Oct. 9, 2008

Full Notes Package in PDF Format

DATE: Oct. 10, 2008
TIME: 3:00 p.m. ET
AT: Washington, D.C. - North Kehoe Field (2,000)
SERIES: ND leads 14-1-0
1ST MTG: ND 10-0 (10/22/95)
LAST MTG: ND 2-0 (11/9/07)
MEDIA: None
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Storylines

No. 1 Irish Open Four-Game Road Trip Friday At No. 17/16 Georgetown
Many obstacles still remain for No. 1 Notre Dame as the Irish reach the midway point of their BIG EAST Conference schedule Friday with a 3 p.m. (ET) game at No. 17/16 Georgetown. The Hoyas are the only other unbeaten team in the BIG EAST this season, but sit in third place in the National Division behind Notre Dame (15 points) and No. 21/14 Rutgers (12 points) in the standings.

Notre Dame (12-0, 5-0) continued its ongoing maturation last Sunday, erasing its first deficit of the season en route to a 3-1 win over Marquette at Alumni Field. Senior All-America forward/Hermann Trophy candidate Brittany Bock paid back the Golden Eagles' 60th-minute goal with interest, scoring two minutes after MU's tally, then adding the go-ahead strike on a pinpoint header 86 seconds later.

Bock's fellow senior All-America forward/Hermann Trophy candidate Kerri Hanks capped the win with an 88th-minute penalty kick to become Notre Dame's career points leader (213).

Rankings

A Quick Look At The Fighting Irish
Notre Dame rolls out one of its deepest teams in years, with 19 monogram winners (including nine starters) back from last season's squad that went 19-5-2 (11-0-0 in the BIG EAST) and advanced to the NCAA College Cup semifinals for the ninth time in the past 14 years. The Irish also bring back a powerful offensive punch, with 83.3 percent of their goalscoring (55 of 66) returning.

As if that weren't enough, Notre Dame welcomes a highly-regarded nine-player freshman class to campus, with three of those incoming players having earned multiple national All-America honors during their prep or club careers.

Leading the way for Notre Dame this season are two of the country's premier front-line players (and '07 NSCAA first-team All-Americans) in senior forward Kerri Hanks and senior forward/midfielder Brittany Bock.

A three-time All-American and the '06 Hermann Trophy recipient, Hanks (12G-3A) continues to blaze new trails through the NCAA and Irish record books, having led the nation in assists the past two seasons, and aiming to become the third Division I player ever to log 70 goals and 70 assists in her career (76G-61A entering Friday's game). She has earned national honors from Top Drawer Soccer (Player/Team of the Week) three times and twice from Soccer America (Team of the Week), as well as taking home BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week honors and her second consecutive Offensive MVP award at the Inn at Saint Mary's Classic with a school record-tying sixth career hat trick vs. Loyola Marymount.

Bock (3G-3A), one of the Irish co-captains in 2008, emerged as a genuine offensive threat last season, leading the team in goals and finishing second with 36 points (16G-4A). The reigining BIG EAST Co-Offensive Player of the Year, Bock earned the league's Offensive Player of the Week honor on Sept. 8, as well as a spot on the Soccer America National Team of the Week after scoring the game-winning goal in a 1-0 victory at No. 3/2 North Carolina on Sept. 5.

Another key player for the Irish this season is senior center back and co-captain Carrie Dew (0G-1A), the 2006 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year who made a successful recovery from an ACL injury late in the '06 regular season with a solid '07 campaign. She is the two-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week and Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week honoree, and a BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll selection after leading Notre Dame to eight shutouts and a 0.33 GAA, including four consecutive clean sheets to open this season (the first time the Irish have done that since '95).

A Quick Look At Georgetown
After a nearly two-week hiatus due to an unexpected viral outbreak on its campus, Georgetown (8-0-2, 3-0-0 BIG EAST) returns to action Friday, looking to resume one of the best season in program history.

The Hoyas have 16 letterwinners and seven starters back from last year's squad that posted a school-record 14 wins and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament, their first-ever postseason bid. GU also advanced to last year's BIG EAST Tournament semifinals, where they fell to Notre Dame, 2-0.

Georgetown last played on Sept. 28, when it posted a 1-0 win at Rutgers. Freshman midfielder Kelly D'Ambrisi was the hero, scoring in the 71st minute for the Hoyas, who were outshot, 10-4, but made all four of their shots, getting them all on frame.

Junior forward Toni Marie Hudson is GU's top scorer this season (8G-4A), while freshman midfielder Samantha Baker is second with 14 points (5G-4A) and sophomore midfielder Caitlin Durkee adds a team-high six assists. Sophomore goalkeeper Jackie DesJardin also has been stellar, posting a 6-0-1 record and 0.42 GAA with six shutouts, including each of the past two games.

Head coach Dave Nolan is in his fifth season at Georgetown with a 48-34-9 (.577) record. He is 0-6 all-time against Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame-Georgetown Series
The Irish lead the all-time series with the Hoyas, 14-1-0, including a 4-1 mark in Washington, D.C. Notre Dame also has won the past seven games in the series, matching the winning streak it posted to begin the series.

Georgetown's lone win over the Irish came on Sept. 29, 2002 (4-3 in Washington), a game that saw four Irish defensive regulars (including three members of the '04 NCAA championship squad) out with injuries. Aside from that game, Notre Dame has allowed just three goals in the other 14 series games, with shutouts in each of the past four meetings.

An individual game listing for this series can be found on page 98 of the 2008 Irish women's soccer media guide.

The Last Time ND And Georgetown Met
Notre Dame struck for a pair of goals 38 seconds apart in the first half to provide the only scoring in a 2-0 BIG EAST semifinal win over Georgetown on Nov. 9, 2007, at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium in Morgantown, W.Va.

The Irish limited the Hoyas to a single shot (none over the final 69 minutes) and just two corner kicks in the contest.

The action was fairly even through the first 20 minutes heading into the mandatory television timeout, but Notre Dame suddenly claimed a two-goal lead after the hiatus. Brittany Bock completed a classic give-and-go sequence with Kerri Hanks to open the scoring (24:16) before Elise Weber sprang Courtney Rosen on a run down the left flank. Rosen cut at the top corner of the box and sent a right-footed cross to the far post, where Rose Augustin was there to redirect the pass into the net (24:54). The 38-second flurry marked the fifth-fastest back-to-back postseason goals in school history.

Other ND-Georgetown Series Tidbits

Poll Position
Notre Dame took over the No. 1 ranking in all of the major national polls on Sept. 16 (unanimous in this week's Soccer Times balloting), with the Irish now having earned the top spot in the nation in four of the past five seasons (and five of the 10-year Randy Waldrum era, with Waldrum joining North Carolina's Anson Dorrance as the only coaches with five top-ranked seasons in this decade).

Notre Dame last was ranked No. 1 in 2006, assuming that post in all the polls by the end of the season's first month and carrying it through to the NCAA College Cup final, where the Irish fell to North Carolina, 2-1 (one of only two blemishes in a 25-1-1 season).

Notre Dame remains the only team in the country to own the No. 1 ranking in the NSCAA poll in four of five years from 2004-08. All-time, the Irish are 80-6-3 (.916) as the nation's top-ranked squad.

As has become the custom on the Notre Dame campus, the traditional lighted #1 sign has reappeared atop Grace Hall, and a #1 flag now flies outside the Irish athletic department offices at the Joyce Center (see note on pp. 26 of this year's media guide).

This year's women's soccer ranking marks the ninth consecutive academic year (starting in 2000-01) that Notre Dame has fielded at least one top-ranked team, with women's basketball, fencing, baseball and ice hockey also reaching the top of their respective polls during that span.

One Tough Slate
Lest anyone think Notre Dame hasn't earned its place atop the polls, just take a look at the Irish schedule this season.

Notre Dame has four wins over ranked opponents (No. 21/12 Santa Clara, at No. 3/2 North Carolina, vs. No. 12/11 Duke and at No. 17/16 Penn State), with the first three in that series coming in succession and the last three all coming away from home.

And it's not like the Irish have experience playing SCU, UNC and Duke in a row, having last seen those three powerhouses in succession in 1995 (and not at any point in the same regular season, let alone in a row, since 1999).

The 1-0 win at North Carolina on Sept. 5 was even more noteworthy, as it marked just the seventh time the Tar Heels had ever been shut out at home, and only the fifth time by a Division I team. One of those five was a 0-0 tie (Duke), while the other four were 1-0 losses, two at the hands of Notre Dame (the other came in the '95 NCAA semifinals at Fetzer Field, leading to the first of two Irish national championships).

Beasts Of The BIG EAST
Following Sunday's win over Marquette, Notre Dame now owns a school-record 43-game unbeaten streak (41-0-2) against BIG EAST opposition since a 4-1 loss at No. 15 Marquette on Sept. 30, 2005. In that time, the only ties were a 0-0 draw at Connecticut (Oct. 13, 2006) and a 1-1 deadlock at No. 12 West Virginia in last year's BIG EAST final on Nov. 11 (WVU won 5-3 on PKs, but the game is recorded as a tie).

Since joining the BIG EAST, the Irish are 117-8-4 (.922) all-time in regular-season conference games, 29-2-1 (.922) in the BIG EAST Tournament, and hold a 652-77 scoring edge dating back to that first league season in '95.

What's more Notre Dame maintains a 13-year, 82-game home unbeaten streak (81-0-1) versus BIG EAST teams, with Connecticut the lone conference team ever to defeat the Irish at Alumni Field (5-4 in OT on Oct. 6, 1995).

Numbers Don't Lie
To get a clearer picture of just how dominating Notre Dame has been through the first 12 games of the season, one need look no further than some of numbers the Irish have been putting up.

Notre Dame is outscoring its opponents by a staggering 42-4 margin with eight shutouts this year. The Irish also rank fourth in the nation in scoring offense (3.50 goals/game), as well as sixth in goals-against average (0.33) and ninth in shutout percentage (0.67).

In fact, of the four goals Notre Dame has allowed this season, one was an apparent own-goal according to video review (Duke), while another was the result of a goalkeeper muff (Penn State), the third (Louisville) came about due to a miscommunication on the Irish back line that let a corner kick land unattended in the six-yard area, and the last (Marquette) came on a counterattack after a rough foul from behind in the Irish offensive third was not called.

The Irish also allowed just 29 opponent shots on goal all year (13 fewer shots on goal than Notre Dame's goals). By comparison, senior All-America forward and Hermann Trophy candidate Kerri Hanks has 32 shots on goal all by herself.

Together, the Irish have registered 131 shots on goal, while their opponents have managed 82 total shots this year. And, Notre Dame has a sizeable 84-27 edge in corner kicks to boot.

Lead, Follow Or Just Get Out Of The Way
With the potency of the Notre Dame offensive attack, most opponents opt for the third option. In fact, the Irish have trailed for a grand total of 1:59 this season (59:06-61:05 vs. Marquette on Oct. 5) and have led for 716:39 of 1,080 minutes this season (66.4% of the elapsed game time). In addition, Notre Dame has been tied in the second half just five times (0-0 at No. 3/2 North Carolina, 0-0 and 1-1 against No. 12/11 Duke, 0-0 at DePaul, 1-1 vs. Marquette) for a combined total of 36:32, taking no more than 22:17 (at DePaul) to break any of the ties and move in front.

The One And Only
At 12-0-0, Notre Dame remains the lone unbeaten and untied team left in Division I women's soccer and one of only four across all three NCAA divisions.

At Division II, there are two schools that are still perfect through Oct. 8: Grand Valley State (12-0-0) and West Virginia Wesleyan (10-0-0).

At Division III, Williams (8-0-0) is the only team still with an unblemished record.

Getting The Jump On The Competition
Notre Dame's quick start this season has been fueled by its lightning-fast beginning to either the first or second half.

In seven games (including six home games), the Irish have scored a goal in the first 20 minutes of play, with senior forward Kerri Hanks owning the fastest strike of the season (penalty kick at 2:39 vs. Loyola Marymount on Aug. 29). That marked the 11th-fastest goal of the Randy Waldrum era, and the quickest since Nov. 5, 2006, when Hanks struck 57 seconds into the BIG EAST final against Rutgers (a game the Irish ultimately won, 4-2).

In two of its road games, Notre Dame has been scoreless at halftime, but taken the lead less than five minutes into the second half. Against No. 3/2 UNC, senior forward Brittany Bock scored at 50:21, then against No. 12/11 Duke, Bock fed Hanks for a score only 69 seconds after emerging from the locker room.

Strong Out Of The Blocks
Notre Dame is off to an 12-0-0 start for the fifth time in program history, all in the past 13 seasons. It's also the fourth time a Randy Waldrum-coached Irish team has started the year with at least 12 consecutive wins.

Spreading The Wealth
In an early example of the incredible depth of this year's Notre Dame squad, the Irish had seven different players score goals in the season-opening 7-0 whitewash of Michigan (including three who tallied their first career goals). That matched the largest number of goalscorers in one game during the 10-year Randy Waldrum era (since '99), and the most since the 2005 season opener (an 11-1 rout of New Hampshire on Aug. 26 in the TD Banknorth Classic at Burlington, Vt.).

For the season, 15 different Notre Dame players, representing all four classes, have scored at least one goal, with only four individual multi-goal games thus far (Kerri Hanks' hat trick against Loyola Marymount on Aug. 29; Melissa Henderson's two-goal game against SMU on Sept. 12; Henderson's hat trick on Sept. 28 at Cincinnati, and Brittany Bock's two-goal day against Marquette on Oct. 5).

In addition, Notre Dame already has tied the school record with 20 different point scorers this season. Junior defender Haley Ford was the latest to join both clubs with her first collegiate goal and an assist at Cincinnati.

The Notre Dame single-season records for goalscorers (17) and point scorers (20) both were set in 1996 (in a 26-game season).

No Soup For You
For the second time in program history, the first time since 1995 and the first time in the Randy Waldrum era, Notre Dame opened its season with four consecutive shutouts, blanking Michigan (7-0), Loyola Marymount (4-0), No. 21/12 Santa Clara (2-0) and No. 3/2 North Carolina (1-0). The Irish actually put together a string of 419:44 scoreless minutes to begin this season (437:44 dating back to the end of last year), before the run was snapped on Sept. 7 when No. 12/11 Duke scored at 59:19 off a corner kick that deflected in off an Irish defender.

The 1995 squad reeled off eight consecutive shutouts to begin what would be a 21-2-2 season, culminating with the program's first national championship.

No Shots For You, Either
Notre Dame held South Florida without a single shot in a 3-0 win on Oct. 3. It marked the first time since Oct. 1, 2000 (vs. Rutgers) that the Irish defense didn't yield a shot.

Hanks = History
With each passing game, senior All-America forward and Hermann Trophy candidate Kerri Hanks reaches more career milestones in the NCAA and Notre Dame record books, continuing to stamp herself as one of the greats in women's college soccer history.

On Sept. 19 at DePaul, Hanks' second-half goal was the 70th of her career, making her the fourth D-I player to amass 70 goals and 60 assists (others are North Carolina's Mia Hamm, Notre Dame's Jenny Streiffer and UC Santa Barbara's Carin Jennings).

On Sunday against Marquette, Hanks dished out an assist and then converted a penalty kick to break Streiffer's record for career points at Notre Dame and move into 14th place on the Division I career points list (now with 213 points (76G-61A)) -- she passed Streiffer and current U.S. National Team captain Christie (Pearce) Rampone (212 from 1993-96 at Monmouth), with Hanks standing just three points out of the top 10 all-time in that category. Hanks also has tied Seton Hall's Kelly Smith (1997-99) for 23rd place on the NCAA career goals list (76).

The national leader in assists the past two seasons (22 in '06; 21 in '07), Hanks also looks ahead to the historic 70G-70A club, a landmark achievement that only two players (Hamm and Streiffer) in the history of Division I women's soccer have managed to attain (and neither got beyond 72G-72A).

Hanks Sets The Table, Too
Set plays and dead-ball situations now have accounted for 65 (22G-21A) of Kerri Hanks' 213 career points (76G-61A), representing more than 30 percent of her points with the Irish. Her 22 goals have come on penalty kicks (11-for-12, including 4-for-5 this year), free kicks (10), or directly on a corner kick (1), while her 21 assists have been via corner-kick (13) or free-kick (8) services.

Bock Stays A-Head Of The Game
Nearly half (21) of the 43 career goals scored by senior forward/midfielder Brittany Bock have come on headers. That includes eight of her last 11 scores, topped by the gamewinning goal last Sunday against Marquette. Bock also has four rare header assists in her career.

Iantorno Is One Super Sub
Despite starting just once this season, sophomore forward Erica Iantorno leads the Irish with six assists and is third on the team with 12 points (3G-6A). All this for a player who came to Notre Dame last year as a walk-on (after reversing her original decision to attend Missouri) and had four points during her entire freshman season (on four assists).

This year, Iantorno has emerged as Notre Dame "microwave" off the bench, heating up the minute she gets into the game. In fact, less than a minute after subbing into the Penn State game on Sept. 21, the Hinsdale, Ill., native already had chalked up an assist, taking a throw-in, driving to the left endline and whipping a cross into the box that junior forward Michele Weissenhofer buried in the back of the net.

Five days later against Louisville, Iantorno posted a three-point night (1G-1A) less than 10 minutes after coming into the game at the 31-minute mark. First, she delivered a sharp cross at the top of the box that Weissenhofer dummied for freshman midfielder Courtney Barg, who scored her first career goal (33:35). Then, senior defender Elise Weber sent a cross into the box that was misplayed by the Louisville goalkeeper and Iantorno was on the doorstep for the easy finish (40:32).

Our Fearless Leader
Tenth-year Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum reached a career milestone on Sept. 21 at No. 17/16 Penn State. With the 3-1 Irish victory, Waldrum became the eighth active Division I head coach to record 300 career wins -- he now has a record of 304-79-20 (.779) in 19 seasons (including six at Tulsa and three at Baylor).

Game #12 Recap: Marquette
After finding itself trailing for the first time all season, No. 1 Notre Dame made sure that deficit didn't last long, as senior All-America forward/Hermann Trophy candidate Brittany Bock scored twice in a span of 86 seconds to help the Irish race past fellow BIG EAST Conference divisional leader Marquette, 3-1 on Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 1,785 fans at Alumni Field. Bock's fellow All-American and Hermann Trophy candidate, senior forward Kerri Hanks assisted on her linemate's first goal before converting the clinching penalty kick in the 88th minute to become Notre Dame's all-time leader with 213 points (76 goals, 61 assists), passing Jenny Streiffer (211 from 1996-99).

Notre Dame (12-0-0, 5-0-0 BIG EAST National) controlled the run of play for much of the second half and finished with a 32-11 shot advantage, with an 8-6 edge in shots on goal. The Irish also trumped the Golden Eagles with a 10-0 margin on corner kicks, while MU's physical style resulted in a 19-12 spread on fouls.

After not being tested at all in the previous two games, junior goalkeeper Kelsey Lysander had a busy afternoon, stopping a career-high five shots to preserve the victory.

Marquette (7-4-2, 3-1-1 BIG EAST American) saw its five-game unbeaten streak snapped, despite a 60th-minute goal from Danielle Martens. Goalkeeper Natalie Kulla went the distance for the Golden Eagles, making four saves, while the MU defense also was credited with a team save.

You Stay CLASS-y, Notre Dame
Senior All-America forwards (and Hermann Trophy candidates) Kerri Hanks and Brittany Bock are two of the 30 nominees for the 2008 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, which is presented annually to the nation's top senior player based on their dedication and achievement in four areas: Classroom, Character, Community and Competition. Notre Dame is one of five schools with multiple nominees for this year's award, joining BYU, Clemson, Duke and USC.

Both Hanks and Bock have exemplified the term "student-athlete" in their career. After enrolling at Notre Dame in the spring of 2005 (due to playing in the FIFA Under-19 World Championships the previous fall, Hanks worked hard to graduate one semester early (with her Class of '08 teammates), earning her bachelor's degree in sociology this past May.

Bock earned ESPN The Magazine Third-Team Academic All-America status last year while compiling a 3.365 cumulative GPA as a marketing major. She also garnered dean's list honors in the spring 2008 term with a 3.70 GPA, and had a sharp 3.834 GPA this past summer.

A national media committee will select the 10 finalists in October, with the official ballot opened for nationwide fan voting on Oct. 9. That fan balloting, coupled with votes from coaches and media, will determine this year's recipient, who will be announced at the NCAA Women's College Cup Dec. 5-7 in Cary, N.C.

The Magic Number
Scoring three goals has meant virtually an automatic win in Notre Dame women's soccer history, with a 271-3-1 (.987) record in those games, including a 173-1-0 (.994) mark since Oct. 6, 1995. The Irish also are 368-9-15 (.958) when holding the opposition to 0-1 goals.

Most impressively, Notre Dame is 293-0-1 all-time when claiming a 2-0 lead and is unbeaten in its past 270 contests when going ahead 2-0 (dating back to a 3-3 tie with Vanderbilt on Sept. 15, 1991, in Cincinnati). In fact, just one of the past 183 Irish opponents to face a 2-0 deficit have failed to even force a tie, something achieved by three opponents in Notre Dame history: Duke on Oct. 17, 1993, in Houston (Irish won 3-2), Connecticut on Nov. 10, 1996, in the BIG EAST final at Alumni Field (ND led 2-0, later tied 2-2 and 3-3, ND won 4-3), and Duke on Nov. 30, 2007, in the NCAA quarterfinals at Alumni Field (Irish won 3-2).

You Can Put It On The Board
Notre Dame has scored a goal in 37 consecutive games, dating back to a scoreless draw with Michigan to open last season. The current 37-game goal streak is the third-longest in school history, and it's the longest since a 49-game run from Oct. 24, 2004-Oct. 8, 2006. The school record is 55 straight games with a goal from Aug. 29, 1997-Sept. 17, 1999.

A Little Added Face Time
Notre Dame is slated to play on television twice during the 2008 regular season. The Irish made their Big Ten Network debut on Sept. 21, posting a 3-1 win at No. 17/16 Penn State. On Oct. 19, Notre Dame travels to Storrs, Conn., for a BIG EAST matchup with Connecticut which will be shown live on CBS College Sports.

In addition to its commercial TV coverage, Notre Dame enjoys an extensive broadcast footprint on the Internet. All of the Irish regular-season home games are slated to be broadcast live on the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.UND.com), with supplemental live stats information provided by CBS College Sports Online's GameTracker service.

Fans also can follow the Irish on their cell phones by signing up for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system. This free service is available by logging on the women's soccer page at www.UND.com and scrolling down the right-hand sidebar.

Finally, the Notre Dame Sports Hotline (574-631-3000) remains a reliable resource for all the latest Irish athletics information. Regular updates on the Notre Dame women's soccer program can be found by calling the Hotline, then selecting option 4 and pressing "2".

The Golden Girls
Former Notre Dame standouts Kate (Sobrero) Markgraf ('98) and Shannon Boxx ('99) helped the United States successfully defend its Olympic gold medal with a 1-0 overtime win over Brazil in the 2008 title game on Aug. 21 in Beijing, China. Both players started and played all 120 minutes in the final on the way to earning their second consecutive gold medal.

The duo join fencer Mariel Zagunis ('10) as Notre Dame Olympians with multiple gold medals. Markgraf also matches Zagunis' career total of three medals (Markgraf won silver with the USA at the '00 Sydney Games), a standard also equalled by former track & field great Alex Wilson ('32).

Parking Changes
Due to ongoing construction within the Notre Dame Athletics Quad (including the new Irish soccer stadium tentatively set for completion in June 2009), parking for Irish soccer games this year is limited to the Eck Baseball Stadium and Joyce Center lots. Fans may ride the complimentary shuttle bus from the Eck Stadium lot, or walk around the north end of Eck Stadium (behind the left-field wall) before entering at the south end of Alumni Field.

Next Game: Villanova
The Irish close out their weekend BIG EAST road trip Sunday with a 1 p.m. (ET) game at Villanova. Notre Dame leads the all-time series with the Wildcats, 14-1, including a 5-0 win last year at Alumni Field.

Villanova (10-3-0, 3-2-0 BIG EAST) enters this weekend as the only other conference team (besides Notre Dame) with double-digit wins this season. The Wildcats raced to a 7-0 start before stumbling with three consecutive losses at the end of September. Since then, VU has bounced back with three consecutive wins, heading into Friday afternoon's home game with DePaul.

-- ND --