April 22, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Men’s soccer defenseman Phil Murphy (Brentwood, Tenn.), hockey goalie Forrest Karr (DeForest, Wis.) and women’s soccer player Jenny Streiffer (Baton Rouge, La.) were selected Academic All-Americans for the 1999 GTE/CoSIDA Fall/Winter At-Large Program.
Murphy and Karr, named for the first time in their careers, copped first-team and second-team honors, respectively, while Streiffer, a first-team honoree in 1998 was a second team selection this year. The trio becomes the first three Irish student-athletes for the 1998-99 school year to earn Academic All-America accolades.
Murphy, recently named one of five senior recipients for the prestigious Kanaley Award, is a two-time honoree of the Notre Dame National Monogram Club MVP. A four-year letterwinner and two-year starter, he owns a 3.908 grade point average and will graduate in May with a degree in finance from the College of Business Administration. A member of the Dean’s List all seven semesters he has been at Notre Dame, he becomes the third Irish men’s soccer player to garner Academic All-America honors – Chris Dean was a second-team honoree in 1995 and Ryan Turners was a third-team selection in 1998.
Murphy started all 18 games for the Irish on defense and was the team’s top marking back as he anchored a defense that allowed just 20 goals (1.04 per game) and recorded five shutouts. One of team’s co-captains on a squad which finished with a 9-3-8 record in ’98, he was a starter for the Irish in each of his last two seasons.
Karr owns a 3.73 grade point average as a finance major in the College of Business and is a six-time Dean’s List honoree. His appearance on the fall/winter at-large team marks the third consecutive year an Irish hockey player has claimed Academic All-America honors.
Karr started all 38 games for Notre Dame as the Irish finished the campaign with a 19-14-5 record. He recorded a school-record 2.58 goals against average and his .899 save percentage this season is the third best in school history. Karr’s 2.92 career goals against average and .888 career save percentage are the best in the program’s history.
The Irish goalie finished the regular season ranked third in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association with a 2.27 goals-against average in conference games. Karr was the only CCHA goaltender to start every game for his team during the regular season while logging 95 percent of the team’s minutes. His season highlights included earning two CCHA “defensive player of the week” awards while posting a 4-4-3 record versus teams ranked in the national top 10 (wins over Wisconsin, Ohio State, North Dakota and Michigan). Karr also is the first Notre Dame goaltender to post two solo shutouts in the same season (3-0 vs. OSU, 2-0 vs. Miami) and allowed three or fewer goals in 19 of his final 21 outings.
Streiffer has a 3.46 grade point average and is enrolled in the College of Arts and Letters with a triple major in biology, anthropology and philosophy. Last season, Streiffer helped Notre Dame win its fourth consecutive BIG EAST championship and qualify for the NCAA championship for the sixth straight year as the Irish advanced to the quarterfinals and finished as the fourth-ranked team in the country. During the 1998 season, the Irish forward became just the eighth player in NCAA women’s soccer history to score at least 50 goals and record at least 50 assists in a career. In 74 games she has played, Streiffer scored 51 goals and dished off 56 assists for 156 career points.
Streiffer’s selection marks the fourth consecutive year the Notre Dame women’s soccer team has placed a player on the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America list. Jen Renola and Amy VanLaecke were second-team selections in 1995, and then both earned first-team honors as seniors in 1996 with Renola being voted Academic All-American of the Year.