Top-ranked Women's Soccer To Host Boston College
Oct. 11, 2000 NOTRE DAME WOMEN'S SOCCER WEEKLY RELEASE
HOME AND AWAY: The top-ranked Notre Dame women's soccer team (13-0-0) returns to Alumni Field this week for its only home game in a 27-day stretch (Friday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 vs. Boston College) before heading east for an Oct. 15 game at Syracuse ... the Irish wrapped up the BIG EAST Conference Mid-Atlantic Division title last week with wins at Georgetown (8-0) and Villanova (1-0) ... after returning from Syracuse, the Irish will spend a good chunk of fall break back on the east coast for a pair of games (Oct.. 18 at Yale, Oct. 21 at Connecticut) ... ND's only remaining game versus a team currently in the NSCAA top 25 is the UConn game (BC fell out of the poll after losing to Harvard last week).
Notre Dame Women's Soccer Schedule (listings indicate local starting times) Fri., Oct. 13 Boston College (7:30 p.m.) Sun., Oct. 15 at Syracuse (1:00 p.m.) IRISH EQUAL BEST START: Notre Dame's 13-0-0 record has equaled the 1996 squad for the best start in the 13-year history of Notre Dame women's soccer ... that '96 team posted a 66-6 scoring edge through the first 13 games before dropping a 3-1 game at ninth-ranked Santa Clara (just days after the Irish had risen to No. 1 in the polls) ... the '96 team owned five wins over ranked teams during that 13-0 start, including victories over No. 14 Wisconsin (3-1), No. 13 Washington (4-0), No. 4 UConn (2-1), No. 1 UNC (2-1, OT) and No. 18 Stanford (4-0) ... by comparison, the current Irish squad owns a 47-4 scoring edge and has posted three wins over teams that were ranked in the NSCAA poll at game time: No. 2 Santa Clara (6-1), No. 10 Stanford (2-1, OT) and No. 15 Washington (5-0).
PLAYOFF PICTURE: Notre Dame has clinched home field for the BIG EAST quarterfinal round and will face Miami (Fla.) for the second straight season (that game likely will be played on Sunday, Oct. 29) ... Seton Hall (3-2-0) also has clinched a BIG EAST playoff spot from the Mid-Atlantic Division, with Georgetown (2-1-1), Rutgers (2-2-1) and West Virginia (2-3-0) battling for the other two spots ... the four playoff teams from the Northeast Division (in order) will be UConn, BC, Syracuse and Miami ... BC's quarterfinal opponent will be the third-place finisher from the Mid-Atlantic (GU, RU or WVU)-with the winner of that game then facing the ND-Miami winner in the semi-final round (Nov. 3, at ND).
PERFECT MARK: The Irish have concluded Mid-Atlantic Division play with an undefeated record (6-0-0) for the second consecutive season and now own a 52-2-1 (.955) all-time record in BIG EAST regular-season play (including cross-divisional games) ... ND has won its last 17 regular-season games versus BIG EAST opponents, plus six BIG EAST Tournament wins in that span ... ND's only blemishes in BIG EAST regular-season play include a 5-4 overtime loss to Connecticut during the 1995 NCAA Championship season, a 1-1 tie at UConn in '98 and a 3-2 loss two days later at Seton Hall ... since joining the BIG EAST in 1995, the Irish own a 65-3-1 record (.949) in all games versus BIG EAST opponents (including a 2-0 win over UConn in the 1995 NCAA quarterfinals and a 2-1 loss to UConn in the '97 NCAA semfinals).
TOP TWO TEAMS: Notre Dame and Nebraska-which sit 1-2 in the national polls and join Brown as the nation's only remaining unbeaten teams-also are the nation's only teams currently ranked in the top 10 for scoring offense and team goals-against average ... ND's 3.62 goals per game ranks 5th while Nebraska is 2nd at 4.43 (others in the top five include North Carolina's 5.00, Furman's 4.33 and Jacksonville's 4.21) ... the nation's top four teams in regards to GAA are Brown (.109), Hartford (.273), Nebraska (.286) and ND (.302).
STAT LEADERS: Notre Dame senior M Anne Makinen entered the week ranked 18th in the nation for points per game (2.38) and 8th in assists/gm (0.85) ... junior Liz Wagner enters the weekend with the nation's 3rd-best goals-against average (0.35), behind Brown's Mary Jo Markle (0.00) and Nebraska's Karina LeBlanc (0.32) ... four ND players are ranked among the BIG EAST's top-12 scorers: Makinen (1st), senior F Meotis Erikson (6th, 8G-4A) and freshman Fs Amy Warner (9th, 8G-4A) and Amanda Guertin (12th, 7G-1A) ... ND leads the BIG EAST in goals (47), GAA (0.30) and shutouts (9).
MIDSEASON CHECKUP: With 13 games in the books (the Irish could play as many as 26 games this season), Notre Dame is on pace to challenge several team records ... ND has allowed just four goals (the team record is nine, in '97) while the 0.30 team goals-against average is below the record of 0.36 (also set in '97) ... ND's other projected 26-game totals include 720 shots (record 766 in 1997) and 118 shots allowed (record 101 in '97) ... the Irish have posted nine shutouts and could make a run at the record (18, in '95) while ND is looking to score in every game for the third time in the last four seasons (also in '97 and '98) ... ND has tied the team record for best start (13-0-0, also in '96) and owns the third-longest single-season winning streak in Irish history, behind a 17-game winning streak in '97 and a 14-game streak in '94 ... ND also has won 17 straight regular-season games (the team record is 18, from '95-'96) ... on the individual side, Anne Makinen's record for shots in a season (106, in '98) could be bested this season by either Makinen (on pace for 124 over 26 games) of Meotis Erikson (on pace for 112) ... Makinen already owns five game-winning goals this season (Rosella Guerrero's eight in '94 are the ND record) while Erikson (11) and Makinen (10) have an outside shot at Jenny Heft's Irish record for career GWGs (19, '96-'99) ...
IRISH LOOK TO BOOST ACCURACY: Notre Dame will be looking to improve its shooting percentage during the second half of the season, as the Irish are scoring at a clip of every 7.7 shots in 2000 ... that figure is highest in ND history, up slightly from the '98 (6.8) and '99 (6.1) campaigns ... the best shot-to-goal ratio in ND history was 4.40 (in '96) ... the 2000 Irish are averaging 27.7 shots per game, which ranks ahead of every previous ND season except 1997 (30.9) ... seniors Anne Makinen (62 shots) and Meotis Erikson (56) have taken the bulk of ND's shot this season (they have combined to average more than seven shots per game) ... the top shooting percentages among ND regulars include junior F Kelly Tulisiak (4 G on 12 shots, 3.0 shots/goal) and freshman Fs Amy Warner (7 on 37, 5.3) and Amanda Guertin (7 on 42, 6.0).
SHUTOUT STREAK: ND's current team goals-against average (0.30) is on pace to best the team record (0.36) set in '97, when the Irish allowed just five goals in the regular season and nine overall ... junior G Liz Wagner (Spring, Texas) and the Irish defenders have allowed just one goal (on a penalty kick at West Virginia) in the last 768 minutes of action, stretching back to Stanford's goal in the 80th minute on Sept. 10 ... the Irish have allowed just 11 shots (five on goal) and three corner kicks during the current five-game shutout streak (483:10), which is three shy of the ND record (8) set in 1995 (four other ND teams have posted six straight shutouts) ... Wagner and the Irish allowed just one goal in each game of the KeyBank Classic, vs. two of the nation's top teams (Santa Clara, Stanford), before posting a pair of shutouts in the Portland adidas Invitational (vs. current #4 Washington and current #17 Portland), the 2-1 win at WVU and the five straight shutouts vs. Pittsburgh (1-0), Seton Hall (6-0), Rutgers (2-0), Georgetown (8-0) and Villanova (1-0).
THREE MORE BIG EAST AWARDS: Notre Dame continues to rack up the BIG EAST Conference weekly awards, as the Irish produced three award winners for the second straight week following the wins over Georgetown and Villanova: senior F Meotis Erikson (offensive player of the week), sophomore Vanessa Pruzinsky (defensive player of the week) and freshman F Amanda Guertin (rookie of the week) ... Erikson (Kennewick, Wash.) posted her third career hat trick (first since '97) in the 8-0 win at GU, scoring in a variety of ways while needing just four shots to accumulate the three goals ... Pruzinsky (Trumbull, Conn.) played a leading role for the strong ND defense that allowed just four shots (two on goal) in each game of the weekend (plus just one corner kick) ... Guertin (Grapevine, Texas) scored twice in win at GU as the Irish coped with the absence of her injured classmate Amy Warner .. she became the first ND player other than Warner, Erikson or Anne Makinen to score the first goal of a game this season-doing so in unassisted fashion, after picking off a GU pass and firing in a tough shot from long range.
RACKING UP THE HONORS: During the past six weeks, Notre Dame has amassed 13 of 22 weekly BIG EAST awards for offensive player, defensive player and rookie (UConn is next with three, followed by BC and Georgetown with two each) ... due to the strong play in front of her, Irish junior Liz Wagner has been nominated just twice for BIG EAST goalkeeper of the week-when she totaled seven saves in the wins over Santa Clara and Stanford and when she totaled six saves in wins over Washington and Portland (Wagner has faced just 13 shots on goal over the course of ND's other nine games) ... the Irish have produced back-to-back BIG EAST offensive players of the week (senior M Anne Makinen earned the honor last week) while ND players have collected six straight BIG EAST defensive player-of-the-week awards (including three by Kelly Lindsey and one by fellow senior Kerri Bakker, plus two by Vanessa Pruzinsky) ... Amanda Guertin is the third Irish freshman to be honored by the BIG EAST in as many weeks, following in the footsteps of fellow F Amy Warner (a three-time honoree) and M Randi Scheller.
SCOUTING THE IRISH: Notre Dame returns 16 of 22 letterwinners but lost five starters from its '99 team that went 21-4-1 and advanced to the NCAA title game ... senior M and leading national player-of-the-year candidate Anne Makinen (10G-11A) has scored or assisted on nearly half of ND's goals this season (21 of 47) while other top scorers include freshman forwards Amy Warner (7G-4A) and Amanda Guertin (7G-1A) and senior F Meotis Erikson (8G-4A) ... junior Elizabeth Wagner has played most of the minutes in the nets, with 24 saves and four goals allowed (one on a PK).
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: Information on Boston College can be found at www.bceagles.com while Syracuse information is located at www.suathletics.com
MOTORING: Senior F Meotis Erikson scored three goals in last week's win at Georgetown, becoming the 11th Irish player to post three-plus hat tricks in her career (senior M Anne Makinen also owns three career HTs) ... Erikson previously had registered three goals twice in a five-game span during late October of the 1997 season ... just four previous ND players have turned in four-plus hat tricks: Jenny Heft (6, '96-'99), Rosella Guerrero (5, '92-'95), Michelle McCarthy (4, '92-'95) and Monica Gerardo (4, '95-'98) ... Erikson's hat trick is the 49th in ND history and the 25th during the last five seasons (freshman Amy Warner had 3G vs. Providence on Sept. 3) ... Erikson's six-point game versus GU gives her 145 points for her career (54G-37A), moving into eighth on the ND all-time scoring list (she also ranks seventh in career goals and 11th in assists).
INJURY REPORT: ND freshman F Amy Warner (Albuquerque, N.M.) is out indefinitely with a leg injury suffered in the Sept. 29 game vs. Seton Hall (she has missed the last three games) ... senior central defender and second-year team captain Kelly Lindsey was injured late in the first half at Villanova on Oct. 8 (her status has yet to be determined) ... Warner's spot in the starting lineup is being filled by sophomore Ali Lovelace, who had 1G-1A in last week's 8-0 win at Georgetown ... the Irish have developed significant depth on the back line in recent weeks, with four players-Lindsey and fellow senior Kerri Bakker, plus sophomores Vanessa Pruzinsky and Nancy Mikacenic-capable of playing in the central positions while Pruzinsky, junior Lindsey Jones and senior Monica Gonzalez have seen significant time on the flanks.
PLAYING WITH THE LEAD: Notre Dame has yet to trail this season while holding the lead for nearly 70 percent of the minutes played ... just three teams have managed to forge a tie versus the Irish this season: Providence, Stanford and West Virginia.
BIG-GAME PERFORMER: Despite facing just 28 shots on goal all season, junior Liz Wagner has made several big plays vs. ranked opponents ... in the 6-1 win over then-No. 2 Santa Clara, Wagner made seven big saves, including an early breakaway and a diving stop in the second half ... she finished the KeyBank Classic (which included a 2-1 OT win over Stanford) with 10 saves, as the backstop to a defense that allowed just 16 shots ... Wagner then made six saves at the Portland Invitational but turned in several other big plays in both games (she thwarted two early scoring chances by current No. 4 Washington before holding off current 17th-ranked Portland's late charge) ... Wagner is in the midst of her first season as a starter while facing the challenge of replacing All-American Lakeysia Beene and losing two starting defenders from the '99 team (including four-time All-American Jen Grubb).
50-50 PROPOSITION: Senior M Anne Makinen (Helsinki, Finland) scored on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 vs. Seton Hall and Rutgers, giving her 60 career goals to move past '96 graduate Michelle McCarthy (59) into 5th on the ND all-time list (she then scored last week at Georgetown to move into a tie on the ND goalscoring list with 97 grad. Cindy Daws) ... Makinen was stuck on 49 career assists since Sept. 17 before assisting on all three Meotis Erikson goals in the 8-0 win at GU-becoming the 13th player in Division I history, and the third ND player, to eclipse the 50-goals-50-assists plateau (she entered 2000 as the nation's only active 40-40 player) ... Jenny Streiffer (70G-71A, '96-'99) and Daws (61G-67A) are the only previous ND players to reach 50-50 ... Makinen also has a good shot at reaching 60-60, needing 8A to become the sixth Division I player to earn that distinction ... current members of the 60-60 club include Streiffer, Daws, Carin Jennings (102G-60A, UC Santa Barbara, '83-'86), Mia Hamm (103G-72A, North Carolina, '89-'93) and Mandy Clemens (67G-65A, Santa Clara, '96-'99) ... nine more goals and 18 more assists would place Makinen alongside Streiffer and Hamm in the very exclusive 70-70 club.
ANNE'S ARSENAL: Anne Makinen reached 10 points in three games this season and 20 (6G-8A) through seven games, despite being marked heavily as ND's top returning offensive weapon (she now has 31 points, 10G-11A, in 13 games) ... Makinen's start factors out to 62 points over the course of 26 games, with just three previous ND players topping 60 points in a season ('96 saw Cindy Daws record 72 and Jenny Streiffer 66, while Jenny Heft had 61 in '98) ... Makinen heads into this week's action with a career average of 2.20 points/gm (174 points in 79 games) ... her 52 career assists rank 6th on the ND career list, one behind Jen Grubb ('00) ... Makinen's 174 career points also are 6th in ND history, just two back of Holly Manthei's career total from '94-'97 ... Makinen needs to total 48 points this season-she needs 17 more-to pass Gerardo into 2nd on the ND all-time scoring list (Makinen would need a 69-point season-or 38 more points-to surpass ND's all-time leading scorer, Streiffer).
MAKIN' WAVES: Anne Makinen-who has points in 10 of 13 games this season-has been the focal point of the Irish offense this season, as the three-year All-American has scored or assisted on nearly half of ND's goals (21 of 47), including five game-winning goals and three primary game-winning assists (her outlet pass also sprung Amy Warner for the cross that led to the game-ending own goal versus Stanford while her bending corner kick led to the own goal in the 1-0 game at Villanova) ... with her team struggling to cash in its chances vs. Tulsa on Sept. 1, Makinen took over in the lategoing by scoring a pair of goals for a 2-0 win ... two days later, in the 5-1 win over Providence, her play from her central midfield spot helped the Irish eclipse 30 shots for the third straight game ... her pass into the middle set up Amy Warner's second goal of the PC game and Makinen added a long cross late in that game that Warner half-volleyed to complete her hat trick ... Makinen had 1G-2A in the 6-1 win over No. 2 Santa Clara before setting up the game-ending sequence versus Stanford ... at the Portland Invitational, Makinen's long cross set up Ali Lovelace's goal for a 2-0 lead on Washington and Makinen added a rebound goal and PK goal in that 5-0 game ... the next day, her cross from the right set up Meotis Erikson's goal in the 1-0 win over Portland ... most recently, Makinen's rocket shot from the top of the box held up as the only score in a 1-0 game with Pittsburgh before she opened the scoring to ignite the 6-0 win over Seton Hall and converted a second-half PK to give ND the lead in the 2-0 game with Rutgers.
ROAD STRETCH: Notre Dame is in the midst of playing six of its final seven regular-season games away from home, with the lone home game in that stretch being the Oct. 13 matchup with Boston College ... despite the six road games in October, the Irish then potentially could spend most of the postseason playing at Alumni Field (the BIG EAST semifinals and final will be played at Notre Dame, on Nov. 3 and 5)-with as many as six straight postseason games in the home confines.
IRISH REMAIN NO. 1: Notre Dame has returned to the top of the national polls for the first time since 1996, following a pair of quality wins on Sept. 16-17 over current No. 4 Washington (5-0) and current No. 17 Portland (1-0), .coupled with North Carolina's 2-1 loss earlier that week at upstart Clemson ... North Carolina (now 11-1-0) dropped out of the top spot and currently is ranked third in the National Soccer Coaches Association of American (NSCAA) poll ... the Irish are ranked first in the NSCAA poll and various other polls conducted by soccer-specific publications and websites, including the long-running poll compiled by the editors of Soccer America magazine, the SoccerTimes.com national coaches poll and the American Soccer Writers media poll (coordinated by collegesoccerdaily.com).
BIG GAPS: Notre Dame continues to add to its dominating statistical edges, including: 47-4 in scoring, 360-59 in shots ( avg. 28-5), 210-31 in shots on goal (avg. 16-2) and 98-24 in corner kicks (avg. 8-2) ...the Irish have held six teams to 0-2 shots and have allowed more than eight shots just twice (10 by Santa Clara, 11 by Portland) ... ND has allowed 0-2 shots on goal in nine games (none in two) while SCU (7) is the only team to uncork more than four shots on goal vs. the Irish this season ... 12 of the 13 ND opponents have been limited to 0-3 corner kicks (Portland had 7).
WALDRUM WORKING WONDERS: Second-year Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum has seen his Irish teams post an impressive 34-4-1 combined record (.885), including a solid 9-3-1 mark versus NSCAA top-25 teams and a 1999 season that ended in the NCAA Championship title game ... Waldrum in '99 became the only coach in the 18-year history of the NCAA women's soccer championship to lead a team to the title game in his first season as that team's head coach ... he was the fourth first-year coach to take his team to the NCAA semi-finals, with the Irish beating top-ranked and previously unbeaten Santa Clara in their backyard of San Jose, Calif. ... Waldrum's 19-year record as a college head coach (with both men's and women's teams) is 217-109-20 (.656) ... he owns a 141-54-13 (.709) record in 10-plus seasons as a Division I women's coach, including 61-36-9 in six years at Tulsa (.580) and 46-14-3 in three seasons at Baylor ... Waldrum ranks 15th among active women's coaches for career winning percentage (he ranks 26th on the total wins list).
BREAKING THE SEAL: Three different Notre Dame players-senior M Anne Makinen, senior F Meotis Erikson and freshman F Amy Warner-each scored the first goal of the game three-plus times in the first 11 games before freshman F Amanda Guertin joined that group with the first goal in last week's 8-0 win at Georgetown ... Makinen recently opened the scoring in three consecutive games (vs. Pittsburgh, Seton Hall and Rutgers), after earlier scoring the first goal versus Detroit and Tulsa ... Erikson scored first vs. Santa Clara, Washington and Portland while Warner broke the ice vs. Providence, Stanford and West Virginia.
ANOTHER TYPE OF SHUTOUT: In the season-opening win over Detroit (6-1), the Titans nearly scored the game's first goal during an early flurry but ND responded by holding the Titans without a shot for the final 83 minutes ... the final shot margin (49-2) ranks as one of the largest in ND history (the team record for shots in a game is 59) ... the Irish gave up an early shot (not on goal) by Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 before holding the Panthers without a shot in the final 76 minutes ... one week later, ND allowed Seton Hall just one shot (off goal) in the final 86 minutes of that game before holding Rutgers without a shot of any kind ... the RU game marked the 13th time in ND history-and sixth time in the last six seasons-that the Irish have held the opponent without a shot.
HOMESTANDERS: Notre Dame's home record in 10-plus seasons at Alumni Field is 111-7-1 (.937), including an 87-3-1 mark in the last 91 games-highlighted by a 27-game winning streak from 1992-95 (the fifth-longest home winning streak in NCAA women's soccer history) ... ND's last three home losses have been at the hands of fifth-ranked Connecticut in '95 (5-4, OT), sixth-ranked Portland in the '98 NCAA quarterfinals (2-1) and top-rated North Carolina in the '99 opener (3-2, OT) ...the Irish currently carry a 19-game home winning streak ... ND's all-time record at Alumni Field vs. teams not ranked in the NSCAA poll is 76-1-0 (35-6-1 vs. ranked teams), with 69 straight home wins over unranked teams dating back to a 1990 loss to Creighton (2-0) ... ND played at Moose Krause Field in the program's first two seasons ('88 and '89) , with a home record of 19-5-1 during that span (all vs. unranked teams).
NO. 1 HISTORY: The previous year in which Notre Dame sat atop the NSCAA poll during the regular season was 1996, when the Irish owned the top spot for the final two months of the season (a 2-1 win over UNC on Oct. 4 of that year, followed by a 2-0 win over Duke, bumped the Irish up from the No. 2 spot) ... Notre Dame also spent the final month of the 1994 season as the No. 1-ranked team, thanks to an earlier 0-0 tie with UNC and the Tar Heels' loss to Duke in early October.
RISING TO THE TOP: Notre Dame is one of three undefeated and untied teams left in all of Division I women's soccer (spanning 274 teams), with the others including second-ranked Clemson and Brown ... ND's strength of schedule has improved since the start of the 2000 season, as Portland (17th), Washington (4th), Boston College and Michigan (both not currently ranked) each have entered the NSCAA poll in recent weeks ... other 2000 Irish opponents currently ranked in the NSCAA poll include No. 20 Stanford, 11th-ranked Santa Clara ad No. 18 Connecticut.
BULLSEYE ON THEIR BACKS: The Irish own a 26-3-0 record (15-1-0 in the regular season) when playing as the top-ranked team in the NSCAA poll ... ND's losses as the No. 1 team have come at Santa Clara in the 1996 regular season (3-1) and in a pair of NCAA title games vs. UNC (5-0 in '94, 1-0 in '96).
GEORGETOWN RECAP(8-0, Oct. 6): Meotis Erikson registered the third hat
trick of her career while Anne Makinen had a hand in four goals at Harbin
Field ... Georgetown fell to 0-6-0 all-time vs. the Irish, with ND scoring
8-10 goals in each of those shutout wins ... ND set season highs for goals
in a game and in a half (six). while the eight goals were most for the
Irish in 21 games, since a 9-2 win at Wisconsin on Oct. 27, 1999 ...
Makinen scored her team-leading 10th goal of the season early in the second
half while assisting on all three of Erikson's scores ... Amanda Guertin
added a pair of goals for the Irish, who capped the scoring with the first
goal of the season from Kim Carpenter and the third from Ali Lovelace ...
ND again held a dominating shot edge (26-4) ... Guertin cashed in a
turnover to open the scoring in the 10th minute ... less than two minutes
later, Erikson headed home a Makinen free kick ... early in the second
half, Lindsey Jones fed Makinen, who dribbled past G Emily Main for the
easy score ... 10 minutes later, Erikson took a rightside feed from
Makinen, spun and placed a shot into the net for a 4-0 cushion ... Erikson
completed her hat trick moments later, knocking in another cross from
Makinen ... Nancy Mikacenic later brought the ball up the middle and passed
through a seam, with Guertin running onto the ball and beating Main for a
6-0 lead ... Lovelace broke free in the 80th minute but her shot was
deflected by backup G Alexis George, with Carpenter knocking home the
spinning ball ... in the closing moments, Ashley Dryer played a pass to
Lovelace, who used her speed to dribble the ball from 35 yards out before
scoring for the final margin. #1 NOTRE DAME (12-0-0) 2 6 - 8 GEORGETOWN (6-5-2) 0 0 - 0 ND 1. Amanda Guertin 6 (-) 9:49, ND 2. Meotis Erikson 6 (Anne Makinen) 11:45, ND 3. Makinen 10 (Lindsey Jones) 53:35, ND 4. Erikson 7 (Makinen) 64:01, ND 5. Erikson 8 (Makinen) 69:04, ND 6. Guertin 7 (Nancy Mikacenic) 72:38, ND 7. Kim Carpenter 1 (Ali Lovelace) 79:23, ND 8. Lovelace 3 (-) 87:24. SHOTS: GU 4, ND 26.
VILLANOVA RECAP (1-0, Oct. 8): ND tied a team record for the best start to
a season (13-0-0) but it didn't come without some anxious moments, with a
corner kick leading to an own goal with 10 minutes left to play ... VU
resorted to an extreme defensive strategy that often included 10 players
packed into the defensive third, with ND owning a 22-4 shot edge ... Anne
Makinen nearly scored on a leftside corner kick in the 80th minute, bending
the corner kick over G Janel Schillig, with the ball angling toward the far
side of the net ... VU's Colleen Keneally was guarding the far post and
tried to sweep the ball off the goal line but shanked her rightfooted kick
into the net ... ND was forced to play the entire second half without
senior defender and two-year team captain Kelly Lindsey, who was injured
late in the first half. #1 NOTRE DAME (13-0-0) 0 1 - 1 VILLANOVA (7-7-0) 0 0 - 0 ND 1. Own goal (79:59). Shots: ND 22, VU 4. RUGGED STRETCH: The Sept. 17 game at Portland completed a challenging stretch in which the Irish posted three consecutive wins over ranked opponents (then-#2 Santa Clara, then-#10 Stanford and #15 Washington), followed by the win over a Portland team that entered the NSCAA poll the next week at #14 ... the last time ND played three straight NSCAA ranked opponents was during the 1995 NCAA championship run ... early in that `95 season, ND posted successive wins over #13 Wisconsin, #19 Michigan State and #3 Stanford ... later in `95, a rugged four-game stretch in the regular season yielded a 5-4 loss to #5 UConn, a 1-0 win over #6 SCU, a 2-2 tie with #11 Duke and a 2-0 loss to top-ranked North Carolina.
BRONCO BUSTERS: Notre Dame's 6-1 win over Santa Clara marked: SCU's first consecutive losses since Sept. of 1994 (vs. LMU, Stanford and UNC), the first time SCU was outshot (23-10) in 19 games, and the most goals by an SCU opponent in 20 seasons-dating back to an 8-0 loss to UC Davis in '80 (the last team to reach five goals vs. SCU was UNC, in '91) ... ND also became the first team to post more than 20 shots vs. Santa Clara since Washington did it in '94 (23-18, in a 2-2 game).
SANTA CLARA'S JERRY SMITH ON ANNE MAKINEN: "Anne Makinen is the best player in college soccer. She is a great international player, let alone a great college player. The international game is a much tougher game to be good than the college level. ... I have such a high opinion of (Anne) that she would have to play just awesome for me to be kind of surprised. We talked about it in our team meeting. We just don't have enough players that can kind of corral her."
FILLING THE VOID: Notre Dame entered the season searching for answers at several positions, after losing five starters from the 1999 NCAA runner-up squad ... senior Kerri Bakker (Washington, N.J.) has settled into the open central defender spot ... sophomore Ali Lovelace (Dallas, Ga.) and a pair of freshmen-Amy Warner (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Amanda Guertin (Albuquerque, N.M.)-have shared time starting at the two open forward spots ... other newcomers to the starting lineup have included junior defender Lindsey Jones (South Bend, Ind.)-who started 17 games as a freshman midfielder and has taken the spot held by 2000 grad. Kara Brown-and junior midfielder Mia Sarkesian (Canton, Mich.), who shared starting time with current sophomore Nancy Mikacenic (Seattle, Wash.) in the '99 season ... junior goalkeeper Elizabeth Wagner (Spring, Texas) has started all 13 games this season but many of those games have been fairly uneventful for her (she has 24 saves for the season, or 1.9 per game).
CORNER KICKERS: Despite being one of Notre Dame's most dangerous players in the penalty box area, senior M Anne Makinen has taken many of ND's corner kicks this season and is considered the team's top option for that role due to her strong leg and pinpoint accuracy ... senior F Meotis Erikson and freshman F Amanda Guertin also have been used recently on CKs ... Erikson set up an Irish goal versus PC with one of those set plays, as did Makinen in the Detroit game ... Makinen's late corner in last week's game at Villanova was bending into the goal before being kicked into the net by a VU player, for the game's only goal.
NEW FACES IN THE NETS: Three-year starter and Notre Dame career
goals-against average leader (0.63) LaKeysia Beene has moved on to the
coaching ranks as a current Irish graduate assistant, leaving the
goalkeeping position open to three capable players ... junior Liz Wagner
made her first career start in the Detroit game (she has started all 13
games this season) while sophomore Sani Post has played in the second half
vs. Providence, Santa Clara and Seton Hall ... freshman Lauren Kent (Laguna
Nigel, Calif.) showed surprising development during the Brazil trip and has
appeared in the lategoing vs. Detroit, Rutgers and Georgetown ... due to
the strong play in front of them, Post (118:19 played) and Kent (57:07)
have yet to face a shot on goal.
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