Oct. 26, 2007
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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – The 13th-ranked Notre Dame women’s soccer team showed the depth of its offensive firepower in Friday’s 3-1 win at Seton Hall, as three players (Elise Weber, Susan Pinnick and Lauren Fowlkes) who had combined for only five goals in the season’s previous 16 games each found the net. The surging Irish added another piece to their NCAA Tournament resume while registering their ninth straight victory, marking the 16th time in the program’s 20-year history that Notre Dame has fashioned a winning streak of nine or more games.
Notre Dame (12-4-1, 10-0-0 BIG EAST) has outscored the opposition 31-4 during the win streak and now has scored three or more goals in seven of the past eight games. The Irish have not lost to a BIG EAST opponent since the middle of the 2005 season, the seventh-longest conference unbeaten streak (34 games; 33-0-1) in the 26-year history of Division I women’s soccer (that streak is three shy of the ND record, set from 1995-98). Notre Dame’s steadily developing team defense now has allowed only 21 shots on goal (2.3/gm) and 13 corner kicks (1.4/gm) during the win streak, with Seton Hall managing six shots on goal but no corner kicks.
Seton Hall (7-8-1, 3-6-1) saw its hopes fade for a spot in the 10-team BIG EAST Tournament, as it appears that the Pirates now will need to beat DePaul on Sunday while having Cincinnati knock off Villanova in order for SHU to claim the fifth and final spot playoff spot from the National Division (see BIG EAST Tournament notes below).
Weber – who continues to emerge as a top candidate for BIG EAST defensive player of the year – scored her second goal of the season in the 37th minute, on a linedrive free kick from 25 yards out on the left side. With several Irish players crashing the heart of the penalty area, the kick skipped off the wet artificial turf surface at Carroll Field and carried into the far-right sidenetting for the 1-0 lead shortly before intermission (36:40). The junior left back also has six assists this season, second-most among any defender in the BIG EAST. Friday’s goal was the first for Weber since she scored to cap the opening-week win at Florida (2-0).
A standout flank midfielder at the University Wisconsin during the previous two seasons, Weber is one of just a handful of Notre Dame defenders during the current decade who have registered double-digit points in a season (10; 2G-6A) and could be on pace for one of the top point totals ever by a Notre Dame defensive player.
Pinnick provided the game’s key second goal in the 49th minute, as the Irish now have posted 256 consecutive wins when claiming a 2-0 lead (dating back to the 1991 season). Junior forward Kerri Hanks made a strong run down the right flank, deftly eluding a pair of defenders in the process, before cutting back a pass from the endline. Pinnick was making the near-post run and sent her shot from close range inside the right post for her fourth goal of the season and 13th in three healthy seasons with the Irish.
A surprising hand-ball call just outside the box later led to the Seton Hall goal, after the ensuing free kick hit off the Notre Dame wall. The Pirates had a follow-up shot from Nicki Gross and senior Lauren Karas alertly made the reaction save, but Katie Andreski sent home another rebound chance for a 2-1 game (69:12).
Another free kick set up the final goal and marked the 29th time in her three-year career that Hanks has scored or assisted on a goal during a set-play/deal-ball situation. Hanks drove the free kick from the right flank and fellow junior forward Brittany Bock flicked a header near the top of the box. The ball carried to the far post and Fowlkes – a converted midfielder who has started at one of the center back spots over the past month – was in position, trapping the ball down to herself and scoring inside the left post for her second goal of the season (82:26) and first since the game versus Stanford in early September.
Hanks (60G-48A) now is just two assists shy of becoming the 19th Division I women’s soccer player ever to reach 50 goals and 50 assists in her career, with the rare added distinction of possibly reaching that milestone prior to her senior season. Earlier in Friday’s game, Hanks was taking a short breather in the first half and thus was not on the field when the first goal was scored, with Weber able to fill in nicely for the night’s first goal.
Bock now has five rare header assists during her career, to go along with a similarly impressive total of 17 career header goals.
ND NOTES – This is the eighth winning streak of nine-plus games during the Randy Waldrum era (1999-2007) … Hanks is riding an eight-game point streak (3rd-longest of her ND career) and has points in 15 of 17 games this season, plus points in 28 of the past 30 games overall (dating back to the middle of the 2006 season) … she is 2A shy of joining Jenny Streiffer (70G-71A), Cindy Daws (61-67), Anne Makinen (65G-56A) and Katie Thorlakson (55G-73A) as the fifth ND player in the 50G-50A club (only 14 other all-time D-I players have reached the 50-50 mark) … Hanks remained 8th on both the ND career points list (168, nine back of Holly Manthei) and the career assists list (48, five behind Jen Grubb) … Hanks now owns 17 career assists on set plays (nine via corner kicks, eight on free kicks), plus six free-kick goals, five penalty-kick scores and last week’s goal scored directly on a corner kick … Bock has points in seven of the past eight games while totaling 23 points in that span (10G-3A) … she is on the verge of becoming ND’s 24th all-time player with 20G-20A in her career (35G-19A) … Bock still is 20th on the ND career points list (89), just one behind Amy VanLaecke and two back of Tiffany Thompson (current senior F/M Amanda Cianlli is 16th, with 94) … Cinalli had played in only one of the previous six games (for 16 minutes, at St. John’s) due to a hamstring injury, before logging 31 mintues vs. SHU (her 91st career game played, tied for 23rd in ND history) … senior M Ashley Jones has played in all 96 games of the 2004-07 seasons, stil the 5th-longest streak of consecutive GP in ND history (Kate Fisher and Jen Renola both played in 98 straight from 1993-96) … Jones also is tied with Vanessa Pruzinsky, Lindsey Jones and Jenny Heft for 13th on the ND career games played list, one behind Kate Sobrero … Fowlkes continued to play in place of sophomore Haley Ford, who has missed 13 straight games due to her own hamstring injury … Pinnick has points in six of the past eight games (4G-2A in that span) … Karas stopped five of the six shots she faced while improving her career record to 47-4-1 … she has allowed only two goals in BIG EAST games this season (in 795 min.; 0.23 goals-against avg.) … Bock (5) and Hanks (4) had combined for nine of ND’s 11 game-winning goals (including six straight between them) prior to Weber getting the GWG on Friday … despite playing on the back line, Weber has scored or assisted on nearly 20% of ND’s goals this season (8 of 45) … the Irish have scored only 15 first-half goals this season but have totaled 30 goals in the second half or overtime … Weber is the first ND defender with double-digit points since All-America right back Candace Chapman had 2G-9A (13 pts) in 2005 (25 GP) … Kim Lorenzen earlier had 10 points (3G-4A) as the starting right back during the 2004 NCAA championship season while center back Melissa Tancredi had 13 points in 2003 (4G-5A) and Champan had 11 in 2002 (3G-5A) … ND has compiled win streaks of 13 games, 12 games and now nine games during the past two seasons … the 34-game unbeaten streak vs. conference opponents ties the run by the 1998-2001 ND teams and is two shy of North Carolina’s 36-game ACC unbeaten streak from 2002-05.
BIG EAST POSTSEASON UPDATE – National Division teams Notre Dame (10-0-0), Louisville (19 points; 6-3-1) and Georgetown (18; 6-4-0) have clinched first-round byes in the upcoming BIG EAST Championship … GU, which plays host to UL on Sunday, could claim the #2 spot in the division by beating the Cardinals (the top two teams in each division are hosts in the quarterfinal round) … Rutgers (14; 4-4-2) also has clinched a BET spot while three teams are in the running for the final playoff spot from the National Division: Villanova (13; 3-3-4), Seton Hall (10; 3-6-1) and Cincinnati (10; 3-6-1) … Sunday’s games involving those teams include ND at RU, CIN at VU and DePaul (2-8-0) at SHU … VU would win a tiebreaker with RU, as would CIN vs. VU … if VU, SHU and CIN all finish with 13 points, it appears that the Pirates would claim the final spot thanks to their 1-0-1 record vs. the other two … UConn’s overtime loss at St. John’s means that West Virginia (25; 8-1-1) could finish atop the American Division … UConn (22; 7-2-1) has the tiebreaker vs. WVU but the Huskies would need to win at Syracuse on Sunday while having WVU lose at home to 3rd-place Marquette (18; 5-2-3) … St. John’s (15; 5-5-0) is locked into the American Division #4 spot, as SJU would lose a tiebreaker with Marquette … Syracuse (11; 3-5-2) and South Florida (10; 3-6-1) are in the running for the final spot, with USF set to play at Pittsburgh (1-8-1) on Sunday (USF would win a tiebreaker with Syracuse) … if all of the teams higher in the standings win on Sunday, that would set up first-round matchups of Rutgers at St. John’s and USF at Villanova … that hypothetical scenario then would send the RU-SJU winner to ND for the quarterfinal round while the USF/VU winner would play at WVU (the other potential quarters would be Georgetown at UConn and Marquette at Louisville) … extending that potential bracket (assuming the higher seeds win), ND would face UConn in the semifinals and the final-weekend host WVU in the BIG EAST final.
#13 Notre Dame (12-4-1, 10-0-0 BIG EAST) 1 2 – 3
Seton Hall (7-8-2, 3-6-1 BIG EAST) 0 1 – 1
ND 1. Elise Weber 2nd of season/10th of career (direct kick) 36:40; ND 2. Susan Pinnick 4/13 (Kerri Hanks) 48:26; SHU 1. Katie Andreski 3 (Nicki Gross) 69:12; ND 3. Lauren Fowlkes 2 (Brittany Bock; Hanks) 82:26.
Shots: ND 8-8 – 16, SHU 5-5 – 10
Corner Kicks: ND 2-1 – 3, SHU 0-0 – 0
Saves: ND 5 (Lauren Karas), SHU 6 (Amanda Becker)
Fouls: ND 16, SHU 16
Offside: ND 0, SHU 1 Yellow Cards: Carrie Dew (ND) 9:34; Beth Troutman (SHU) 36:37; Megan Mills (SHU) 60:59; ND bench 74:09; Hanks (ND) 89:31.