Sept. 24, 2006
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Defenders Carrie Dew and Ashley Jones both scored their first goals of the season while helping the top-ranked Notre Dame women’s soccer team post its fifth straight shutout, as the Irish resumed their 10-year dominance at home with Sunday’s 2-0 victory that handed Louisville its first loss of the season. Notre Dame (9-0-0) extended the team record for home unbeaten streak to 32 games (31-0-1, spanning all of the 2004-06 seasons), good for a share of fourth place in the NCAA Division I record book. It has been nearly 10 years since a BIG EAST Conference opponent beat Notre Dame at Alumni Field, a stretch of 67 games (66-0-1) that dates back to the middle of the 1995 season. The Irish also extended the second-longest scoring streak in the program’s history to 45 games and now own a 30-2 overall scoring margin for the 2006 season, including 22-0 in the second half.
Michele Weissenhofer’s dangerous flip-throw produced several solid scoring chances, with the freshman sensation also picking up her nation-leading 11th assist of the season on a free-kick service (photo by Matt Cashore).
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Louisville (6-1-1) – which joined Notre Dame in having its previous game (at DePaul, on Sept. 22) called off due to lightning – packed its formation back in an attempt to slow down the Irish attack and the game remained scoreless until the 74th minute. The “Dew-Jones Report” then cashed in their chances, as the former southern California club teammates scored within a seven-minute stretch to produce the 2-0 final.
Notre Dame owned a 16-4 edge in total shots and 10-0 in shots on goal during Sunday’s action, as junior goalkeeper Lauren Karas did not have to make a save in the game. The Irish now have scored 17 unanswered goals during the current 528-minute shutout streak, since facing an early 1-0 deficit in the Sept. 3 showdown with Santa Clara. The Irish have won 23 straight games at Alumni Field, since a scoreless tie with Rutgers late in the 2004 regular season.
Louisville goalkeeper Joanna Haig – a transfer from Iowa State who played during the past eight months alongside Dew and ND midfielder Brittany Bock, with the U.S. Under-20 National Team – kept the visitors in the game by making eight saves. The Irish had several strong scoring chances in the opening half and racked up multiple threats throughout the game on deep throw-ins from freshman Michele Weissenhofer.
Notre Dame’s perfect start – the sixth time that the Irish have opened 9-0-0 – is all the more noteworthy when considering the team’s first-half scoring struggles. Since scoring six first-half goals in the opener versus Iowa State, Notre Dame has totaled just two first-half goals in the past eight games (which have included two halftime deficits and four games that were 0-0 at the break). In addition to not allowing a second-half goal this season, the Irish have limited their nine opponents to 29 combined shots, 13 shots on goal and 18 corner kicks in the second half this season.
The win is the 150th for Notre Dame in seven-plus seasons under the direction of head coach Randy Waldrum, whose Irish teams now have combined to win nearly 86-percent of their games (150-23-5; .857). The current senior class still has yet to be outshot in a game during their careers, going 76-7-2 (.906, from ’03-’06) for the second-best four-year win pct. in the 19-year history of Notre Dame women’s soccer (the 1994-97 teams went 91-6-4/.921). North Carolina (80-3-3) is the only team in the country with a senior class that has won more games during the past four seasons.
Randy Waldrum’s first eight Notre Dame teams now have combined to win 150 games, with just 23 losses and five ties.
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Notre Dame does own the nation’s best victory total over the past three seasons (56-4-1, starting with the 25-1-1 mark by the 2004 national champs), as Jones and the other members of the junior class – namely Karas and forward Amanda Cinalli – have yet to experience a loss at home during their college careers (31-0-1). The junior class currently owns a .926 career win pct., putting them on pace to break the class of 1998’s record (.921).
Weissenhofer picked up her nation-leading 11th assist of the season on the first goal, after a free-kick service from 30 yards out (roughly 10 yards from the right corner-kick flag). Haig punched the cross near the far side of the goal but Dew showed her tremendous athleticism by quickly turning on the ball and ripping her 16-yard shot into the far-right sidenetting (73:50). It was the fourth career goal for the sophomore center back.
Senior midfielder Jill Krivacek set up the second goal with an entry pass into the top of the box. Cinalli received the ball and turned into the penalty area before being tackled on a play that has drawn her penalty kicks in similar situations during her career. Instead, Cinalli still was able to direct the ball towards the left side of the box and Jones angled into position before placing her one-timer into the far-right sidenetting for the second goal of her career (81:20) for the junior outside back, whose most impressive stat is her 3.96 cumulative GPA as an accounting major (her 19 classes have included 17 A grades and two A-minuses).
Senior center back Kim Lorenzen (#4) and the rest of her Irish teammates did a strong job to contain speedy all-BIG EAST forward Jamie Craft (#5).
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NOTES – UNC is the only team with longer home unbeaten streaks than Notre Dame’s current 32-game run (UNC had an 84-game unbeaten streak at home from 1986-94, 56 straight from ’99-’04, and 40 from ’81-’84) … ND’s five-game homestand continues next Friday night (Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m.) versus a West Virginia team that was ranked as high as 6th in this week’s national polls … a win over WVU would give ND its fourth 10-0-0 start (the 2000 team was 16-0-0, the 2004 team 15-0-0 and the 1996 team 13-0-0) … since a midseason loss at Marquette in 2005, the Irish have won 22 of their past 23 games (with a loss to eventual ’05 NCAA champ Portland), including 16 straight wins in the regular season … ND’s 30 goals have come from 12 different players … a shutout of WVU would give ND a six-game shutout streak … the only ND teams with longer shutout streaks have been the 2003 (10) and 1993 (8) squads … the Irish are 34-1-0 in their past 35 games when scoring first and have won 235 straight games when claiming a 2-0 lead … ND is 16-0-0 in Sunday games during the past two seasons (71-4 scoring margin) … six different players have accounted for ND’s seven “first goals” this season (Kerri Hanks-2, Amanda Clark, Krivacek, Bock, Weissenhofer and Dew) … Karas owns a 19-1-0 career record with the Irish … the team goals-against avg. dropped to 0.22, well below the team record (0.36) … the Irish own a 168-22 scoring edge in the 45-game scoring streak … ND has allowed just 22 shots on goal all season (2.4/gm), with Santa Clara accounting for 10 (the other eight opponents have combined for just 12 SOG) … midfielder Jen Buczkowski has played all 85 games of her ND career while D Christie Shaner has played 84 (82 straight) … the seniors are on the verge of becoming the first class in ND history with five players who have appeared in 80-plus career games (F/M Lizzie Reed has 79 GP, center back Kim Lorenzen 77 and Krivacek 76).
Lauren Karas has allowed just two goals all season while improving her career record with the Irish to 18-1-0.
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Louisville (6-1-1, 1-1-0 BIG EAST) 0 0 – 0
#1 Notre Dame (9-0-0, 2-0-0 BIG EAST) 0 2 – 2
ND 1. Carrie Dew 1st of season/4th of career (Michele Weissenhofer) 73:50
ND 2. Ashley Jones 1/2 (Amanda Cinalli, Jill Krivacek) 81:20
Shots: LOU 3-1 – 4, ND 7-9 – 16
Corner Kicks: LOU 1-0 – 1, ND 1-1 – 2
Saves: LOU 8 (Joanna Haig), ND 0 (Lauren Karas)
Fouls: LOU 7, ND 12
Offside: LOU 0, ND 2