Dec. 6, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame was well-represented on the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-America Teams with three Irish seniors selected for top honors, it was announced late Friday at the NCAA Women’s College Cup in Cary, N.C. Senior forward Kerri Hanks (Allen, Texas/Allen) became the 23rd NCAA Division I athlete to garner four All-America citations, earning her third first-team honor in 2008. Meanwhile, senior defender/co-captain Carrie Dew (Encinitas, Calif./La Costa Canyon) joined Hanks on the NSCAA All-America First Team, collecting her first certificate in her final collegiate season. Senior forward/co-captain Brittany Bock (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) was a second-team honoree this season after taking home first-team laurels a year ago — she also repeats as a double winner of All-America and Academic All-America honors, becoming just the 12th student-athlete in Notre Dame athletics history (and the second Irish women’s soccer player) to pull off the rare “double-double.”
Notre Dame was one of four schools to have multiple first-team All-Americans this year, along with Florida State, Stanford and UCLA. It also marks the fifth time in school history, and the second consecutive season, that the Irish have had at least two first-team All-Americans. Notre Dame now has fielded 45 All-America selections since 1992, while its total of 42 NSCAA All-Americans during the past 15 seasons (1994-2008) trails only North Carolina’s 48 among Division I teams, with Portland (29) a distant third on that list. All told, the Irish have had at least one NSCAA All-America selection every season since 1992, including 13 seasons with multiple NSCAA All-Americans (two-plus every year since 2003), and eight seasons with at least three NSCAA All-Americans. In addition, Notre Dame has produced at least six different NSCAA All-Americans each at the positions of forward, midfielder and defender during the program’s storied history.
Hanks, who also received the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award on Friday evening, is blazing trails seldom seen in the annals of NCAA Division I women’s soccer. She’s the only player ever to register at least 73 goals and 73 assists in her career (currently with 83 goals, 73 assists and 239 points), and she owns an assortment of 63 school and/or NCAA records, while ranking among the top 10 on six NCAA career lists. In addition, she is one of 15 semifinalists for the Hermann Trophy, an award she previously earned in 2006, putting her in position to become just the fourth multi-time recipient of the honor (and the first of either gender to do so in non-consecutive seasons). This year, she ranks among the top five in the nation in goals (19), assists (15) and points (53) and she’s one of just two players in the land to have at least 15 goals and 15 assists (along with Loyola-Chicago’s Cynthia Morote-Ariza). She earned her second BIG EAST Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2008 and she was a seven-time national player of the week selection (compared to two national weekly honors during her ’06 Hermann Trophy season).
With Hanks’ selection, Notre Dame now boasts four of the 23 Division I players to be four-year All-Americans, with the other Irish honorees being Holly Manthei (1994-97), Jen Grubb (1996-99) and Anne Makinen (1997-2000) — all four players also are the only Irish players to be named NSCAA All-Americans as freshmen and sophomores. What’s more, Hanks joins Cindy Daws (1993, 1994, 1996) as the only three-time first-team All-Americans in school history.
Dew is the third Notre Dame defender ever to be named a NSCAA first-team All-American, and the first selection since 1997 when future U.S. National Team players Jen Grubb and Kate Sobrero (Markgraf) earned that distinction. She’s the first Irish defender to make any of the three NSCAA All-America teams since 2005, when current Canadian National Team member Candace Chapman garnered third-team honors. Dew has started every game at center back and has been the anchor of a Notre Dame defense that has recorded 18 shutouts and posted a 0.38 goals-against average this season. A two-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, she also was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the BIG EAST Championship and was a three-time national player of the week selection, including the Top Drawer Soccer National Player of the Week on Nov. 10.
Bock becomes the 13th Irish player to earn multiple All-America honors in her career, coupling this year’s second-team citation with last year’s first-team award. She ranks 12th in school history for career goals (46) and points (121), having amassed six goals and nine assists (21 points) this season on the way to first-team all-BIG EAST honors and a spot on the Lowe’s Senior CLASS All-America Team (she was one of 10 finalists for the award that ultimately went to Hanks). Bock also is a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American (including a first-team honoree this year) while compiling a 3.365 cumulative GPA as a marketing major in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She also garnered dean’s list honors in the spring 2008 term (3.70 GPA) and had a sharp 3.834 GPA this past summer. Bock also is a team co-captain and is a member of Notre Dame’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Bock joins noted Irish goalkeeper Jen Renola (1995-96) as the only Notre Dame women’s soccer players to receive All-America and Academic All-America honors in the same season twice in their careers. The other 10 Notre Dame student-athlete to pull off this remarkable double-double are: football’s Tom Gatewood (`70, `71), men’s basketball’s Bob Arnzen (`67, `68) and John Paxson (`82, `83), women’s fencing’s Heidi Piper (`91, `92), softball’s Katie Marten (`95, `96) and Jarrah Myers (`01, `02), men’s fencing’s Lester (`96, `97), women’s basketball’s Ruth Riley (`00, `01), and track & field’s Luke Watson (`01, `02) and Thomas Chamney (`06, `07).
Top-ranked Notre Dame (26-0-0) will square off with No. 4/5 North Carolina (24-1-2) in the NCAA Women’s College Cup title game on Sunday at 2 p.m. (ET) at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The game will be televised live nationally on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com.
— ND —