Irish overcome gusting winds to defeat Huskies, 4-2
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Associate Sports Editor
PISCATAWAY, N.J
The Notre Dame women's soccer team extended its Big East championship winning streak to 15 games and won its fifth straight conference championship with a 4-2 win over the Connecticut Huskies on a windy Sunday afternoon at Yarack Field in Piscataway, N.J.
Both teams played conservatively with neither team attacking or taking many risks.
"I thought it was a great game," head coach Randy Waldrum said. "I didn't think we played great soccer but that's what happens in championship games. You get two good teams and you become very conservative. I think that was a bit of the case today."
The Irish used goals from Jenny Streiffer, Jenny Heft, Ali Lovelace and a goal by the Huskies in their own net to overcome gusting winds that played havoc with long kicks and crosses all afternoon. With the wind at their backs in the first half, the Irish opened the scoring 8 minutes and 12 seconds into the first half when Streiffer broke behind the Huskie defense and took a pass from Big East Defensive Player of the Year Jen Grubb. One-on-one with goalkeeper Maria Yatrakis, Streiffer fired a hard shot over her head for a 1-0 Irish lead.
The Huskies gave the Irish a gift goal 28 minutes later. A UConn defender attempted to pass the ball back to Yatrakis in her own net, but the Huskie keeper misplayed the ball and watched it roll into the goal.
After the miscue, Yatrakis seemed to lose confidence and almost gave away another goal when she kicked a ball to Streiffer just outside the box. Streiffer, however, could not put the ball in the empty net from a tough angle. Yatrakis was replaced by Shanna Caldwell at halftime.
Irish head coach Randy Waldrum said that getting a first half lead with the wind was important for the Irish from a mental standpoint.
"Psychologically, if you go into halftime without any goals and you had the wind," Waldrum said. "It's tougher to come out after the half because the other team thinks they have done their jobs. It makes it tougher to play against them in the second half."
While the wind aided the Irish in the first half by knocking down the Huskies' long passes and carrying Irish clears deep down field, the second half was completely different. The Huskies used their long balls to get behind the Irish defense while Notre Dame's clears died in the strong breeze and fell well short of their targets.
"[The wind] helped us the first half because they like to use the long balls and it was stopping them for us," junior captain Kelly Lindsey said. "In the second half, when they would play a long ball, it was tough to judge."
Irish goalkeeper Lakeysia Beene noticed a considerable difference in her goal kicks and punts in the second half.
"In the first half they were flying past midfield but in the second half they were kind of hanging in midair," the second team All-Big East goalkeeper said.
The wind played a critical role on Connecticut's first goal of the game. Beene kicked a goal kick toward midfield that the wind caught and dropped to the earth a few yards outside the Irish penalty box. Huskie midfielder Alexa Borisjuk headed the ball ahead to midfielder Santa Ralla who broke behind the Notre Dame back line and made a one-on-one rush toward Beene. Beene had no chance on the ball as Ralla chipped the ball over her head to close the gap to 2-1.
Notre Dame senior Jenny Heft answered Connecticut's goal seven minutes later. Junior Anne Makinen fed Heft between two Huskie defenders a few yards outside the Connecticut penalty box. Heft dribbled into the box, spun her defender around and beat Caldwell to the right side to give the Irish a 3-1 lead with 35 minutes left in the second half.
"When they got that early goal in the second half, it really worried me," Waldrum said. "I thought we were going to have trouble but then Jenny Heft got that goal. It was a big goal for us to get back to a two goal cushion in the second half."
In the 19th minute, Lovelace picked up her third goal of the postseason when Streiffer unselfishly passed up a scoring opportunity to feed Lovelace at point-blank range. Streiffer took a pass from Heft and drew a Huskie defender and the attention of Caldwell before dishing to Lovelace for an easy goal.
The Huskies scored a goal in the 86th minute when Mary-Frances Monroe threw a number of fakes in the box to shake the Irish defense and beat Irish goalkeeper Elizabeth Wagner to the right side on a hard shot. Wagner had replaced Beene in the Irish net in the 74th minute. The Monroe goal was the first allowed by Wagner in her two years at Notre Dame.
All Sports Stories for Monday, November 8, 1999
