Oct. 16, 1997
#2 Notre Dame Rolls to Wins at Georgetown and Wisconsin, Travels to Syracuse
for Final Regular Season Road Game
NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- Notre Dame's second-ranked women's soccer team
improved to 13-0-1 with two shutout road wins, 9-0 at Georgetown and 10-0 at
Wisconsin. The Irish will travel to Syracuse on Sunday, Oct. 11, for a BIG
EAST matchup with the Orangewomen.
Week in Review: Notre Dame outshot its opponents 66-2 and outscored
Georgetown and Wisconsin 19-0 to up its record to 13-0-1. Jenny Streiffer
(Baton Rouge, La.) scored four goals, including the first two of the game, as
Notre Dame shut out Georgetown 9-0 in Washington, D.C. Anne Makinen (Helsinki,
Finland) scored twice and Holly Manthei (Burnsville, Minn.) dished off four
assists. Notre Dame's defense held Georgetown without a shot until less than
three minutes left in the game.
Notre Dame's trip to Madison, Wis., was equally productive as the Irish
scored seven goals by seven different players to build a 7-0 halftime lead on
its way to a 10-0 win at Wisconsin, the most goals for the Irish this season
and the most since a 10-1 win over Villanova on Nov. 3, 1996. Jen Grubb
(Hoffman Estates, Ill.) had four assists and a goal. The Irish controlled play
from the outset, blitzing the Badgers with three goals in the first 10 minutes
of the game. Leading 5-0 with five minutes left in the first half, the Irish
struck twice more before halftime for the 7-0 lead to put the game out of
reach. The Irish defense held the Badgers without a shot until less than three
minutes remaining in the contest and out shot Wisconsin 26-1 in the contest.
Syracuse Preview: Notre Dame and Syracuse will square off on Sun., Oct.
19, in the first-ever meeting between the two teams. The Orangewomen enter the
game battling for a spot in the four-team BIG EAST championship. Notre Dame,
Connecticut and Seton Hall appear ready to coast into the field with four other
teams fighting for the fourth spot. Syracuse has 10 points in eight BIG EAST
games while West Virginia and Boston College have eight points in eight games.
Villanova, having already played Notre Dame, Connecticut and Seton Hall, has
eight points in just seven conference games.
In just their second season as a varsity sport, the Orangewomen boast a
12-3-0 record with their only losses coming to Connecticut, Seton Hall and
Villanova. Erin O'Grady leads the team with 11 goals and goalkeeper Juli Slack
has built an impressive 0.79 goals against average.
Grubb Takes Offensive: While sophomore defender Jen Grubb has helped to
shut out Notre Dame's last four teams and hold them to just six shots combined,
she also has been lethal offensively. Grubb has pounced on the little
offensive pressure from the opposition and has penetrated into the box, dishing
off eight assists and scoring her second goal of the season in the last four
games. Against Wisconsin she began the game with an assist on Shannon Boxx's
game-winning goal at 5:43 and then recorded three more assists in the first
half to tie an Irish record for assists in a half with four.
Spreading The Wealth: Perhaps nowhere has Notre Dame's depth been more
apparent than in the scoring column. The Irish have distributed their scoring
evenly in 1997, with ten 10-point scorers on the team and six with at least 20
points. Jenny Streiffer has already broken the 30-point mark with 36 points.
Streiffer and Anne Makinen lead the team with 12 goals while Holly Mathei leads
both the team and the country in assists with 20.
Beene Tops Among Nations Goalkeepers: Sophomore goalkeeper LaKeysia
Beene (Gold River, Calif.), in her first year as Notre Dame's starting
goalkeeper, continues to lead the country as the nation's top goalkeeper. Her
0.29 goals against average is the nation's best for the second straight week
according to the weekly national statistics. She has allowed just four goals
in 1241 minutes of action this season.
Beene is quickly approaching former Irish All-American Jen Renola's Notre
Dame record for shutouts in a season. In 1995, Renola blanked 13 opponents in
25 games. Just 14 games into the 1997 season, Beene has shut out 11 opponents,
including two top 10 opponents, third-ranked Portland and fifth-ranked Duke.
Her six shutouts in BIG EAST games ties her with Renola and Connecticut's
Siobhan Harold, who both blanked six opponents in 1995. Rutgers is the only
BIG EAST team to score on the Irish in 1997.
Irish Reach 30 Straight Vs. Big Ten: Notre Dame's 10-0 win over
Wisconsin marked its 30th consecutive win against a Big Ten team since a 3-0
loss to Michigan State on Sept. 22, 1989. The Irish have gone 30-0-0 against
the Big Ten over a nine year span, including a 6-0 win over Michigan State and
8-0 over Indiana in 1997. Notre Dame head coach Chris Petrucelli is a perfect
28-0-0 since taking over as head coach in 1990.
Erikson Continues Hot Streak: One of Notre Dame's hottest players in
the last seven games is freshman forward Meotis Erikson (Kennewick, Wash.) who
has scored at least one point in each of those seven games, including at least
one goal in the last six. She has scored eight goals in the last six games and
scored the game-winning goal against Villanova and assisted on the game winner
against Boston College. She also scored the only other goal against the
Eagles. Erikson is fifth on the team in scoring with 10 goals and five assists
for 25 points. In BIG EAST games, she and Anne Makinen lead the team in goals
with seven and is second in scoring with 16 points.
Head Coach Chris Petrucelli: 1996 BIG EAST coach of the year Chris
Petrucelli is in his eighth season as head coach of Notre Dame's women's soccer
team after leading the Irish to their third straight NCAA championship game.
Petrucelli was named NSCAA coach of the year for the second consecutive year
after guiding Notre Dame to its first NCAA women's soccer title in 1995,
becoming the first coach to win the honor two straight years. The Orange,
N.J., native owns a 144-18-9 record with an .868 winning percentage that is
second best among NCAA Division I women's soccer coaches. During his seven
seasons as head coach, Petrucelli has coached his players to 17 NSCAA
All-America selections, including 14 since 1994, the most in the country during
that span.
Four Nominated for MAC Award: Four Notre Dame players have been
selected as finalists for the 1997 Missouri Athletic Club Sports Foundation
Collegiate Player of the Year which will be awarded on Jan. 9, 1998. Sophomore
defender Jen Grubb, senior midfielder Holly Manthei, senior defender Kate
Sobrero (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) and sophomore forward Jenny Streiffer are
Notre Dame's four of the 15 finalists. Manthei collected the most votes for
the 1996 Missouri Athletic Club player of the year award of any returning
midfielder in the country. Former Notre Dame All-American midfielder Cindy
Daws was the recipient of last year's award.
Manthei Surpasses Century Mark: Senior midfielder Holly Manthei, who
already has set college women's soccer records for assists in a season with 44
in 1996 and career assists, reached yet another milestone against Duke earlier
in the season. Against the Blue Devils, her assist on Monica Gonzalez's second
goal marked the 100th of Manthei's career.
She entered her final season after collecting the most votes for the 1996
Missouri Athletic Club player of the year award of any returning midfielder in
the country. She is also the only active player who was a finalist for the
Hermann Trophy in both 1995 and 1996. Manthei has used her pinpoint corner
kicks and speedy runs down the left sideline to create and assist on 115 goals
in her career, including 44 in 1996, both college soccer records formerly held
by national team member and gold medalist Mia Hamm. Manthei's 10 assists in
just 13 career NCAA championship games breaks another of Hamm's records, and
her five in the 1996 NCAA tournament is tops with teammate Kara Brown (Avon,
Conn.) for the NCAA single-tournament record.
Road Warriors Continue: The Irish continue a stretch of 32 days with
just one home game sandwiched between three road games. Wins at Rutgers,
Villanova and Indiana preceded Notre Dame's only home game in that time, a 2-0
win over Boston College on Oct. 5 at Alumni Field. After wins at Georgetown
and Wisconsin, the Irish now head to Syracuse, N.Y., for their final regular
season road game. Notre Dame closes out the regular season with four straight
home games beginning Oct. 24.
Notre Dame is 40-1-1 (.964) in games played on opponents' home fields since
a 3-1 loss at sixth-ranked SMU on Oct. 17, 1992. Among these 40 wins are
victories in some of the toughest stadiums for opposing teams including a 1-0
win at Fetzer Field over North Carolina in the 1995 NCAA semifinals and a 1996
BIG EAST regular season 2-1 win at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium in Storrs, Conn.
The Irish are also 3-0 against Portland at Merlo Field with the latest trip
resulting in a 1-0 win on Sept. 7. Notre Dame lost 3-1 at Santa Clara in 1996
and tied Cincinnati 2-2 in 1995.
The Irish have never lost a conference road game at 27-0-1 in both the
regular season and conference championships since joining the Midwestern
Collegiate Conference in 1991 and the BIG EAST Conference in 1995. A 0-0 tie
at Dayton in 1991 is the only blemish for the Irish. Notre Dame is a perfect
15-0-0 in BIG EAST road games heading to the trip to Syracuse.
Irish Outscore Opponents Shots: Anchored by three-time All-American
Kate Sobrero, Notre Dame's defense has held the opposition to just 48 shots
while the Irish have scored 72 goals. Notre Dame is outshooting its opponents
by an average of almost 30-3 per game. Of the 48 shots allowed, Washington and
North Carolina have accounted for 11 each with the Tar Heels taking their 11
shots in just 71:16 of play in the halted game. In the seven wins since the
North Carolina game, Notre Dame has outscored the opposition 45-1 and outshot
them 200-16.
Notre Dame Leads BIG EAST: Notre Dame continues to sit atop the team
statistics leaders among the BIG EAST teams as of Oct. 13. In all games
played, the Irish have scored the most goals (62) and recorded the most assists
(85) and have the best defense with a 0.31 goals against average with 10
shutouts. Among the conference's leader scorers in BIG EAST games, the Irish
have spread the scoring among six players in the top 15, the most of any team
in the conference. Anne Makinen, Holly Manthei, and Jenny Streiffer are among
these top 15 scorers despite playing in just six of Notre Dame's seven BIG EAST
games. LaKeysia Beene is the best goalkeeper in the BIG EAST with a 0.31 goals
against average in all games and a 0.14 average in BIG EAST games.
BIG EAST Standings (10/6)
Team BIG EAST Overall
1. Notre Dame 7-0-0 13-0-1
Connecticut 7-0-0 12-1-0
Seton Hall 7-0-0 12-1-0
4. Syracuse 5-3-0 10-2-0
5. Villanova 4-3-0 4-6-1
West Virginia 4-4-0 8-3-0
Boston College 4-4-0 5-4-1
8. Rutgers 2-5-0 5-7-0
St. John's 2-6-0 6-5-0
10. Pittsburgh 1-6-1 0-7-2
12. Providence 0-5-1 3-6-1
13. Georgetown 0-7-0 2-6-0
Irish Among National Statistical Leaders
Scoring
15T. Jenny Streiffer 31
Assists
1. Holly Manthei 18
8T. Jenny Streiffer 11
12T. Shannon Boxx 10
Goals Against Average
1. LaKeysia Beene 0.31
Team Scoring Average
3. Notre Dame 4.76
Attendance
3. Notre Dame 1,814
Soccer America Top 20 (10/13)
Team Record Last Week
1. North Carolina * 12-0-1 1
2. NOTRE DAME 12-0-1 2
3. Santa Clara 11-0-1 6
4. Portland * 8-3-0 4
5. Connecticut * 12-1-0 7
6. Virginia 10-1-2 5
7. Duke * 10-2-0 8
8. Texas A&M 12-2-0 3
9. Florida 10-2-1 10
10. Nebraska 12-2-0 11
11. Minnesota 12-1-1 12
12. Clemson 9-3-0 9
13. William & Mary 9-4-0 13
14. Hartford 10-1-1 15
15. SMU 9-4-0 16
16. Maryland 7-4-2 19
17. Massachusetts 11-2-0 18
18. Wake Forest 8-4-1 14
19. Baylor 10-3-0 NR
20. UCLA 10-2-0 NR
* indicates 1997 Notre Dame opponents
NSCAA Top 25 (10/13)
Team Record Pts.
1. North Carolina * 12-0-1 300
2. NOTRE DAME 12-0-1 288
3. Portland * 8-3-0 270
4. Duke * 10-2-0 250
5. Virginia 10-1-2 246
6. Texas A&M 12-2-0 244
7. Santa Clara 11-0-1 238
8. Connecticut * 12-1-0 224
9. Hartford 10-1-1 198
10. Nebraska 12-2-0 196
11. Minnesota 12-1-1 184
12. Maryland 7-4-2 164
13. Michigan * 11-2-1 146
14T. Florida 10-2-1 136
Massachusetts 11-2-0 136
16. SMU 9-4-0 116
17. George Mason 7-2-4 112
18. USC 11-1-1 88
19. Clemson 9-3-0 86
20. Harvard 6-3-2 78
21. William & Mary 9-4-0 52
22. Baylor 10-3-0 48
23. BYU 12-1-0 36
24. James Madison 8-3-2 22
25T. Butler 7-4-1 16
Georgia 9-3-1 16
* indicates 1997 Notre Dame opponents
