July 30, 2005
ORLANDO, Fla. – Notre Dame women’s soccer player Kerri Hanks – a former winner of the “Golden Boot” top scorer award and member of the Dallas Texans 2003 national championship 18-and-undeer club team – has returned to the national championship game, after scoring a hat trick in the opener en route to helping the Texans ’86 team post a win and two ties in the four-team round-robin of the girls-19 division at the annual United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA) National Championships, being held this week at the Disney Sports Complex.
Two other members of the Notre Dame women’s soccer program – rising sophomore forward Susan Pinnick (Carmel, Ind., Commotion; girls-19 division) and incoming midfielder Becca Mendoza (Dallas Sting; girls-18) -also competed with their respective teams at nationals but failed to advance to Sunday’s championship round.
The annual USYSA club tournament will crowd national champions in 12 divisions, during Sunday’s final-day action.
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Hanks – who trained and competed at the World Championship with the U.S. Under-19 national team last fall, before enrolling at Notre Dame in the spring of ’05 – and the Texans will face the Stars of Massachusetts in Sunday’s 12:15 game (EDT), one of 12 total USYSA championships to be contested on the busy day (for boys and girls, in the 14 thorough 19-year-old divisions). The Texans and Stars played to 2-2 tie on the second day of round-robin play (July 28), with the Texans then adding another draw (0-0 vs. Colorado Rush Nike) to claim a spot in the title game.
Susan Pinnick and her Carmel Commotion teammates returned to the USYSA nationals in 2005, after reaching the 2003 title game.
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Pinnick and the Commotion lost all three of their games, including the opening loss to the Texans (0-4, with Hanks scoring her hat trick) and one-goal losses to the rival Colorado Rush (0-1) and the Stars (2-3). The Stars went undefeated in the round-robin, edging the Colorado team (1-0) in a result that ultimately helped the Texans reach the championship game.
Mendoza and the Sting opened with a 4-3 win over the Kansas City Dynamo but then lost to the Bethesda (Md.) Excel (1-4) and tied the Laguna Hills (Calif.) Eclipse (1-1), to narrowly miss a spot in the final with a 1-1-1 record in the round-robin. The Excel went 2-0-1 (with a 1-1 game vs. the Eclipse and 2-0 vs. the Dynamo) while the Eclipse also used a 4-2 win over the Dynamo to reach the title game.
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Hanks scored in the 42nd minute to give the Texans a halftime lead in their opening game vs. the Commotion and later capped the 4-0 win with goals in the 60th and 68th minute (Cameron Hardesty also scored in the win). The Texans then jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the Stars – after goals right before and right after halftime (by Jenna Lind and Lauren Vecchinoe) – but the Stars came back to tie the game, with goals in the 57th and 88th minute.
Rebecca Mendoza’s busy summer has included playing for the Mexican National Team and the Dallas Sting club team that was one of four teams to advance to the USYSA girls-18 nationals.
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Two years ago, Hanks earned the Golden Boot after scoring three of her team’s seven goals (in four games) as the Texans ’85 team won the 2003 USYSA Girls-18 national title (ND rising junior midfielder Claire Gallerano and former ND player Kari Kennedy also were members of that team). Hanks, rated the nation’s No. 4 recruit among 2004 signees, then played with her age group during the next club season but that Texans ’86 team lost in the 2004 USYSA regional quarterfinals, with Irish sophomore-to-be goalkeeper Lauren Karas also a member of that Texans team.
The Dallas Texans club program has produced two other 2005 national finalists, in the boys-17 and boys-18 divisions.
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In other action from Orlando this week, the Commotion and Rush were locked in a scoreless game with 13 minutes to play, but Caroline Lea scored for Colorado and the Rush goalkeeper later saved a penalty kick to help secure the second-day victory. The third day then saw the Stars jump out to a 3-0 lead on the Commotion midway through the first half before late goals from Jordan Obanion and Molly Kruger (in the 75th and 76th minutes) put the team from Carmel in range for a possible tie.
Pinnick – who first played for the Irish last spring, after missing the 2004 fall season due to an injury suffered in a summer van accident with the Commotion – earlier had scored in the 5-0 regional title-game victory over the Chicago Sockers, helping send Carmel to Orlando for nationals. She also played a key role on the Commotion team that was the USYSA national runner-up in 2003 (for the girls-17 division).
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The Sting’s opening win in Orlando included a hat trick by Jessica Jarrell and another goal from Amanda Alders. The Dynamo had rallied from a 2-0 deficit to forge a tie early in the second half before Jarrell scored her second and third goals for a 4-2 cushion. Leslie Hill managed the Sting’s only goal in the loss to the Excel while Alexa Corali scored in the tie vs. the Eclipse. The Sting had reached nationals after edging the Texans ’87 team in penalty kicks to claim the regional title.
The Dallas Sting celebrate their penalty-kick win over the rival Dallas Texans in the USYSA Girls-18 Region III championship game.
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In addition to playing for rival clubs that reached the USYSA nationals this week (in different age divisions), Hanks and Mendoza played on opposite sides last spring at Alumni Field when Notre Dame and Mexico played to a thrilling 1-1 tie – with Hanks scoring in the final seconds of stoppage time to earn the draw.
Fox Soccer Channel’s Soccer USA program has been on site this week during the USYSA Nationals. Fox Soccer USA is a 30-minute weekly show that airs every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. & 11:00 p.m. eastern, on Fox Soccer channel (with re-broadcasts throughout the week; check local listings).