Heft reaches milestone as Irish claim two wins
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Associate Sports Editor
The Notre Dame women's soccer team captured the Big East Mid-Atlantic Division championship with a 5-1 victory over division rival West Virginia on Friday night.
The Irish followed up the victory over the Mountaineers with a 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Panthers on Sunday afternoon.
Against the Mountaineers, the Irish opened a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute when Jenny Heft scored her 70th career goal off of assists from Jenny Streiffer and Jen Grubb.
"It was a great ball from Streiffer," Heft said. "I saw her streaking down the field and I was just making a crossing run. She played a perfect through ball and played it past the keeper."
While the Irish went into halftime leading 1-0, they missed out on a few scoring opportunities and allowed the Mountaineers to slip through the defense a few times.
"I really wasn't too pleased with the first half because I didn't think we were very sharp," Waldrum said. "I thought defensively we were very lackadaisical. I didn't think we were winning the head battles. But we turned that all around in the second half and I think we won 28 of the air battles in the second half and only lost one. So I felt much better in the second half."
In the second half, Notre Dame's offense opened up the scoring just 2:16 into the half. Anne Makinen took a pass from Ashley Dryer and Kara Brown and blasted the ball toward the net from 22 yards away. The shot skimmed of Panther defender and past the keeper for Makinen's seventh goal of the year.
The Irish attack struck again in the 60th minute when junior forward Meotis Erikson picked up her eighth goal of the year when she shot the ball into the upper center of the goal. Heft picked up an assist on the play.
West Virginia pulled within two in the 63rd minute. Mountaineer senior Stacey Sollman fired a free kick that deflected off a West Virginia players and rolled across the box. Freshman Katie Barnes collected the ball and fired it past an outstretched LaKeysia Beene and into the net for her 11th goal of the year.
Irish defender Kelly Lindsey was not overly concerned with the fluke Mountaineer goal because it did not result from a defensive break down.
"It just slipped through her legs and crossed across the box without anyone noticing," Lindsey said. "They just snuck in on it."
Senior Iris Lancaster scored her second goal of the year in the 89th minute and pushed the Irish lead back to three, 4-1.
The win clinched the Mid-Atlantic title for the Irish and assured them of hosting the first round of the Big East tournament. Getting a home playoff game is important to the Irish.
"It's definitely important," Waldrum said. "We don't want to travel anymore than we have to. I think we really only have three or four home weekends so we want to be home as much as possible through the playoffs."
The Irish improved to 11-2 on the year with a 5-0 win over the Panthers on Sunday. Beene and Elizabeth Wagner combined for the shutout for Notre Dame.
Streiffer scored the first two goals of the game for the Irish. Both of her goals came off head balls with two minutes and 43 seconds of each other. Her 58th and 59th goals of her career leave her just one goal shy of becoming the fourth player in NCAA history to pick up 60 goals and 60 assists.
Heft added the third and fifth Irish goals of the night to give her 72 career goals, tying her with Monica Gerardo for the most goals in Irish history.
Lancaster headed her third goal of the season into the net in the 70th minute.
All Sports Stories for Monday, October 11, 1999
