Oct. 12, 2003
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The second-ranked Notre Dame women’s soccer team continued to receive balanced offensive contributions while posting its sixth straight shutout in Sunday’s afternoon BIG EAST cross-divisional win over Miami at Alumni Field, with the Irish defeating the Hurricanes 3-0 to push their season scoring edge to 55-5.
Notre Dame (14-0-1) and top-ranked North Carolina now are the only unbeaten teams remaining among 245 Division I women’s soccer programs, with the Irish also ranking second in the nation for both scoring (3.67 goals per game, behind Oklahoma State’s 3.86) and goals-against average (team-record pace of 0.33, behind UNC’s 0.28).
The six straight shutouts tie for the second-longest shutout streak in the program’s history, with the 1995 NCAA championship team going eight consecutive games without a goal allowed. The current shutout streak covers 584 minutes, just one game and a half shy of the 1995 team’s record of 726 consecutive shutout minutes.
The shutout streak includes an 18-0 scoring edge, with the Irish owning a 26-1 scoring margin over the last seven games (plus a 155-22 total shot edge/86-9 in shots on goal during that stretch).
The only team in the program’s storied history to allow fewer goals in the first 15 games is the record-setting 1997 Irish squad that owned an 80-4 scoring edge at the 15-game mark before allowing a fifth goal in a 7-1 win over Seton Hall.
The Irish completed a rugged stretch of six games in 13 days and now have four days off from competition before the annual showdown with BIG EAST rival and 10th-ranked Connecticut on Friday night (Oct. 17), the final game in a rare eight-game homestand.
Miami (8-6-0) recently had posted a 3-1 win over BIG EAST Northeast Division favorite UConn but the Hurricanes on Sunday continued a long trend of conference foes that have lost to the Irish at Alumni Field, with Notre Dame now owning a 48-game BIG EAST home winning streak that dates back to 1995.
Sophomore goalkeeper Erika Bohn extended her personal shutout streak to 609 minutes and now leads the nation with a 0.29 goals-against average (on pace to best LaKeysia Beene’s team-record 0.37 in ’97). Since yielding a 25th-minute goal by Oklahoma in the fourth game of the season, Bohn has allowed just one goal in the last 11 games, spanning 984 minutes in net (backup Nikki Westfall allowed a North Texas goal during that stretch). Bohn’s last 25 starts with the Irish include a 23-1-1 record and just 10 goals allowed.
Notre Dame’s string of holding the opponent to 0-1 shots on goal was snapped on a harmless 30-yard lob into the box in the closing moments, with Miami totaling just two shots on goal. The Irish finished with a 17-4 overall shot advantage and held a 7-2 edge in corner kicks.
Freshman central back Christie Shaner picked up her first point of the season on a rightside corner kick in the 21st minute, with sophomore forward Katie Thorlakson then redirecting the ball on a near-post flick before junior forward Mary Boland scored on a leftside header for her team-leading 11th goal of the season (20:37).
Senior central back Melissa Tancredi – who continues to look like the runaway BIG EAST defensive player of the year and a lock for All-America honors – won all six of her heading duels (she was 16-for-16 in three games this week) while setting up the second Irish goal with a long thru-ball from the defensive third. Thorlakson executed a “dummy” fake on the pass and the ball carried into the attacking third, with senior forward Amanda Guertin running onto the ball and getting ‘keeper Alex Alford to commit before burying a 12-yard crossing shot into the left side of the net (51:47). The goal was Guertin’s ninth of her season and the 46th of her career, just four shy of becoming the ninth Irish player ever to reach the 50-goal milestone.
Thorlakson played a key role in all three goals, capping the scoring with her fifth goal of the season. Freshman midfielder Jill Krivacek picked up her second assist of the weekend on a shot from the top of the box, with Thorlakson banging home the rebound on the right side for the 3-0 final (56:25).
NOTE UPDATES: The current 584-minute shutout streak ranks 5th in ND history, behind 726 minutes in 1995 (8 shutouts) and three stretches that included six shutouts: 652 in ’97, 627 in ’89 and 599 in another ’95 stretch … Bohn’s personal shutout streak of 609 minutes leaves her within range of the top two marks in the ND record book, by Liz Wagner in 2000 (701; 15th in NCAA record book) and LaKeysia Beene in ’97 (652; 17th ND history) … Boland registered her team-leading 4th game-winning goal of the season and has opened the scoring three times in ’03 … the Irish are 104-3-1 all-time at Alumni Field vs. unranked teams and 147-12-2 in all games at Alumni Field (125-8-2 in the last 135) … ND is 101-1-0 in its last 102 games when scoring 3-plus goals (197-3-1 all-time) … the Irish now own a 27-3 first-half scoring edge (compared to just 12-10 in ’02) … Guertin pushed her career point total to 119 (12th in ND history), just seven behind Alison Lester (’94) and 16 behind U.S. World Cup team midfielder Shannon Boxx (’99) … ND has held its opponents to 0-1 goals in the last 20 fall games, good for the 2nd-longest streak of not allowing multiple goals in the program’s history and also the 2nd-best start without allowing multiple goals (the 2000 team went 24 goals before allowing UNC to score twice in the NCAA semifinals) … ND now is 8-0 this season when playing two days after a previous game (25-2 scoring edge), after going just 4-5 (18-16 scoring edge) in 2002 regular-season “bounceback” games … senior F Amy Warner made her 56th consecutive start while fifth-year D Vanessa Pruzinsky logged her 86th career game and 84th start … the Irish still have trailed only once all season (no deficit in the last 12 games), for just 7:18 in the third game vs. Arizona State (the Irish have led 73% of the minutes and trailed just 0.5%) … ND has allowed just 20 first-half goals in the last three seasons (57 games) … the Irish remain on pace to join the 1994, ’97 and ’00 teams for best undefeated start in the program’s history (each of those teams started 23-0-1) … the Irish have allowed just 32 shots on goal all season (16 in the last 12 games) … the efficient ND offense is averaging one goal every 5.5 total shots and every 3.0 shots on goal … just 11 players in the nation entered the week with more goals than Boland’s current total of 11 … since allowing a 26th-minute goal by Oklahoma, ND’s last 11-plus games (spanning 1,085 minutes) have included just two goals allowed, 46 opponent shots (15 on goal) and 23 corner kicks, for 90-minute averages during that stretch of 0.17 goals, 3.8 shots, 1.2 shots on goal and 1.9 corners … senior M Kimberly Carpenter saw her career-best point streak end at six games … freshman F and North Lauderdale, Fla., native Becky Tweneboah saw some qualities minutes in both the first and second half … Boxx recently was one of 16 players named to the All-World Cup team.
MIAMI (8-6-0) 0 0 – 0
#2 NOTRE DAME (14-0-1) 1 2 – 3
ND 1. Mary Boland 11 (Katie Thorlakson, Christie Shaner) 20:37; ND 2. Amanda Guertin 9 (Melissa Tancredi); ND 3. Thorlakson 5 (Jill Krivacek) 56:25.
Shots: MIA 1-3 – 4, ND 8-9 – 17.
Corner Kicks: MIA 0-2 – 2, ND 2-5 – 7.
Saves: MIA 4 (Alex Alford), ND 2 (Erika Bohn).
Fouls: MIA 12, ND 7.
Offsides: MIA 0, ND 5.
Yellow Card: Ashley Durkee (MIA) 34:53.