Heft) and points (211, by Jenny Streiffer) and would finish fourth in assists, behind three of the top-four leaders in NCAA history (Holly Manthei with 129, Thorlakson with 73 and Streiffer with 71) … Hanks currently ranks sixth on the ND list for single-season points (64), two behind Streiffer’s 1996 total and eight back of the ND record (72) set by Cindy Daws in ’96 (Hanks nearly matched that mark in 2005, with 71 points).
Hanks and former teammate Katie Thorlakson (#7) rank near the top of various Notre Dame record lists.
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70-70 PACE – Hanks is on a four-year pace for a 100G-70A career that would make her the third Division I player ever to reach 70 career goals and 70 assists … others include former UNC great Mia Hamm (103-72A; 1989-90, ’92-`93) and ND standout Jenny Streiffer (70G-71A; 1996-99) … three other D-I players have reached 60G-60A: ND’s Cindy Daws (61G-67A; 1993-96), UCSB’s Carin Jennings (102G-60A; 1983-86) and Santa Clara’s Mandy Clemens (67G-65A; 1996-99).
ANOTHER 70-70 MILESTONE – If she can register six points this week in Cary, Hanks would become the third player in D-I history with multiple seasons of 70-plus points … Danielle Garrett Fotopoulos had three seasons with 70-plus points (83 in 1995 at SMU, 81 in 1996 at Florida and 75 in 1998 at Florida) while former ND player Katie Thorlakson had 70 points in 2004 and then 71 in 2005.
Hanks (64) and Michele Weissenhofer (53; right) currently rank 1-2 atop the national scoring charts and are the fourth set of Notre Dame teammates ever to reach 50 points in a season.
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50-50 TEAMMATES – Hanks (64) and freshman forward Michele Weissenhofer (53; 18G-17A) currently rank 1-2 atop the national points list and likely will finish in that position, as UCLA’s top scorer Lauren Cheney has 39 points, UNC’s leading scorer is Yael Averbuch (37 points) and FSU is led in points by Sel Kuralay (29) … Hanks and Weissenhofer are the 23rd set of teammates in D-I history to go over 50 points in the same season … pending clarification from the NCAA, it’s possible that former SMU standouts Danielle Garrett (83 points) and Courtney Linex (77) are the only other D-I teammates to finish 1-2 atop the NCAA scoring lists for a season (1995) … Notre Dame now has produced four sets of teammates (most from any school) with 50-plus points in a season, with the previous ones including: Cindy Daws (72), Jenny Streiffer (66), Monica Gerardo (59) and Holly Manthei (54) in 1996; Anne Makinen (58), Streiffer (58) and Meotis Erikson (56) in ’97; and Katie Thorlakson (71) and Hanks (71) in ’05 … Hanks joins Streiffer as the only Irish players ever to be part of two 50-point teammate groupings.