Nov. 4, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Kerri Hanks resumed her assault on the Notre Dame postseason record books, with a corner-kick assist on the game’s first goal before drawing – and converting – a penalty kick to help close out Sunday’s 2-0 win over Rutgers, in the quarterfinal round of the BIG EAST women’s soccer championship. Notre Dame extended the nation’s longest active winning streak to 11 games and next will face Georgetown in a BIG EAST semifinal versus Georgetown, on Friday, Nov. 4, at West Virginia’s Dick Dlesk Stadium (5:00 p.m. eastern; live on CSTV).
Despite playing without three of its top players (namely junior forward Brittany Bock), Notre Dame (14-4-1) was able to continue its six-week dominance that has included a 36-5 scoring edge during the 11-game win streak. The stout Irish defense now has allowed only 2.2 shots on goal per game and 1.8 corner kicks/gm in that 11-game span. Rutgers (9-9-3) was limited to five total shots (one on goal) and three corners. Dating back to last week’s 3-1 win at RU, the Irish held the Scarlet Knights without a shot on goal for 114 consecutive minutes spanning the two games.
Hanks – who entered the week as the nation’s only player with double-digit goals and assists (now 12G-14A) -has registered points in all but one of her 17 career postseason games with Notre Dame (16G-15A) and has added yet another record to her ever-growing soccer resume, as her 16 career postseason goals are the most ever by an Irish player. Her former teammate Katie Thorlakson had 15 postseason goals in her stellar career and is the only Notre Dame player with more career postseason points (53) than Hanks (47).
With her three-point game on Sunday, Hanks now is riding a 10-game point streak and joins Thorlakson as the only Notre Dame players ever to have two double-digit point streaks in their career. Hanks registered points in each of the final 13 games of the 2006 season and also now has points in 10 straight postseason games. She has scored (2) or assisted (5) on seven of Notre Dame’s past nine goals, dating back to the overtime battle with UConn.
Notre Dame opted to not play two players – Bock and sophomore midfielder Courtney Rosen – who were sidelined with minor injuries while sophomore center back Haley Ford was out of the lineup for the 15th straight game due to her nagging hamstring injury.
The steadily emerging Irish back line served notice that it is primed for a strong postseason. Junior center back Carrie Dew is the veteran leader of that unit, which also includes junior left back Elise Weber (a transfer from Wisconsin) and a pair of freshmen in center back Lauren Fowlkes and right back Julie Scheidler.
The win extended several noteworthy streaks and trends, as Notre Dame now has:
• Compiled a single-season win streak of 11 games or longer for the 11th time in the program’s history (seventh time in the nine-year Randy Waldrum era, including each of the past five seasons)
• Gone unbeaten in 79 straight home games versus BIG EAST opponents (78-0-1; since mid-1995)
• Gone unbeaten in 36 straight overall games vs. BIG EAST teams (35-0-1; since mid-2005), good for 6th-longest in D-I women’s soccer history and one shy of tying the ND record
• Not been outshot in 68 straight against BIG EAST opponents (since mid-2002; 18-5 shot edge on Sunday)
• Won 15 straight postseason games at Alumni Field (spanning all of the 2004-07 seasons)
• Won 257 consecutive games when claiming a 2-0 lead (since 1991)
• Never lost in the BIG EAST quarterfinal round (9-0-0)
• Gone 28-2-0 in all-time BIG EAST Tournament games
• Compiled a 45-3-0 all-time record at home during the postseason
• Gone unbeaten in eight straight vs. Rutgers (7-0-1; 15-1-2 all-time series edge)
Notre Dame’s pressure led to six first-half corner kicks (its most in a half all season), with one of those corners producing a goal in the 33rd minute. Hanks sent the inswinger from the left flag and nearly was credited for scoring directly on the corner. Senior midfielder Ashley Jones (not to be confused with the RU freshman defender of the same name) picked up her third goal of the season and fourth of her career, after elevating over ‘keeper Erin Guthrie to send the point-blank header off the bottom of the crossbar and into the goal (32:50).
Alexandra Hambleton’s foul on Hanks led to the second goal, with Hanks firing her PK into the corner for the final 2-0 margin and her 62nd career goal with the Irish (80:45). Hanks now is 7-for-7 on penalty kicks during her Notre Dame career and has scored (15) or assisted (17) on 33 different goals in her ND career during set-play/dead-ball situations: 10 corner-kick assists, eight free-kick assists, seven free-kick goals, the seven PK goals and the recent goal scored directly off a corner kick versus UConn.
NOTES – All three of the the other BIG EAST quarterfinals were 1-0 games decided in regulation: Georgetown over UConn, West Virginia over Villanova and Louisville over Marquette (WVU and UL will meet in the 7:30 semifinal on Nov. 9) … the BIG EAST final (Nov. 11, noon, at WVU) also will be televised live by CSTV (and other BIG EAST affiliated stations/TBA) … ND owns a 10-1 all-time record in the BIG EAST semifinals … Georgetown will be the seventh different team faced by ND in the BIG EAST semifinals (also RU, VU, Syracuse, Seton Hall, BC and Marquette) … Hanks … a win over GU would give ND a 12-game win streak (matching the longest in D-I this season) … Hanks now has 15 points (5G-5A) in five career games vs. Rutgers, with a game-winning goal (in OT) and three game-winning assists in her career vs. RU … for the first time in her career, Hanks has picked up points in five different set-play/dead-ball scenarios during the same season (4 PK goals, 3 FK assists,, 2 FK goals, a CK goal and a CK assist) … Hanks moved past fellow Hermann Trophy recipient Cindy Daws into fifth on the ND career goals list (three back of Anne Makinen) … Hanks still is 8th on the ND career assist list (51; now two behind Jen Grubb) and remains 8th with 175 career points (two shy of Holly Manthei) … Hanks has totaled 47 career game-winning points in the postseason (16 GWG-15 GWA), trailing only Thorlakson (56) and Jenny Streiffer (51) in the ND record book … Hanks (22; 8G-6A) is two points shy of tying Thorlakson for the ND record for most career points in the BIG EAST Tournament … Jones – who has points in six games during the win streak – still has played in every game of her ND career (98), tied with Jen Renola and Kate Fisher for the 4th-most consecutive GP in ND history (Jones also is tied for 9th on the career GP list) … Cinalli logged her 93rd career GP (22nd in ND history) … the ND senior class now owns an 86-9-3 career record (.893) … senior goalkeeper Lauren Karas now is 49-4-1 in her career and has posted 20 career solo shutouts (plus 21 shared) … ND has scored 18 first-half goals but 32 after halftime.
COMMENTS FROM ND HEAD COACH Randy Waldrum – “We were good in the firt half, not so good in the second. But it gets to a certain time in the season where you just have to find the wins. We’re happy to be moving on. … Hanks is really smart about knowing how to use her body when drawing contact. She is either going to get the foul or she’s going to get the turn on you, despite her smaller size. She really has improved in the past year in terms of playing with her back to the goal. She is a player at a different level and understands the game better than others. … The defense really has come together and become a good unit. We had Haley Ford injured early in the year and moved Amanda Clark into the midfield and she has done a good job in that holding midfield spot. Dew is getting better and better coming off the injury and Fowlkes is more and more comfortable. They both are big presences in the air and physical presences, and they are good with the ball. Then we have enough speed on the outside with Scheidler and Weber. They make us very dangerous, because they are very good attacking out of the back. … We want to keep going but next we have to play a good Georgeotwn team that got a nice win today over a tough UConn team. We did not break open the Georgetown game earlier this season until late, so we know they will be a challenge.”
COMMENTS FROM ND JUNIOR CENTER BACK Carrie Dew – “In the beginning of the season, we had a brand-new back line. There were new faces, with a transfer and two freshmen. It really was a matter of getting situated and figuring out who was going to play where and just getting comfortable playing with each other. I think we’ve done a good job of doing that. The midfielders and forwards also are so important to our team defense. … We try to go into every game and limit the opponent to as few shots on goal sa possible. And it’s nice to get some shutouts. It came from all over the field when we were having our problems early in the season and it was a matter of us not being organized enough on the field. We looked at film and tried to make adjustments in practice and in the games.”
Rutgers (9-9-3) 0 0 – 0
#10 Notre Dame (14-4-1) 1 1 – 2
ND 1. Ashley Jones 3rd of season/7th of career (Kerri Hanks) 32:50; ND 2. Hanks 12/62 (PK) 80:45.
Shots: RU 1-4 – 5, ND 9-9 – 18
Corner Kicks: RU 3-1 – 4, ND 6-2 – 8
Saves: RU 6 (Erin Guthrie), ND 1 (Lauren Karas)
Fouls: RU 18, ND 6
Offside: RU 0, ND 1
Yellow Cards: Hanks (ND) 39:42; Kristie Lang (RU) 76:45