Nov. 8, 2007
Two Notre Dame women’s soccer players – senior Ashley Jones and junior Brittany Bock – currently are under consideration for official Academic All-America honors, as each recently was named first team Academic All-District V in balloting by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Senior Susan Pinnick and sophomore Amanda Clark also received CoSIDA Academic All-District honors, as second-team selections. Notre Dame’s total of four players earning first- or second-team Academic All-District honors is tied with two other teams for second-most in the most in the country, spanning the eight CoSIDA districts and more than 300 Division I women’s soccer programs. Jones and Bock make Notre Dame one of 17 teams nationwide with multiple players on the respective Academic All-District lists.
Junior Brittany Bock has been effective using her head – both on the field and in the classroom – during her Notre Dame career.
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Jones (Westlake Village, Calif.) – who was part of the U.S. Under-20 National Team player pool in 2006 – is one of the leading candidates for 2007 Academic All-America of the Year honors in Division I women’s soccer, after being one of three returning players from the 11 who received CoSIDA first team Academic All-America honors in 2006 (the ’07 honors are to be released on Nov. 20). Her 3.98 cumulative grade-point average as an accounting major at Notre Dame includes 26 A grades and two A-minuses, among her 28 total courses. Jones, who has split time during her college career as a top midfielder and outside back with the Irish, has provided a midfielder spark during the team’s current 11-game win streak and ranks fourth on the team with 11 points (3 goals, 5 assists). She has yet to miss a game in her Notre Dame career (98) while helping the Irish compile an 86-9-3 record during that four-year span (2004-07).
This marks the third straight year of first team Academic All-District honors for Jones, who has proven to be a clutch scorer throughout her career. Nearly half of her 29 career points with the Irish (7G-15A) have come during postseason play (12; 3G-6A), including last week’s header goal that saw her elevate over the Rutgers goalkeeper to send home a corner kick for the first goal in that 2-0 BIG EAST quarterfinal win. Jones also assisted on Bock’s early gamewinning goal versus Colorado in the 2006 NCAA third round, in addition to scoring the first goal versus Connecticut in the 2004 BIG EAST final and registering a pair of assists in the 2006 title game versus Rutgers (4-2). Her assist early in that ’06 BIG EAST final produced the quickest goal (at 0:57, by Kerri Hanks) in Notre Dame’s 87 all-time postseason games. Her recent five-game point streak included two assists in the 3-0 win at St. John’s and a goal in the 5-0 win over Villanova (a team that had allowed only 4G in its first 14 games this season). As a junior, Jones assisted on Jill Krivacek’s game-tying goal in the 2006 early-season showdown with Santa Clara (a 3-1 ND win; both teams were ranked #1 in different polls) and she later scored to cap a 2-0 win at Louisville that season.
Jones, Bock and Pinnick – who helped the Notre Dame women’s soccer squad compile a 3.30 team GPA during the 2007 spring semester – also are under consideration for Scholar All-America honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), with those honorees to be announced after the season (only juniors and seniors are eligible. Junior center back Carrie Dew (3.12 cumulative GPA; marketing major) and junior left back Elise Weber (3.62; political science) also have been named for the Scholar All-America honor. (Note that, per CoSIDA guidelines, Weber is not eligible for the Academic All-America consideration this year, due to her recent transfer from the University of Wisconsin; all nominees must have spent at least one full year at their current school in order to be considered).
Bock (Naperville, Ill.) – who has emerged as a leading candidate for All-America honors and BIG EAST player of the year (TBA on Nov. 8) – carries a 3.25 cumulative GPA as a marketing major. She entered the week ranked among the nation’s top-30 scorers with 11 goals (third-best in the BIG EAST) and was named national player of the week in back-to-back weeks earlier this season, after totaling four goals and an assist in road wins at Syracuse and St. John’s (Oct. 5/7) and then duplicating that 4G-1A versus Villanova and Georgetown on Oct. 12 and 14.
A member of the U.S. Under-21 National Team who trained with the full National Team in early 2007, Bock is one of the nation’s most versatile offensive players. The converted midfielder’s shift to forward has spearheaded Notre Dame’s dominance over the past six weeks, as she snapped out of a seven-game goal drought by registering a career-best five-game goal streak. Bock is on the verge of reaching the 20G-20A milestone for her career (35G-19A, including 3A in ’07) while her 11 career game-winning goals (in 64 total games/54 starts) include a team-best five this season.
Bock became the sixth Notre Dame player ever to score the first three goals in a game (at Syracuse) and has totaled nearly half of her career goals (17 of 35) on headers, in addition to four rare header assists during her career. Her most recent goal this season was a far-post header via a free-kick service from Kerri Hanks, giving the Irish a 2-1 win over BIG EAST rival Connecticut. Bock was an NSCAA second team all-region selection in 2006 and was named second team all-BIG EAST in each of her first two seasons with the Irish. She capped off her selection to the 2006 NCAA all-tournament team with a header goal in the national championship game versus North Carolina, after earlier scoring in the third round versus Colorado (3-0) and then adding assists against Penn State (4-0 quarterfinal) and Florida State (2-1 semifinal).
Notre Dame was joined by Rice (5), Kentucky (4) and Texas (4) as the women’s soccer programs with the most players on their respective CoSIDA first- and second-team Academic All-District lists. Fellow BIG EAST teams Marquette and St. John’s also had multiple first teamers (two each), as did 14 other D-I women’s soccer teams in the nation: Navy (3), Purdue (3), Texas (3), Arizona State, Auburn, Creighton, Eastern Illinois, Hartford, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Rice, St. Louis and South Carolina. Of the 17 teams that feature two or more players on the first team, only six currently are ranked in the NSCAA top-25 poll: Notre Dame, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Purdue and Texas.
Senior Susan Pinnick (3.86 cum. GPA) has emerged as Notre Dame’s third-leading scorer this season.
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The BIG EAST Conference had 20 total players receive 2007 Academic All-District, including 11 first teamers (most from any conference in the nation). In addition to Jones and Bock, the other BIG EAST first teamers include: Syracuse’s Jen Taormina and the SJU duo of Julianna Cohen (all from District I); West Virginia’s Ashley Banks and fellow District II player Valentina Montero; Louisville’s Joanna Haig and Cincinnati’s Gigi Ernst (both District IV); and Marquette teammates Laura Boyer and Christy Zwolski (District V). The second-team selections include Pinnick, Clark, Connecticut’s Meghan Schnur, Syracuse’s Karrah Benson, WVU’s Krystle Kallman, the Villanova duo of Laura Sylvester and Nicole Coia, Seton hall’s Katie Andreski and Cincinnati’s Kim Sykes. Eleven different BIG EAST teams had players named to the various CoSIDA Academic All-District teams, giving the BIG EAST the widest distribution on those lists.
Pinnick (South Bend, Ind.) – who could return for a fifth year of eligibility in 2008 – carries a 3.86 cumulative GPA, as an accounting major. She has surged to third on the 2007 team in scoring with 13 points (5G-3A), contributing all but one of those points during the current win streak for an Irish offense that now ranks 10th nationally with 2.6 goals per game. A top reserve forward/midfielder throughout her career, Pinnick has appeared in 15 games this season and 65 in her three healthy seasons (with five starts, from 2005-07). She recently had a career-best three-game goal streak in wins over Providence (4-0), Seton Hall (3-1) and Rutgers (3-1) – with the scores versus SHU and RU holding up as two of her five career game-winning goals (part of her 40 career points, with 14G-12A). Pinnick’s 2007 season also has included the GWG versus Cincinnati (6-1), a goal in the 3-1 win at St. John’s, an assist in the early overtime loss to 5th-ranked Stanford (2-1) and a career-best four-game point streak in early October.
Her earlier career highlights include a goal in the 2005 win over #25 Maryland (6-0) and nine points during postseason action, most notably a goal versus UConn in the 2005 BIG EAST title game (5-0) and 1G-1A in the 2006 NCAA first-round win over Oakland (7-1). Pinnick – who made an inspirational return injuries suffered during a 2004 summer van accident with her club team (dnp in ’04) – posted a 4.0 GPA during the 2007 spring semester. She and Jones both are member of Notre Dame’s Academic Honors Program, which pairs high-achieving student-athletes with faculty mentors.
Clark (a 3.44 student, as a business major) has settled in as Notre Dame’s starting defensive midfielder and is one of four Irish players to start all 19 games this season. A versatile talent who also has started at both central and outside back during her Irish career, Clark ranks fifth on the 2007 team in minutes played (81.5/gm) and joins junior forward Kerri Hanks as the only Notre Dame players to appear in all 46 games during the past two seasons (with 33 starts). Clark’s strong play and versatility has helped overcome injuries to several teammates this season, with the Irish totaling nine shutouts and allowing more than two goals only once in a 2007 campaign that has included seven games versus top-25 opponents.
With Clark serving as the team’s defensive enforcer, Notre Dame has racked up a 36-5 scoring margin during the current 11-game win streak while allowing only 2.2 shots on goals and 1.8 corner kicks per game in that six-week stretch. Her 14 starts in 2006 included three during NCAA Tournament action and she helped the Irish allow 2.1 shots on goal/gm while posting a nation-leading 19 shutouts (both ND records) during that NCAA runner-up season.
Clark’s excellent academic credentials coming out of high school allowed her to be among a select group of student-athletes who were early enrollees at Notre Dame during the summer of 2006. Bock earned a similar distinction during the summer of 2005, as did current sophomore forward Michele Weissenhofer (summer ’06) and two current members of the freshman class – F/M Rose Augustin and forward Taylor Knaack (both summer ’07).
The Notre Dame women’s soccer program’s unmatched tradition of Academic All-America excellence includes 18 selections during the previous 12 seasons. Seven Notre Dame women’s soccer players have combined for nine first-team Academic All-America honors, with the Irish program producing at least one first-teamer in seven of the previous 11 years. At least one Notre Dame women’s soccer player has been named Academic All-America in 10 of the past 12 seasons (all but ’99 and ’02).and the program easily could have laid claim to honorees in the other two years. Jenny Streiffer somehow was passed over in her 1999 All-America season, despite previously being an Academic All-American in ’97 and ’98, while an injury to Vanessa Pruzinsky prevented her from earning her third straight Academic All-America honor in ’02 (which instead came in ’03).
Seven Notre Dame women’s soccer players now have combined to be named first team Academic All-America a total of 10 times, led by a pair of multiple-year first teamers in standout defender Pruzinsky (2000, ’01 and ’03) and goalkeeper Erika Bohn (’04. ’05). The program’s other first team Academic All-Americans have included goalkeeper Jen Renola (’96), forward Amy VanLaecke (’96), M/F Streiffer (’97) and midfielder Annie Schefter (’05).
CoSIDA did not begin naming an exclusive women’s soccer Academic All-America team until 2001. Prior to ’01, women’s soccer was part of the fall and winter “at-large” program, a highly selective process that honored soccer players as part of a larger sampling that included multiple sports. Renola was recognized as the 1996 CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year for fall and winter “at-large” sports while Pruzinsky was the Academic All-American of the Year for women’s soccer in 2003, when she returned for a fifth year of eligibility as a graduate student after graduating in May of 2003 with a 4.0 cumulative GPA (the first female student at Notre Dame ever to do so as a chemical engineering major).
More than half (10 of 18) of the Notre Dame women’s soccer Academic All-Americans have been first-team honorees. Those receiving second-team honors have included Renola and VanLaecke in 1995, Streiffer in ’98, defender Monica Gonzalez in 2001, Bohn in ’03, forward Mary Boland in ’03, and Schefter in ’05. Forward Meotis Erikson was named a third team Academic All-American in 2000. Pruzinsky, Bohn and Boland in 2003 became the first three D-I women’s soccer teammates ever named Academic All-American for the same season.