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Oct. 20, 2006

VILLANOVA, Pa. – Kerri Hanks kept up her lateseason surge by scoring the first two Notre Dame goals and adding an assist, as the top-ranked Irish women’s soccer team remained unbeaten with Friday’s 4-2 road win over a Villanova team ranked as high as ninth in the national polls. The game was a matchup of the nation’s top teams in goals-against-average, with each squad allowing its most goals in a game this season. Notre Dame (15-0-1, 8-0-1 BIG EAST) clinched a first-round bye in the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament and will play host to a BIG EAST quarterfinal game that tentatively is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 29, at 1:00 p.m. The Irish also are on the verge of clinching a first-place finish atop the BIG EAST National Division, which would mark the 10th time in 12 seasons that Notre Dame has won a BIG EAST regular-season title.

Notre Dame is unbeaten after 16 games for the sixth time in the past 13 seasons and for the third time in the career of the current senior class (also 2003 and ’04; plus ’94, ’97 and 2000). The Irish now own a 54-5 season scoring edge and have surrendered just 30 shots on goal (an average of fewer than two per game).

Hanks converted a pass from junior Amanda Cinalli to open the scoring in the 10th minute, for her team-leading 13th goal of the season and 41st of her career. It marked just the fourth goal – and first in the first half – allowed by Villanova (14-2-2, 6-2-2) this season. Villanova freshman Erin Byrnes tied the game in the 49th minute, halting Notre Dame’s shutout streak at 592 minutess. The Irish had allowed just three goals (none in the second half) during the first 15 games of the season.

Michelle Weissenhofer later extended her nation-leading assist total to 14, after ripping a shot from the left side of the penalty area in the 61st minute. Villanova standout goalkeeper Jillian Loyden knocked the ball down near the far post but Hanks sent home the rebound for her fourth multiple-goal game of the season and 11th of her career.

The Irish went on to add two more goals, by Courtney Rosen and Jill Krivacek, completing a 20-minute stretch that produced three goals (equaling Villanova’s total goals allowed in its previous 17 games). Rosen’s first goal of the season was set up by a drop pass from fellow rookie Weissenhofer, whose 15 assists already are tied for the fourth-most ever by a Notre Dame freshman.

Villanova cashed in its second and final shot on goal to cap the scoring in the final minute, after a fluke bounce on the blustery day set up Byrnes for another score.

Hanks had a couple of minor scoring slumps in the first half of the season but the All-American now has scored (8) or asssisted (8) on two-thirds of Notre Dame’s goals (16 of 24) during the past seven games.

Despite allowing the pair of goals, the Notre Dame defense – comprised of center backs Kim Lorenzen and Carrie Dew, left back Christie Shaner and right back Ashley Jones – now has limited 12 opponents this season (eight straight) to 0-2 shots on goal. It now has been a full month since a Notre Dame opponent managed even three shots on goal in a single game (3 by Michigan, on Sept. 17).

The past six games have seen the defense allow just 26 shots, six shots on goal and 13 corner kicks (avg. of 4.3 shots, 1.0 SOG, 2.2 CKs per game). All five of the goals versus Notre Dame have been scored by ranked teams (four of the five by teams in the top-10). Prior to Friday’s first goal by Byrne, the Irish defense had yielded just one goal since the early-September showdown with Santa Clara (a span of 1,137 minutes).

Notre Dame can clinch the BIG EAST National Division title by winning Sunday at Georgetown, or having second-place Rutgers lose in its showdown game with Louisville. If Cincinnati loses Sunday at Seton Hall, the fifth and final postseason seed in the National Division still will be up for grabs and would require Notre Dame and Cincinnati to play a makeup game on Oct. 24 (at Cincinnati), due to the earlier game on Sept. 21 being halted and ultimately called off due to lightning. That makeup game also would have to be played – regardless of the SHU-Cincinnati result – if Notre Dame loses and Rutgers wins on Sunday.

The heavy wind combined with the finishing skills of Hanks to produce Notre Dame’s third-quickest goal of the season, in the 10th minute. Cinalli set up the goal from the upper left corner of the box, sliding a pass square to the goal that carried across to the right side. Hanks turned on the ball and sent a low shot for the lower left corner. Loyden batted the ball down but the force of the shot combined with the wind to give the Irish a 1-0 lead (9:07). It was the 26th career assist for Cinalli, to go along with 29 goals (leaving her 1G-4A shy of becoming ND’s 11th all-time player with 30G-30A).

Notre Dame took a lead into halftime for just the eighth time this season (in 16 games) but Villanova quickly tied the game in the second half, with the wind at its back. The Wildcats were able to play the ball behind the Irish defense and down the right side, with Byrnes slanting into the penalty area and sending her fourth goal of the season inside the far-left post (49:21).

The Irish have dominated the second half all season (36-0 scoring edge, prior to Friday) and they quickly grabbed control by dictating the run of play for the rest of the game. Dew started the second goal sequence by feeding the ball to Weissenhofer, who found herself open on the left side of the box. The resulting shot was deflected but squirted free near the right post. Hanks was in tight quarters but was able to knock in the rebound before taking a tumble from the ensuing collision (60:52).

Rosen has played mostly as a midfielder this season but she shifted to forward five minutes after the second Hanks score and promptly scored the first official goal of her Notre Dame career. Weissenhoher gained entry into the right side of the box and dropped the pass for Rosen, who quickly shifted the ball to her left and rocketed a low shot into the crowded penalty area. The ball carried up the middle and found the back of the net for the 3-1 lead (74:11) and the goal that provided the eventual winning margin.

Krivacek’s fourth goal of the season followed six minutes later, with Hanks providing the corner-kick service from the right flag. The 5-foot-11 Krivacek went up with Loyden and was up the task, scoring on a header for the three-goal cushion (80:28).

NOTES – ND’s two quickest goals of the season were in the opener vs. Iowa State (1:19, by Hanks) and last weekend at Providence (6:25, when Brittany Bock headed in a Hanks corner kick) … Krivacek’s 13 points this season (4G-5A) are six sky of matching her three-year total from ’03-’05 (19; 5G-9A) … Hanks has surged atop the team scoring charts with 37 points (14G-9A), followed closely by Weissenhofer (35; 10G-15A) as they make a case for being the nation’s top scoring duo … the only ND players who have totaled more assists as a freshman than Weissenhofer are Holly Manthei (30, in ’94), Jenny Streiffer (22, in ’96) and Cindy Daws (20, in ’93) … seven ND freshmen have totaled more first-year points than Weissenhofer: Hanks (71, in ’05), Streiffer (66), Anne Makinen (58, in ’97), Daws (52), Manthei (48) and Jenny Heft (36, in ’96) … the Irish are 27-0-0 during the past two seasons when Hanks scores … Hanks has opened the scoring in four games this season and 12 for her career … Friday’s game was the first time ND has allowed multiple goals in a regular-season game since the 4-1 loss at Marquette midway through the 2005 season (ND is 28-1-1 overall since that game, including 19-0-1 vs. BIG EAST teams) … ND is unbeaten in 23 straight regular-season games (22-0-1) and is 39-1-0 in its past 40 games when scoring first … ND’s 130-11-4 overall record vs. BIG EAST teams (since ’95) includes 104-8-4 in the regular season (nearly +100 in wins minus losses) … ND is 33-1-1 the past two seasons with Lorenzen in the starting lineup (she and Hanks have started all 16 games this season) … the senior class improved to 82-7-3 in its career (.908), with UNC owning the only current senior class with more career wins (87-3-3) … senior M Jen Buczkowski has played all 92 games of the ’03-’06 seasons while Shaner has appeared in 90 (89 straight) … the senior class has logged 531 career games played (also 85 for Lorenzen and 84 for Krivacek) … one member of the senior class, F/M Lizzie Reed, was back on campus Friday night receiving a special honor from the Mendoza College of Business (football lineman Victor Abiamiri also was honored – look for a story on this award, including quotes from Reed, soon on und.com) … ND now leads the series with Villanova 13-1-0 (52-6 scoring edge) … the National Division standings are as follows (each team has one game left, with the exception of the potential ND-Cincinnati makeup): ND 25 points, Rutgers 23, Louisville 21, Villanova 20, Cincinnati 10, Seton Hall 8, Georgetown 8 and DePaul 1 (GU and DP have been eliminated from the postseason) … Villanova can finish no higher than third but VU would win a potential tie in the standings with Rutgers (to determine seeding), due to its higher point total in divisional games (VU and RU tied head-to-head) … VU plays host to DePaul on Sunday … UConn beat West Virginia on Friday to make the top of the American Division even tighter: WVU 22 points, UConn 19, Marquette 19, St. John’s 18, Pitt 11, USF 9 (Syraucuse and Providence are eliminated) … Marquette has the head-to-head vs. UConn (WVU has head-to-head vs. Marquette) … the American Division games for Sunday include: PC at WVU, UConn at Pitt, Marquette at SJU and USF at Syracuse.

#1 Notre Dame (15-0-1, 8-0-1 BIG EAST) 1 3 – 4
#9 Villanova (14-2-2, 6-2-2 BIG EAST) 0 2 – 2

ND 1. Kerri Hanks 13 (Amanda Cinalli) 9:07
VILL 1. Erin Byrnes 4 (-) 48:21
ND 2. Hanks 14 (Michele Weissenhofer, Carrie Dew) 60:52
ND 3. Courtney Rosen 1 (Weissenhofer) 74:11
ND 4. Jill Krivacek 4 (Hanks) 80:28
VILL 2. Byrnes 5 (Kayce Blanford) 89:02.

Shots: ND 5-12 – 17, VILL 3-6 – 8
Corner Kicks: ND 2-3 – 5, VILL 1-3 – 4
Saves: ND 0 (Lauren Karas), VILL 6 (Jillian Loyden)
Fouls: ND 12, VILL 13
Offside: ND 0, VILL 0
Yellow Card: ND team 59:30, Rosen (ND) 68:57, Jenna Gordan (VILL) 71:40