September 5, 1998

Box Score

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Junior forwards Jenny Streiffer and Jenny Heft each recorded hat tricks to lead the Notre Dame women’s soccer team to a 7-0 win over West Virginia in the BIG EAST Conference opener for the Irish and the home opener at Alumni Field. Heft scored twice in the first half while Streiffer scored twice in the second half. The Irish, who outshot the Mountaineers 37-4 in the contest, also took advantage of an own goal in the first half. The win improves Notre Dame to 2-0-0 while West Virginia falls to 0-1-0. Notre Dame returns action when Pittsburgh travels to Alumni Field on Sun., Sept. 6.

The win marked Notre Dame’s 30th consecutive win in a BIG EAST regular season or conference tournament game, the longest streak in NCAA history. The Irish also set the NCAA record for longest conference unbeaten streak, breaking streaks by North Carolina and Portland. Notre Dame has won every BIG EAST game since a 5-4 overtime loss to Connecticut in 1995.

The Irish opened the game slowly, not managing a shot until six minutes had expired. Heft first put the Irish on the board when she took a long feed from Meotis Erikson, beat the keeper to the ball and punched the ball into the right corner from the left wing at 15:10. Streiffer then headed in a cross from Heft that slipped through the hands of the West Virginia goalkeeper at 19:30. Heft made it 3-0 at 30:40 on a pass from Erikson before a failed clear resulted in an own goal at 37:20.

Streiffer opened the second half with goals at 51:32 and 64:13 on a diving header from a cross by Erikson and by punching in the fourth shot of a rapid sequence of shots in front of the net. Heft closed out the scoring when Anne Makinen split the Mountaineer backline with a feed just past midfield that Heft tapped in past the extended keeper.