FALL SPORTS: Teams face highs and lows in fall season
Observer Staff Report
Notre Dame Men's Soccer
It was a season of recovery and regret for the Irish men's soccer team this fall.
At first glance, fans may simply see a team with a 7-8-2 record that failed to qualify for the Big East Tournament. Upon closer investigation, however, one finds out how much this team had to overcome just to take the field.
One morning last January, Irish head coach Mike Berticelli suddenly suffered a fatal heart attack at age 48. Thirty-year old assistant coach Chris Apple took over soon after on an interim basis.
From the start of the season, the Irish exhibited a strong defense, but an inability to close the game on offense.
The Irish opened with a win against New Mexico and a scoreless tie against host UNLV at the UNLV FILA/Snickers Rebel Classic. In their first home game, the Irish fell 3-1 to then No. 26 Bradley despite outshooting the Braves 26-7.
That trend continued through the season, culminating in highs such as a victory against a ranked St. John's squad and a close 1-0 loss to Connecticut.
"I think the fact that we competed so well against top teams shows a lot about our team," said senior forward Reggie McKnight. "I think our team displayed a lot of character at times."
At the same time, McKnight thinks that his team's experience will benefit each athlete.
"I think a good mark of a team and individual people is how they deal with adversity," McKnight said. "We had to deal with a lot of adversity and a lot of things maybe a lot of people outside the team don't even know about."
Former Stanford head coach Bobby Clark was hired to replace Apple in early February.
- Noah Amstadter
Saint Mary's Soccer
It was a season filled with injury for the Saint Mary's soccer team as the Belles landed in seventh place in the MIAA with a record of 3-13.
The loss of leading scorer Heather Muth to a season ending head injury wrapped up an unhealthy season for second-year head coach Jason Milligan. The loss added another hole to an already weak team due the loss of sweepers Jessica Klink and Alissa Brasseur and freshman Emily Erchick early in the season.
An opening season win against Alma seemed to be a good omen for the young team, but it proved to be one of only three wins and one tie. The Belles squashed the Bulldogs of Adrian twice, allowing them to avoid a last place finish.
Despite a final loss, Saint Mary's ended its season on a positive note. The Belles reached overtime play with the Flying Dutch of Hope who finished fifth in the MIAA. Despite losing the game, the Belles saw the win as a step in the right direction for next season.
"We're basically going to have the same team next year," freshman Wendy Irvin said. "If we pick up where we left off after [our last game] we'll have an awesome season next year."
Bobby Johnston will replace Milligan who resigned at the end of the season. Johnston, who hails from Washington D.C., will be coming to Saint Mary's after coaching high school soccer at Potomac High School.
- Katie McVoy
Notre Dame Cross Country
Not even a season off by top runner and All-American Ryan Shay could keep the Irish men's cross country team out of the nation's elite, as Notre Dame placed ninth in the NCAA Championships.
Shay sat out the season after a summer of heavy training for the U.S. Olympic Trials. His teammates picked up the slack.
Not only did head coach Joe Piane's squad snag its sixth top-10 finish at nationals in nine years, the Irish placed fourth in the Big East Championships and captured several meet titles.
"I thought we could [qualify for nationals]," Piane said, "but it doesn't matter what I think. It's what the kids think."
"The kids" had their minds set on success. Junior Luke Watson finished in the top 10 in every meet of the season, including a seventh-place All-American finish at nationals. Two other juniors, Pat Conway and Marc Striowski, were the second and third runners for Notre Dame.
With only Sean Zanderson slated to graduate and Shay returning to the lineup, the Irish are poised for a run at the title in 2001.
On the women's side, a young team missed a return trip to nationals, placing eighth at the Great Lakes Regional meet.
"It's always hard not to get your goal," said senior Chrissy Kuenster.
Kuenster was the only senior on the Irish varsity squad, which graduated two All-Americans the year before. Sophomore Jen Handley led the Irish most of the year, followed by Kuenster.
A slate of young runners rounded out the Irish varsity team. Junior Hilary Burn, sophomores Kari Eaton and Muffy Schmidt, and freshmen Rachel Endress, Megan Johnson and Jen Fibuch all took turns on Notre Dame's varsity.
- Kathleen O'Brien
Saint Mary's Cross Country
The Saint Mary's cross country team didn't go the distance quite fast enough this season to improve on its performance last season, remaining in seventh place in the MIAA for the second year in a row.
Under the direction of returning head coach Dave Barstis, the Belles goals did not include a high finish in the MIAA. They were looking only to run their best races.
"My expectations are to have everyone run their best time," Barstis said. "All I ask is that they cross the finish line and be able to tell me they ran the best they could."
The best they could run put Saint Mary's leading runners — senior Genny Yavello and sophomore Megan Tenney — in 75th and 72nd place respectively in the MIAA final race.
Despite a weak running finish, Saint Mary's did make news in the MIAA cross country world. The college hosted the annual MIAA Jamboree for the first time in its history in late September, bringing all eight MIAA teams to campus.
- Katie McVoy
Notre Dame Volleyball
The Irish volleyball team continued its Big East conference dominance in 2000, posting a 26-7 record and winning its fifth Big East regular season and Big East championship titles.
It was the first time since 1997 the squad won both in the same year. The Irish swept through the Big East tournament with 3-0 victories against Connecticut and Rutgers. Denise Boylan earned Big East player of the year honors as well as most outstanding player of the tournament.
Notre Dame continued the hot streak with a three-game win against Cincinnati in the first round of the NCAA tournament, before falling in the second round to Ohio State. In that contest, the Irish dropped a five-game heartbreaker losing the final game by only two points, 13-15.
"Winning the Big East was huge," said senior first team All Big East outside hitter Christi Girton. "It was a goal of ours this year to dominate the Big East again, since it was the first time since my freshman year we won both the regular season and tournament in the same year.
"The NCAAs was disappointing because we were so close, and we had a goal to reach the Sweet 16."
- Brian Burke
Saint Mary's Volleyball
Returning no starters from the 1999 season and facing the challenge of bonding with a new coaching staff, the Saint Mary's volleyball team tempered its seventh place conference standing and 7-22 record with individual and team improvements as the 2000 season progressed.
"It didn't look like we did much as far as wins and losses go but we had to make the transition to a whole new team," lone senior Victoria Butcko. "It was a building year for the team. I think we did outstanding considering we were so young."
Inexperience took its toll early as first-year head coach Julie Schroder-Biek struggled to find the right mixture of players and positions.
"We had a lot of losses but we tried to stay positive," Butcko said. "We did a lot of things on and off the court to stick together."
Despite a slew tough opponents and hard losses, the team did enjoy some highs along the bumpy road of a tough season.
One of the highs came midseason with a five-match win over Manchester Sept. 21. Suffering with a discouraging 1-9 record, the win gave the team a much needed boost.
"We took it to five games and we were ecstatic," Butcko said. "We had to fight hard and it gave us a lot of that energy. It was one of the high points. The team really pulled together."
Another high came late in the season when the Belles pulled out a big victory at the Albion Triangular with wins against Albion and Kenyon Colleges to round out the regular season.
The Belles didn't fare so well in the MIAA tournament, however. The squad suffered a tough loss to a 27-8 Calvin squad (3-15, 5-15, 4-15).
- Kerry Smith
Notre Dame Men's Golf
The men's golf team finished fifth at the Big East Championships while junior Steve Ratay finished in a three- way tie for first place with a 54 hole total of 215. Sophomore Kyle Monfort tied for the best final round with a one-under-par 69, while senior Alex Kent finished in a tie for 17th overall with a score of 28.
"Steve Ratay did a fantastic job," said head coach George Thomas. "We got off to a mediocre start this year, and that set the tone, where I did not think we performed as well as I had hoped. I was pleased with our third place finish at Kent State. I'm very optimistic for next year. I expect the freshmen and sophomore's to take over with Ratay who has been the nucleus of this team."
- Brian Burke
Notre Dame Women's Golf
The Notre Dame women's golf team made huge strides this season, winning three tournaments, a single season school record. The first win came at the Notre Dame Invitational in October, followed by the William and Mary Invitational and Illinois Invitational in the spring.
In the last win, senior Shane Smith finished in a tie for third with freshman teammate Shannon Byrne with 36 hole scores of 153. Senior Danielle Villarosa had the best finish of her career shooting 156, which was good for seventh place.
"This is the best year the women have had in my seven years with the program," head coach Ross Smith said. "To win three tournaments was great. Shane Smith has been a three year starter and our No. 1 player for two years.
"She had a very good career and will continue with golf playing futures next year. Danielle Villarosa's performance in that last tournament was great. I hate to say one performance won it with five golfers playing on a team, but her play put us over the edge to win the last one at Illinois."
- Brian Burke
Saint Mary's Golf
A stormy start to the MIAA season ended sunny as the Saint Mary's golf team wrapped up its season with a strong finish in the conference tournament.
Senior Kyle Veltri led the Belles to second place finish in the tournament with a third place individual finish.
The 2000 season kicked off on a day when the weather had other things in mind. The tournament the Belles hosted at Brookwood Golf Course fell prey to thunderstorms that ended the tournament prematurely and left the scores unrecorded.
The Belles spent the entire season battling with the Flying Dutch of Hope College. After it became clear that Albion would take home a first place finish in almost every meet, the Belles and the Flying Dutch teed off for second place. Five out of the seven times the two teams faced off, Saint Mary's came out victorious. But it was an overall low team score that left the Flying Dutch with the second place finish by little more than two strokes — a team average of 360.3 compared to Saint Mary's 362.1.
Veltri ended her senior season with a personal victory. She placed individually in the MIAA top 15 and earned a spot on the All-MIAA second team along with freshman Jennifer DeWitt.
"It was a lot of work leading up to the season, a lot of preparation," Veltri said. "So I was delighted to see it turn out the way it did."
- Katie McVoy
All Sports Stories for Friday, May 18, 2001
