Oct. 8, 2006
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Kerri Hanks set up a pair of goals to complete her nine-point weekend, with the All-America forward providing the primary assists on goals by Brittany Bock and Amanda Cinalli that gave the top-ranked Notre Dame women’s soccer team a 2-0 victory over visiting Rutgers – before a fourth straight near-capacity crowd. Sunday’s game drew 3,003 fans, pushing the team’s 2006 home attendance average to 2,350 per game, including a total of nearly 12,000 in four games spanning the past two weekends. The Irish now own an eye-popping 45-3 season scoring margin, including a dominating 32-1 stretch during the past nine-plus games.
Notre Dame (13-0-0, 5-0-0 BIG EAST) – which has matched the program’s third-longest season-opening win streak – tied a team record by posting its 20th consecutive win in regular-season play while extending its 12-season home unbeaten streak versus BIG EAST teams to 71 games (70-0-1). Rutgers (11-2-1, 5-1-1) is the only BIG EAST team in that stretch that has a non-loss versus the homestanding Irish (a 0-0 tie, in 2004) but Notre Dame now has won 15 straight BIG EAST home games since that scoreless game during the ’04 national-title season.
Notre Dame’s 2006 senior class includes (from left) Jill Krivacek, Nikki Westfall, Jen Buczkowski, Molly Iarocci, Claire Gallerano, Lizzie Reed, Christie Shaner and Kim Lorenzen.
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A BIG EAST scheduling quirk produced a rare early-October “Senior Day” for the Notre Dame women’s soccer program, which honored the eight individuals who represent one of the winningest classes in the history of Division I women’s soccer. The Senior Day crowd – on hand to see the team’s final regular-season home game – rates as the highest official home attendance number for a Sunday game in the 19-year history of the program, besting the 2,681 for the previous Sunday’s game with Pittsburgh. It marks the third large Sunday crowd of the season for the Irish, who earlier battled Santa Clara on Sunday, Sept. 3, with 2,609 fans in attendance.
The past two weekends – including games versus West Virginia (Sept. 29; 3,056) and Seton Hall (Oct. 6; 3,168), plus the Pitt and Rutgers games – attracted a total of 11,905 fans over that four-game stretch. Notre Dame’s average attendance of nearly 2,400 per game puts the Irish on pace to rank among the top-five nationally, based on recent comparisons of attendance numbers from other top-drawing programs.
The Notre Dame seniors now have totaled 80 career victories (80-7-2), for a .910 career win pct. that ranks second-best in the program’s history. North Carolina remains the only team in the nation with a current senior class that has totaled more career victories (84-3-3) than the 2006 Irish senior class.
Notre Dame registered the program’s 10th unbeaten regular season (8-0-0), after racking up a 31-3 total shots edge that included the Irish attempting all 10 of the game’s shots on goal. Since facing an early deficit in the West Virginia game, the Irish have allowed just two shots on goal (both harmless tries from outside the 18-yard box, one each by Pitt and SHU) during a span of nearly 350 minutes. Notre Dame’s number of goals for the season (45) now is 19 more than its opponents’ combined total of shots on goal in games versus the Irish (26), with ND on pace to set the team record for fewest shots on goal allowed per game (2.00).
The 20 consecutive regular-season wins ties a mark set by the 1999 (16) and 2000 (4) teams, during the sophomore and junior seasons of current ND volunteer assistant coach Lindsey Jones. The Irish also extended several other noteworthy streaks, including: a 36-game home unbeaten streak (35-0-1; still 4th in D-I women’s soccer history, four shy of a UNC home streak from ’81-’84); a 27-game home winning streak (two shy of tying that ND record); 238 consecutive wins when taking a 2-0 lead (since ’91); a 49-game scoring streak (still 2nd in the ND record book, six back of the record); and a 37-1-0 streak in the past 38 games when scoring first (with 23 straight wins when scoring first).
Kerri Hanks assisted on both of the goals in the win over Rutgers, leaving her career point total at 99.
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Notre Dame also: has yet to be outshot in a game during the seniors’ career (89 games); is 26-1-0 since losing at Marquette in the middle of the 2005 season; is 30-1-0 during the past two seasons when senior center back Kim Lorenzen is in the starting lineup; and has not lost a game on Sunday since the final game of the 2004 season(18-0-0, with a 78-4 scoring edge in those ’05 and ’06 Sunday games). The current 71-game home unbeaten streak versus BIG EAST teams includes a 309-20 scoring margin and 62 straight games without allowing a visiting BIG EAST team more than one goal (with 53 total shutouts in the streak, plus 17 games with 1 GA).
The Irish have scored multiple goals in all 13 games this season, matching a mark set by the 1996 Irish team. No previous team in the program’s history has allowed fewer goals at the 13-game mark than the current team (3).
Senior midfielder Jill Krivacek nearly picked up an assist just moments before the opening goal, after pushing a pass that led Hanks into the far right side of the box. Hanks was ready to strike her shot but stumbled over the ball before recovering to slide a pass back to her left. Bock has registered many of her goals with the Irish on diving headers but the sophomore midfielder also packs a strong shot and used that part of her game to open the scoring, smacking a one-timer from 14 yards out. Goalkeeper Erin Guthrie – whose seven saves kept her team within striking distance – got a hand on the hard shot as she dove to her right but she was unable to stop Bock’s fourth goal of the season and 16th of her young career (34:45).
The Irish have struggled with their first-half goal production this season but now have registered first-half goals in each of the past three games.
One constant to the Notre Dame attack this season has been scoring goals in the first 10 minutes after halftime and that continued on Sunday, as Cinalli scored her seventh goal of the season in the 49th minute. Freshman midfielder Courtney Rosen, steadily making her presence felt after a three-week absence due to injury, played a short free kick from the right corner and Hanks quickly sent a low cross into the heart of the goal area. Cinalli was unmarked on the far left side and one-timed the ball into the net for the key two-goal cushion (48:23). It was the 27th career goal for the versatile junior forward/midfielder, to go along with 25 assists.
It marked the eighth time this season that Notre Dame has scored in the first 10 minutes of the second half, which factors out to 5.5 goals over a full 90 minutes. The Irish still have yet to allow a second-half goal this season while totaling 33 goals in the final 45 minutes (more goals than many teams have for the entire season, including both halves and OT).
Randy Waldrum addressed his seniors and their parents after they had been honored in the annual Senior Day pregame ceremony.
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NOTES – Hanks had 3G-1 in Friday’s 5-0 win over Seton Hall and could become the fourth different ND player to be named a national player of the week this season … Hanks had several near-misses (on both goals and assists) in the game, leaving her at 99 career points in 38 games played … she needs one point in next Friday’s game at UConn to reach 100 points quicker than any previous ND player … Hanks (39G-21A) joins Cinalli and senior M Jen Buczkowski (20G-29A) as one of 24 ND players who have reached 20G-20A in their career … she is tied with Amy Warner for 15th on the ND career points list (next is Suzie Zilvitis, with 112) … Hanks has scored (11) or assisted (5) on 16 of ND’s 31 game-winning goals during the past two seasons … Hanks has scored (4) or assisted (2) on six of ND’s eight goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half this season … ND remains 3rd among the nation’s leaders in goals-against avg. (0.23), behind Villanova and Navy … ND’s 10 shutouts, (8 of past 9) rank 4th nationally (UNC, Navy and Wisconsin-Milwaukee each have 11) …the senior class finishes the regular season with a 64-3-2 record (.942) in regular-season games and 48-2-1 in all home games during their career … the seniors have combined for 517 career games played, with Buczkowski playing in all 89, D Christie Shaner in 87 (85 straight), F/M Lizzie Reed in 83, D Kim Lorenzen in 82, Krivacek in 81, M Claire Gallerano in 45, F Molly Iarocci in 31 and G Nikki Westfall in 18 … the seniors have helped post 58 shutouts over the past four seasons, with just 41 goals allowed in the 89 games … the Irish now are 154-23-5 in the Randy Waldrum era (.860) … ND is 60-5-2 when playing as the #1 team in the NSCAA coaches poll (44-2-2 in the regular season) … the Irish will enter the 2006 postseason with a 188-14-3 all-time record at home … ND now leads the series vs. Rutgers 12-2-2 (43-4 scoring edge) … the ND junior class has helped win 60 games in three seasons (60-4-1; .931).
Rutgers 0 0 – 0
#1 Notre Dame 1 1 – 2
ND 1. Brittany Bock 4th of season/19th of career (Kerri Hanks) 34:45
ND 2. Amanda Cinalli 7/27 (Hanks, Courtney Rosen) 48:23
Shots: RU 2-1 – 3, ND 15-16 – 31
Corner Kicks: RU 0-2 – 2, ND 4-3 – 7
Saves: RU 8 (Erin Guthrie 7, team 1), ND 0 (Lauren Karas)
Fouls: RU 10, ND 10
Offside: RU 0, ND 0
Yellow Card: Caycie Gusman (RU) 82:10
Attendance: 3,003