Oct. 14, 2015

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Notre Dame Monogram Club is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2015-16. In honor of reaching the century mark, Fighting Irish Media will present a look at some of the top student-athletes and moments from each Notre Dame sport. We recognize the significant contributions of all of our student-athletes in all of our Fighting Irish sports and realize the following list, while noteworthy, is not all-inclusive.

Women’s Soccer Monogram Moments

The Notre Dame women’s soccer program’s first varsity campaign was in 1988. The Fighting Irish captured their first national championship just seven years later in 1995 and have gone on to win additional titles in 2004 and 2010.

Kate (Sobrero) Markgraf (’98) currently serves as a Monogram Club advisor. She was a member of Notre Dame’s 1995 national championship squad before going on to win a World Cup (1999) and two Olympic gold medals (2004 & 2008) with Team USA.

The Monogram Club helped host the 2004 national championship team when they returned to campus for a 10-year reunion in the fall of 2014.

Former head coach Randy Waldrum, who led the Irish to national titles in 2004 and 2010, received an honorary Monogram in 2007.

Then Monogram Club executive director Beth Hunter (right) was on hand to present national championship rings at the 2010 team banquet. The Monogram Club purchases rings for every Fighting Irish team that wins a national title.

Through the team hosting program, the Monogram Club has helped fund several women’s soccer excursions, including part of a preseason trip to Brazil in 2004. In 2010, the Club funded the program’s outing to an LA Galaxy match (pictured) while the team was playing on the West Coast. The Club also purchased tickets for the squad to attend a Broadway production of The Lion King in New York City during a day off between games at Seton Hall and Rutgers in October of 2011.

The women’s soccer team’s most recent crop of first-time Monogram winners at last spring’s letter jacket ceremony.

The Monogram Club hosted Shannon Boxx (`99) when she returned to campus in September of 2015 to be honored for being part of the U.S. squad that captured the ’15 FIFA World Cup. Boxx was on Notre Dame’s 1995 national championship team and she won three Olympic gold medals (2004, 2008, 2012).

Here are some of the top performers during the Monogram era of Notre Dame women’s soccer…
Cindy Daws: One of the first nationally recognized players in Notre Dame women’s soccer history, Daws captained the first national championship team in program history in 1995, was a three-time All-American and the 1996 Hermann Trophy winner and M.A.C Player of the Year, both given to recognize the national player of the year. In 1997, she received the prestigious Honda Broderick Cup, honoring the nation’s outstanding collegiate woman athlete of 1996-97. Daws is one of five players in NCAA history to reach 60 career goals (61) and 60-plus assists (67), and is tied for fourth in Irish history in career points with 189.

Jen Renola: The most proficient goalkeeper in Irish history, Renola was a captain on the 1995 national championship team, was named the 1996 NSCAA Player of the Year and was a three-time All-American. Renola started all 98 matches of her career, recording 32 solo shutouts/30 shared, a 0.69 career GAA, and 8,111 career minutes. In 2006, she was one of 11 players named to the NCAA 25th Anniversary Division I Women’s Soccer Team, honored at the College Cup in Cary, North Carolina. Also a standout in the classroom, she was named the 1996-97 BIG EAST Scholar Athlete of the Year, the 1996-97 CoSIDA Fall/Winter At-Large Academic All-American of the Year and earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

Anne Makinen: A four-time All-American, Makinen was the 2000 Hermann Trophy winner and M.A.C. Player of the Year, as well as the 1998 and 2000 Soccer America Player of the Year. A 2001 graduate, Makinen was just the second player to have ever been a four-time all-BIG EAST first teamer, and the 13th Division I player to ever reach 50 goals and 50 assists in her career. She currently ranks sixth in Notre Dame history with 186 points (90 matches/88 starts) and goals (65), seventh in assists (56) and third in career points per match (2.07).

Kerri Hanks: Perhaps the best player in Notre Dame history, Hanks certainly ranks among the best players in collegiate soccer history. A four-time All-American and two-time M.A.C. Hermann Trophy winner (2006, 2008), Hanks became the first two-time national player of the year honoree in Notre Dame history, and the first student-athlete (male or female) to win the award in nonconsecutive years. She is the only Division I women’s player ever to amass at least 73 goals and 73 assists, finishing her career with 84 goals and 73 assists. Upon leaving Notre Dame, she was the holder or co-holder of 67 school, BIG EAST or NCAA records. In 2008, she was also honored with the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award.

Katie Thorlakson: One of the top offensive playmakers in the history of women’s college soccer, Thorlakson was a two-time All-American and the 2004 Soccer America Player of the Year after propelling the Irish to their second national championship title that season. She totaled 23 goals and 24 assists in 2004, factoring into 24 of the team’s final 28 scores, trailing only Mia Hamm in most goals and assists in a season. She was a 2005 M.A.C. Hermann Trophy finalist, as well as a two-time NSCAA All-American.

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