Nov. 16, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame’s 20-year women’s soccer history has produced several elite scoring tandems and the latest was on display Friday night at Alumni Field, as Brittany Bock scored twice and Kerri Hanks assisted on all three goals – as the Irish posted a 3-0 win over Loyola Chicago in the first round of the NCAA Championship. Notre Dame (16-4-2) extended its unbeaten streak to 14 games and next will face Illinois in the second round, when the action returns to Alumni Field on Sunday at 1:00. The Illini outlasted Louisville in Friday’s earlier game, picking up the 1-0 victory on Ella Masar’s head goal in the second minute of overtime.
Hanks is riding her own streak, with points in each of the past 13 games, and she now has scored (3) or assisted (9) on 12 of Notre Dame’s past 13 goals. Each game seems to add another Notre Dame record to Hanks’ resume and the latest is her 53 career points in postseason play (17G-19A), tying former teammate Katie Thorlakson for that ND record. If Hanks can register a goal or assist on Sunday, she would tie yet another record held by Thorlakson – who had a 14-game point streak to end the 2005 season (Hanks then had points in the final 13 games of ’06 and now has points in 33 of the past 35 games).
Bock now has totaled 13 goals in her past 13 games played and owns seven gamewinning goals this season, one shy of the Notre Dame record shared by Thorlakson (in ’04) and Michelle McCarthy (in ’94). Bock and Hanks have combined for 20 goals and 17 assists during the 14-game unbeaten streak (Bock 13G-3A; Hanks 7G-14A).
Notre Dame has outscored the opposition 42-6 since last tasting defeat (a 2-1 loss to Penn State on Sept. 23). The Irish have allowed only 30 shots on goal and 30 corner kicks (2.1/gm) during the unbeaten streak and have trailed for a total of only 72 minutes (5.6% of the time) in that eight-week span.
Hanks has delivered points in all but one of her 20 career postseason games with the Irish (she has points in all 12 postseason games over the past two seasons) and is the first Notre Dame player ever to have three assists in an NCAA game twice during her career (also in ’06 quarterfinals vs. Penn State). Notre Dame 54 all-time NCAA Tournament games have produced only three other time in which an ND player had a 3-assist game (none with 4-plus).
With five assists in the current postseason, Hanks has surged to 18th place on the NCAA career assists list (55; one behind former ND player Anne Makinen and two out of 13th place). Her 55 career assists would rank first at 307 of the 314 D-I programs but are good for only 7th-best in ND’s storied history.
Loyola Chicago (14-9-1) nearly claimed the lead after a counterattack in the 16th minute, as Katie Heidenreich gained some separation down the left side before angling into the box and sliding the ball to her right foot. The resulting shot had far-post sidenetting written all over it – but senior goalkeeper Lauren Karas had good position and a quick reaction on the play, diving to her left for the clutch save. The Irish then held the Ramblers without a shot for the next 58 minutes of game time, en route to a 19-2 edge in total shots (plus 6-2 in corner kicks).
Heidenreich became the first opponent to uncork a shot on goal versus the Irish in 84 minutes of game action, dating back to the first-half goal scored by West Virginia in last week’s BIG EAST title game.
Sophomore defensive midfielder Amanda Clark set the first goal sequence in motion, with a cross from the right side. Hanks won a heading battle on the left side of the six-yard box, with the ball popping up and over to Bock on the right side. Bock quickly trapped the ball down to herself and slammed home a shot from close range for her 13th goal of the season and 38th of her career (37:54).
Hank registered the 11th corner-kick assist of her career early in the second half, after driving an inswinger from the left flag. Junior center back Carrie Dew was flying down the center of the penalty area and utilized her 5-foot-10 to connect on a header that flew under the crossbar for the key 2-0 cushion (57:51) and her sixth career goal with the Irish (first in ’07).
Notre Dame now has rattled off 259 consecutive wins when claiming a 2-0 lead (dating back to 1991) but Friday’s lead quickly grew to 3-0, when the team’s junior forward duo hooked up on yet another scoring play. Hanks picked off an attempted clearance near the top of Notre Dame’s attacking third and quickly played a thru-ball that led Bock into the right side of the box. Veteran goalkeeper Colleen Dougherty was coming off her line as Bock drilled a low shot inside the far-left post to cap the scoring (59:06) – just 75 seconds after her roommate Dew had scored.
Hanks now has totaled nearly 50 points during her ND career (49; 15G-19A) on set-play/dead-ball situations, with seven free-kick goals, seven penalty-kick goals, a goal directly off a corner kick, the 11 CK assists and eight free-kick assists. Her 44 points this season include 21 on sets plays/dead balls (8G-5A).
NOTES – The Irish improved to 41-12-1 all-time in the NCAAs (.769), including 33-3-0 at home (.917) and 7-0 in first-round games since the field expanded to 64 teams in 2001 (with a 30-2 scoring edge in those seven games) … ND has reached the NCAA round-of-32 in each of the past 15 years and will be looking to make its 12th trip to the round-of-16 … ND is 48-1-1 in its past 50 games when scoring first … Hanks has totaled 10 multiple-assist games in her ND career … her 181 career points (63G-55A) remain 7th in ND history, two behind Thorlakson, five back of Anne Makinen, eight shy of two others (Cindy Daws and Jenny Heft) and suddenly only nine point from tying Monica Gerardo as the #2 all-time points leader in ND women’ soccer history … Hanks also has quickly moved within striking distance of becoming the sixth D-I player ever to reach 60 career goals and 60 assists (Daws had 61G-67A; Streiffer 70G-71A) … her 55 career assists are one behind Shannon Boxx (6th-place) in the ND record book … Hanks now has as many gamewinning goals (16) as gamewinning assists (16) in her ND career, for 48 GW points (trail only Thorlakson’s 56 and Streiffer’ 51 as the ND all-time leaders in GW pts) … Hanks now needs only six shot to tie Daws for that ND career record (354) … she also is nearly 50 points for the season (44; 13G-18A) and could join Holly Manthei, Thorlakson and Daws as the only ND players ever to have multiple seasons with 20-plus assists … Thorlakson’s ND record for career points in the NCAAs (29) also could soon fall to Hanks (28; 8G-12A) … the only D-I teams that have a career assist leader with more assists than Hanks are UNC (5), Jacksonville, Santa Clara, UConn, UC Santa Barbara and Furman … Bock now has posted double-digit goals in eight career game with the Irish (four in the past 11 games; also has 6 GWG in that span) … her 95 career points (38G-19A; 14G-3A in ’07) still are 18th in ND history (three behind teammate Amanda Cinalli) while Bock’ 38 goals have moved her past Amy Warner into 15th place in the ND record book, one behind Boxx … Bock also now rank 7th on the ND list for career postseason points (33; 13G-7A) … Karas lowered her career goals-against avg. to 0.56 (would best Liz Wagner’s ND record of 0.57) while her career record now is 51-4-2 (.912; also on ND record pace for career win pct.) … ND’s senior class (88-9-5) kept pace with UNC’s as the nation’s classes with the most career wins … senior M/D Ashley Jones has appeared in all 101 of those game, tying her with Meotis Erikson and Boxx for 2nd-place on the ND career GP list (two back of Jen Buczkowski’s record) … Cinalli’s 96 career GP are tied with Vanessa Pruzinsky, Lindsey Jones and Jenny Heft for 14th (one behind Kate Sobrero) … the top all-time ND duos for most career game played among classmate include: Buczkowski and Christie Shaner (100) with 203; Boxx (101) and Gerardo (98) with 199; and Streiffer (100) and Jen Grubb (100) with 200 (Jones and Cinalli have combined for 197 career GP) … ND and Illinois have played several spring exhibitions but never have met in an official fall game … Sunday’ matchup will pit six ND players – most notably starters Bock, Clark, Michelle Weissenhofer and Elise Weber – versus a team that include plenty of their former club and state ODP teammates.
Loyola Chicago (14-9-1) 0 0 – 0
Notre Dame (16-4-2) 1 2 – 3
ND 1. Brittany Bock 13th of season/37th of career (Kerri Hanks, Amanda Clark) 37:54; ND 2. Carrie Dew 1/6 (Hanks) 57:51; ND 3. Bock 14/38 (Hanks) 59:06.
Shots: LOY 1-1 – 2, ND 13-6 – 19
Corner Kicks: LOY 1-1 – 2, ND 5-1 – 6
Saves: LOY 5 (Colleen Dougherty 5 in 87:46; Lauren Sommer 0 in 2:14); ND 2 (Lauren Karas 1 in 74:11; Kelsey Lysander 1 in 15:49)
Fouls: LOY 10, ND 7
Offsides: LOY 2, ND 0
Illinois (12-6-2) 0 0 1 – 1
Louisville (13-6-2) 0 0 0 – 0
ILL 1. Ella Masar (Chichi Nweke) 91:15.
Shots: ILL 6, LOU 5
Corner Kicks: ILL 6, LOU 1
Saves: ILL 1 (Lindsey Carstens), LOU 2 (Joanna Haig)
Fouls: ILL 22, LOU 14
Offsides: ILL 0, LOU 1