National Champs coming to USF

[Guest Jack]

Sports

The Irish are coming

By Tony Marquis

September 29, 2005

They both wear green and gold.

But that’s about where the similarities stop. One team is rich in tradition, the other is just starting to make its own. One is a team with two national championships and has already entrenched itself in its conference, the other has just arrived in the Big East.

They may be different, but on Sunday, the USF women’s soccer team will meet No. 5 Notre Dame for the first time.

USF coach Logan Fleck knows the difference.

“They are one of the best teams in the country, no doubt,†Fleck said. “They play with a real high level of confidence; it’s tough to shake them out of anything.â€Â

Notre Dame has reason to be confident.

For the Irish players, awards are like rosaries: Everyone has at least one. For starters, there is senior forward Katie Thorlakson. Thorlakson was Soccer America and Soccer Buzz’s 2004 National Player of the Year after leading the nation in scoring with 23 goals and 24 assists – only Mia Hamm has ended a season with more points. Thorlakson was even up for an ESPY last year for top female college athlete.

The Irish also have an outstanding freshman forward by the name of Kerri Hanks. With unheard of 16 goals through the first 10 games, Hanks has been honored  almost weekly  by every major soccer publication.

“We got some really special players,†Notre Dame coach Randy Waldrum said. “We are fortunate that we have a lot of good weapons. It’s hard for the opposition to pay attention to just one of them.â€Â

The Irish also lead the Big East in every single offensive category, averaging 4.8 goals and 4.6 assists a game.

Notre Dame has had two goalkeepers start for them and they are last in the Big East in saves (18). But what might sound like a weakness is exactly the opposite, the Irish have a goals against average of 0.50 as a team, a testament to their outstanding team defense.

They are also the 2004 national champions, and Sunday’s game will be the first time that the women’s soccer program has hosted a defending national champion.

They are almost unbeatable.

Almost.

Earlier this season however, the Santa Clara Broncos defeated the Irish, 2-1.

Also complicating things is the fact that the Irish are right in the middle of a five-game conference road trip.

“We are at Marquette on Friday night and we got to travel all day Saturday,†Waldrum said. “That’s a tough trip to make. We know it’s not going to be an easy weekend.â€Â

For the Bulls to stay the game, they are going to need a solid performance from sophomore goalkeeper Casey Garrett.

With the Irish averaging 21.5 shots a game, Garrett will have her hands full.

“I know Notre Dame is a very good team,†Garrett said, “but I’m not afraid to play them.â€Â

If anyone can handle the pressure it’s Garrett, who’s fifth in the Big East with a 0.75 GAA, and second in the conference in shutouts with five.

The Bulls have something else going for them: the unknown.

“I don’t know much about (USF),†Waldrum said. “Anytime you play somebody unfamiliar to you, you always worry about the different kinds of problems they can pose.â€Â

The two teams may be unfamiliar with each other but the coaches are a different story.

“I do know Logan Fleck, I consider him a really good friend of mine,†Waldrum said. “I know he’s a great coach and South Florida is really lucky to have him there. I know his team’s going to be very well-coached and very disciplined and organized.â€Â

Fleck also has a special fondness for Notre Dame.

“I have great respect for them, because everything they’ve attained they’ve earned it,†Fleck said. “I like them. They recruited me out of high school so that was good.â€Â

Fleck has spent the last few days watching hours upon hours of Notre Dame tapes, and it’s games like these, Fleck said, that are the reason he is coaching.

“This is it, it doesn’t get better than this, the only thing better than this is the pro league,†Fleck said. “If it comes out that we win the game, you want to say, like when our football team beat Louisville, you want to say that ‘I was there when we beat Notre Dame.’â€Â

Also, as Fleck said, “It’s probably more fun than studying.â€Â

http://www.usforacle.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/09/29/433bd8061f28e

[BULLfreak]

that is f_ed up I thought ND was coming to play our FootBULLS who cares about women’s soccer

[bulls96go]

great "foot- ball"

go bulls!

[E.T.]

Please use the soccer icon  

This is worse than GEICO  :'(

[GarySJ]

This is not a football-only board. Posts on all USF sports are welcome.

[JoeB]

They'll be coming for all sports in the future, which I believe will lead to an eventual football game in South Bend at some point.  As a Bulls grad, and avid ND fan, I've been waiting for this for a long time.  The conference affiliation will help guarantee a future football game.  ND has always played Big East opponents in football.  In the past few years they've played Pitt, WVU, Rutgers, Syracuse, and BC when they were in the Big East.

Its only a matter of time.......

[Guest]

Big East Prominent in New Irish Schedule Plans

Beginning in 2011, Notre Dame plans on playing at least three Big East teams in football each season - with one of the games at the Meadowlands in New Jersey - as part of a long-range plan to restructure the Irish's schedule.

John Heisler, Notre Dame's senior associate athletic director, said having Big East teams on the schedule is part of being a good partner, since the Irish are in the conference for most other sports.

"The Big East has been interested in having us make more of a concrete consistent commitment," Heisler told the Chicago Tribune. But because of schedules in place, "we can't get to that until 2011."

The plan, which includes playing seven home games a season, is contingent upon the NCAA permanently adding a 12th game. If the NCAA votes this spring to allow it, the Irish would add a seventh home game in 2006 abd 2007. Notre Dame has 12 games scheduled for 2006, a year the NCAA already permits it because an extra Saturday falls between Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekend.

The Irish, who intend to remain an independent in football, play Pittsburgh and Syracuse next season and in 2008 but do not have a Big East team scheduled in the intervening years.

Notre Dame played Big East teams Rutgers and West Virginia three times each between 1996 and 2002.

Of the four teams other that will be in the Big East next season, the Irish have never played Louisville or Division I-A newcomers UConn and South Florida, and played Cincinnati once in 1900.

Heisler said the school will continue its long rivalries with Southern Cal, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and Navy.

http://www.thebullspen.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=news;action=display;num=1108411942

[smazza]

who wouldn't want to come to tampa

the most cosmopolitan city other than miami int he entire state