Sept. 28, 2004
Notre Dame fifth-year standout Melissa Tancredi (Ancaster, Ontario) has picked up her third 2004 BIG EAST Conference women’s soccer defensive player-of-the-week award (and fifth of her career), after playing a lead role in last week’s wins over Pittsburgh (3-1) and Wisconsin-Green Bay (4-0). The central defender scored the game-tying goal and then had the primary assist on the final goal in the win over the Panthers while helping the Irish allow just seven total shots, five shots goal and no corner kicks over the course of the two weekend games.
Tancredi’s first goal of the season broke a 1-1 tie in the 2-1 win at #11 Arizona State (Sept. 10) and her second goal of 2004 also came in a pressure-packed situation, as she tracked a rightside cross from Kim Lorenzen and banged in a shot that deflected off a Pittsburgh defender and carried into the right side of the net for a 1-1 game. Later in a game, the reigning BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and 2003 All-Americxan elevated for a Katie Thorlakson leftside corner kick and snapped a header at the far post, with Candace Chapman then scoring to cap the 3-1 win over the Panthers.
Tancredi – who continued to turn in her trademark domination in the air – combined with sophomore Christie Shaner in leading the stout Irish defense during the weekend action, with sophomore Kim Lorenzen sliding back from the midfield to the defense in the Pittsburgh game while senior Kate Tulisiak turned in a strong effort vs. UWGB as the Irish overcame the absence of senior defender Gudrun Gunnarsdottir in both games. The defense’s dominating weekend included allowing just one opponent shot from inside the 18-yard penalty box.
Over the course of 10 games this season, Tancredi and her Irish teammates have rolled up a 31-7 scoring edge, plus 213-55 edge in total shots (avg. 21-6), 107-24 in shots on goal (11-2) and 55-15 in corner kicks (5.5-1.5). The Irish have faced just two deficits all season and have trailed for a total of just 168 minutes during the past 39 games.
NOTES: Notre Dame will be featured in tomorrow’s USA Today (Sept. 29) while Tancredi, Thorlakson and head coach Randy Waldrum were the in-studio guests on last Sunday’s edition of the weekly local sports television show “Sports Dawgs” (on WSBT, channel 22) … Thorlakson, who just had her third 8-point weekend of the season (3G-2A), ranks 2nd in the nation with 33 points (12G-9A) behind fellow Canadian Brittany Timko of Nebraska (12G-9A) … Thorlakson and Timko are the only players in the nation with 9-plus goals and 9-plus assists while Oklahoma State’s Nikki Wojtowicz (12) is the only player in the nation with more assists than Thorlakson … ND is ranked 13th in the nation with 3.10 goals per game and 34th in goals-against avg. (0.700) … just five other teams are ranked in the top 35 for both scoring and defense: North Carolina, Virginia, California, N.C. State, UC Riverside and Rice (UNC and UVa join ND as the only ranked team with that distinction) … only five teams in the nation have scored more total goals than ND’s 31: Oklahoma State with 36, Duke, St. Bonaventure and UNC Wilmington each with 35 and Sam Houston State 34 (ND is the No. 2 scoring squad among teams in the national top-25 polls, behind Duke) … ND is one of just four unbeaten/untied teams among 308 in Division I (the others are UVa at 9-0-0 and Washington and UCR both at 8-0-0) … the Irish remain No. 1 in the Soccer America and NSCAA coaches polls … livestats and a possible live-audio link will be available for Friday’s game at West Virginia (check back to und.com later in the week for links) … a photo gallery from the team’s Brazil trip is available at the following link (also linked on und.com women’s soccer page):
http://und.collegesports.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/092804aaa.html