Sept. 3, 2006
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Jill Krivacek’s leftfooted strike tied the game in the 64th minute and Amanda Cinalli added a pair of goals to cap Notre Dame’s three-goal spurt over a nine-minute stretch, with that quick reversal yielding Sunday’s decisive 3-1 margin over visiting Santa Clara in the final game of the Inn at Saint Mary’s ND Soccer Classic. Both teams entered the weekend owning a No. 1 ranking in one of the national polls, with the Irish likely to now receive the bulk of the No. 1 rankings. Cinalli – who had the primary assist on the first Notre Dame goal – was named the tournament’s offensive MVP and Krivacek was tabbed for the defensive honor while junior Lauren Karas took home the tournament’s top goalkeeper award, after posting a career-best nine saves in the win over the Broncos.
Notre Dame (4-0-0) sent a spirited crowd of 2,609 home happy, overcoming an early deficit for the second straight week. The Irish extended their record-setting home unbeaten streak to 31 games (30-0-1, spanning all of the 2004-05 seasons), still fith-best in NCAA Division I history. Santa Clara knows a little something about long home unbeaten streaks, playing 32 straight at Buck Shaw Stadium without a loss from 1997-2000. North Carolina is the only other team ever to compile a longer home unbeaten streak than Notre Dame (84 from 1986-94, 56 from 1999-2004 and 40 from 1981-84).
The Irish also pushed the second-longest scoring streak in the program’s history to 40 games (15 shy of that record, set from ’97-’99) and now have posted 22 straight wins at Alumni Field (since the scoreless tie vs. Rutgers in 2004), seven shy of that ND record.
Just two weeks into the college soccer season, Notre Dame is one of only three teams from the NSCAA preseason top-25 that have yet to suffer a loss or tie – with the others including fellow BIG EAST team West Virginia (4-0-0) and Florida State (3-0-0). Among those teams, Notre Dame has the best claim to the nation’s top ranking after opening with a 16-2 scoring edge with wins over four teams that competed in the 2005 NCAAs: Iowa State (9-0), #24 Mississippi (2-1, on the road), #19 USC (2-0) and a Santa Clara team that was top-ranked in this week’s Soccer Buzz national poll (ND was #1 in the Soccer Times coaches poll). West Virginia’s 4-0 start includes wins over Richmond (3-0), James Madison (5-1), Western Michigan (4-0) and Binghamton (4-0) while FSU posted wins this week over Arizona State (1-0, in overtime) and Loyola (3-1) – one week after opening with a 2-1 win over Portland. The Seminoles had the benefit of not playing on the Friday before that game with the Pilots while Portland had played to a hard-fought tie with Florida before having to face a rested FSU team two days later.
“We put our kids in a tough spot to come in and have to play four teams that were in the NCAAs last year to start the season,” said Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum, whose first eight Irish teams have combined for a 7-3 record in the rivalry series with Santa Clara (ND’s overall lead in the series is 8-4).
“I think by the end of the year, the team we faced on Friday night, USC, is going to be a pretty good team. But we really put our team in a tough spot and to come out of it 4-0, we’re real proud of that.”
Sunday’s game saw Santa Clara control the majority of the top scoring chances in the first half but the home team grabbed control midway through the second half, scoring three times in a span of 8:55. Notre Dame’s senior group never had been outshot in their career (spanning 79 previous games) and that streak continued versus SCU, as the Irish finished with a 21-14 edge in total shots (10-10 in shots on goal) while the Broncos owned a 5-2 corner-kick margin.
Both teams had two top players absent – ND’s Brittany Bock and Carrie Dew and SCU’s Jordan Angeli and Amanda Poach – due to their participation with Team USA at the Under-20 World Championship in Russia. The USA had a heartbreaking end, playing to scoreless ties with China in the semifinal and then versus Brazil in Sunday’s third-place game (China advanced 5-4 on PKs and Brazil claimed the bronze, 6-5 in PKs).
“The Notre Dame-Santa Clara soccer series is just an awesome match every time we play. Today was another classic match and we just have to take our hat off to Notre Dame,” said Jerry Smith, now in his 20th season as head coach of Santa Clara.
“The way Notre Dame is playing, it looks like it’s November for them instead of September. They are in midseason form, Randy has done a great job preparing his team and they only are going to get stronger when those two kids come back.”
USC defeated Harvard in Sunday’s earlier game, with the 11-player all-tournament team including five from Notre Dame (Cinalli, Krivacek, Karas, senior midfielder Jen Buczkowski and freshman forward Michele Weissenhofer).
(from left) ND Classic all-tournament players Jen Buczkowski, Jill Krivacek (def. MVP), Lauren Karas (top keeper), Amanda Cinalli (off. MVP) and Michele Weissenhofer (photo by Marcus Snowden).
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Courtney Lewis flared a pass from the center-circle area to set up the Santa Clara goal, with freshman forward Kiki Bosio then slanting in from the right flank before tapping a pass back into the center of the field. Midfielder Brittany Klein had little space or time but alertly toe-poked the ball into the top of the box – with Meagan Snell running onto the pass and one-touching a shot bythe charging Karas and inside the near-right post for her second goal of the tournament (12:03).
Notre Dame used the halftime break to realign both its mentality and personnel, with the shift of three players ultimately paying big dividends.
“Santa Clara had a better mindset in the first half. They were winning every first ball and second ball and we had to change that mentality,” said Waldrum.
“The second thing was that we were giving the ball away too much, so we decided to move Chistie Shaner from left back into one of the central defensive spots. Haley Ford had come on and did a fanastic job so we kept her in at left back. And with Courtney Rosen injured from our midfield, we put Jill Krivacek up a little higher in the midfield and had Amanda Clark move from center back to that defensive midfield spot. Clark can really move and disrupt things, so she helped us in the ballwinning in the midfield.
“At that point, the game started to turn and we did a lot better job of keeping the ball and creating some chances. In our normal alignment, Jill would not have been in position to score that goal. I have to give credit to [assistant coach] Ben [Waldrum] because he suggested that we put Clark into the holding midfield spot – it was a great call on his part.”
Notre Dame ended up trailing for 51 minutes, just the fifth time since late in the 2002 season (spanning 84 games) that the Irish have faced a deficit for more than 45 minutes in a game. The previous four long deficits – versus Michigan and Boston College in 2003 and Marquette and Portland in ’05 – all led to Notre Dame losses but the Irish notched the equalizer on Sunday in the 64th minute and then quickly surged to a two-goal cushion.
Junior right back Ashley Jones started the game-tying sequence with a short pass from the flank to her classmate Cinalli, who made a quick turn, slanted towards the top of the box and drew out the defense before sending a pass that led Krivacek into the left side of the box. Krivacek made a quick touch with her left foot and gave the defense no time to recover, rocketing a leftfooted shot that sailed through the raised arms of goalkeeper Meagan McCray and into the net for her second goal of the season and seventh of her career (63:08).
Jill Krivacek makes her classic trip by the bench after scoring to tie the Santa Clara game (photo by Marcus Snowden).
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The TV timeout followed three minutes later and the Irish struck again, shortly after returning from that short stoppage. Jones assisted on the goal with her rightside throw-in, with Weissenhofer chasing the throw into the edge of the box and striking a leftfooted linedrive that carried towards the far post. Cinalli was unmarked and quickly redirected her header into the open net for the 2-1 lead (68:43), her third goal of the season and 23rd of her career (she also scored to cap the 2-0 win over USC and delivered the game-tying goal last week at Ole Moss).
Scoring three goals essentially has ensured victory during the Notre Dame women’s soccer program’s 19-year history (now 234-3-1 all-time when scoring 3-plus, including 136-1-0 since 1995) and Cinalli provided that clinching goal three minutes after her earlier score. Sophomore forward Kerri Hanks sent a pass down the center of the field that deflected to her fellow 2004 signee Cinalli, who showed her tremendous ability on the ball as she slid away from the pursuit – at one point touching the ball off the outside of her left foot before smacking a leftfooted shot that ripped into the upper right corner of the net (72:03) for her team-leading fourth goal of the young 2006 season.
Karas – now 15-1-0 in her official decisions with the Irish – made one of her top saves of the game with 2:34 left to play, diving to her left and pushing the ball around the post to deny Bosio’s low strike from the top of the box.
QUICK KICKS – Krivacek’s first three seasons with the Irish included just three goals in regular-season play … the Irish remain unbeaten on Sundays (14-0-0; 64-4 scoring edge) during the past two seasons, with 12 of those games being second games of the weekend … Cinalli’s 70 career points (24G-22A) moved her past Kara Brown into 23rd on the ND career scoring list (next up is Stacia Masters, with 74) … Cinalli notched her fourth career 2-goal game and tied another career-high with five points in a game (she also has goals in three straight games for the first time in her career) … ND is 23-3-2 all-time in regular-season home tournaments (80-26 scoring edge) and 24-5-1 in all regular-season tournaments during the Waldrum era (16-1-1 since mid-2002) … the home team is 8-2-0 in the ND-SCU series … ND is 39-14-3 (.723) in the Waldrum era when facing an NSCAA top-25 team … the senior class now owns a .900 career win pct. at ND (71-7-2), with the eight seniors combining for 460 career games played, 50 shutouts and 21 games with one goal allowed (71 of 80 with 0-1 GA) … the ND seniors also are 55-3-2 (.933) in the regular season and 43-2-1 (.946) at home … Buczkowski has played in all 80 games during the 2003-06 seasons, Shaner in 79 (77 straight), Kim Lorenzen in 73 and Krivacek in 72 … ND is 21-1-0 with Lorenzen in the starting lineup during the past two seasons … Cinalli, Jones and Karas comprise the third-year players who have helped ND win 92% of its games during the 2004-06 seasons (51-4-1).
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS FROM ND HEAD COACH Randy Waldrum – “Santa Clara has the ability to be a final-four team and the rivalry we have with them is always great. For our kids to come back after a poor first half and turn it around, I’m really proud of them. We were real worried about Santa Clara because they have some weapons and their midfield is awfully good. … Now we have some good problems with the lineup but getting Brittany and Carrie back will give us some great depth. We are hoping that Brittany comes back healthy and gets caught up with everthing and it will just be a matter of where to play her. We will see how quickly we can get those two integrated back into the lineup. We still have a couple players banged up a little but so Dew and Bock could factor into things quicker than we thought. The reports we got back from Russia felt like Carrie and the other center back [Nikki Kryczik, from Virginia] are the best center backs in the tournament, meaning they are the best in the world for their age group. The difference is just the confidence and getting a lot of international experience. So I think we are going to get back a very confident player in Carrie and certainly in Brittany. … The crowd was great tonight and I hope they got their money’s worth. … Kerri Hanks I’m sure will be disappointed because she didn’t get goals but she helped set up one of the goals. The effort she gave was great and she just missed some opportunities at the end. As soon as we get her healthier, she is going to be on form. Even injured, she still is dangerous. … Kiki Bosio is a very hardworking player and is hard to handle because she is strong and physical. We just made it a point to make sure our 1-v-1 defending on her in our zone was better than it has been. She is going to create a lot of problems for teams. Marian Dalmy for them, their right back, is very good. … I thought Weissenhofer, Cinalli and Krivacek really stepped it up in the second half, when the game was on the line. Michele created so many opportunities for us and you could see her gaining confidence. She was much better taking care of the ball in the second half. … I like the way this team is shaping up and it would have been real easy to fold in the Ole Miss game or today. This was a game where many teams would have laid down and died but we came back and played so well in the second half and really took over the tempo of the game. I’m really pleased with the way they turned it around, they showed great character.”
ND JUNIOR FORWARD Amanda Cinalli – “Our entire team decided at halftime that we were going to step it up and play for each other and play with some heart. It was great. … Before the game, we knew it was a big-time game and caoch always talks about how winning the games early in the season are just as important when it comes to seeding for the postseason. … In the first half, they kind of dominated us in the air so we knew we had to be more competitive and challenge those 50-50 balls and then win those second balls, they are just as important. So we improved on all of that in the second half and it turned the game around. … Michele [Weissenhofer] has really stepped up and is such an important part of our team. We feel like she is a veteran player.”
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS FROM SCU HEAD COACH JERRY SMITH – “We will learn a lot from this match and look forward to getting our two kids back from Russia as well. We’ve got some tough decisions to make in terms of starting lineup. … It certainly did seem like Notre Dame snatched the game away very quickly. In soccer, we talk about what we call ‘big-five’ moments, critical times in the game where you really have to keep your focus and I thought we lost our focus for about a 10-minute period and Notre Dame really took advantage. But I also thought we dodged a couple of bullets at other times in the game. This is the type of game that you want early in the season to expose your weaknesses and try to correct them. … Bosio really played well today and so did Igwe, who also is a new player to our team. This it the time when you really can evalute your new players and can they handle the environment and those two really shined for us today. … In college athletics, senior leadership is the key factor for predicting your success. Every year we look at our seniors and try to figure out how good we are going to be. When you look at Notre Dame, that’s a phenomenal senior class. It’s already showing for them and will prove even bigger dividends once they get to the NCAA Tournament. That leadership and experience is just invaluable. They are a team that nobody is going to want to play in the NCAA Tournament. I hope that our seniors will continue to develop the strong leadership that you really need at the end of the season. … Amanda Cinalli really is blossoming into a top forward in Division I soccer. She was the most dangerous player in this tournament and very deserving of the MVP. There’s no question that she has been in the shadow of players like Katie Thorlakson and Kerri Hanks but I think she is developing into a tremendous player who is so tough on the ball.”
2006 Inn at Saint Mary’s All-Tournament Team
from Notre Dame: jr. F Amanda Cinalli (offensive MVP), sr. M Jill Krivacek (defensive MVP), jr. G Lauren Karas (top goalkeeper), sr. M Jen Buczkowski and fr. F Michele Weissenhofer
from Santa Clara: jr. F Meagan Snell, fr. F Kiki Bosio, jr. M Chioma Igwe
from USC: soph. D Janessa Currier, jr. G Veronica Simonton
from Harvard: fr. D Lizzy Nichols
Santa Clara 1-0 – 1
Notre Dame 0-3 – 3
SCU 1. Meagan Snell 2 (Brittany Klein, Kiki Bosio) 12:03; ND 1. Jill Krivacek 2nd of season/7th of career (Amanda Cinalli) 63:08; ND 2. Cinalli 3/23 (Michele Weissenhofer, Ashley Jones) 68:43; ND 3. Cinalli 4/24 (-) 72:03.
Shots: SCU 6-8 – 14, ND 10-11 – 21
Corner Kicks: SCU 0-5 – 5, ND 1-1 – 2
Saves: SCU 7 (Meagan McCray), ND 9 (Lauren Karas)
Fouls: SCU 15, ND 20
Offside: SCU 0, ND 1
Yellow Card: Amanda Clark (ND) 53:53
USC 2-0 – 2
Harvard 0-0 – 0
USC 1. Nini Loucks 2 (Jamie Petrosi, Stacey Strong) 16:13; USC 2. Meagan Holmes 1 (Rosa Anna Tantillo) 39:41
Shots: USC 4-8 – 12, HARV 2-0 – 2
Corner Kicks: USC 4-3 – 7, HARV 2-0 – 2
Saves: USC 2 (Veronica Simonton), HARV 4 (Lauren Mann)
Fouls: USC 8, HARV 7
Offside: USC 0, HARV 2