Nov. 18, 2007
Box Score
NOTRE DAME, Ind. -
The Illinois soccer team suffered a 2-0 defeat to Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Field, ending the Illini's 2007 season. The Orange and Blue finish the season with a record of 12-7-2, marking the fifth straight season Illinois has collected at least 12 wins. With the win, regional four seed Notre Dame advances to the Round of 16 to face defending champion North Carolina.
"You have to play in away that winning doesn't matter, but also in a way that you leave everything out there," head coach Janet Rayfield said. "I thought we left everything out there today."
Notre Dame (17-4-2) attacked early but Illinois' defense held steady thanks to a pair of impressive saves by senior goalkeeper Lindsey Carstens. The first stop came at the 3:29 mark when Irish forward Michele Weissenhofer drew Carstens to the left side of the box. Weissenhofer fired a shot as Carstens came out from between the posts, but the West Chester, Ohio, native made a diving stop to prevent Notre Dame from the early score.
Carstens made another crucial stop in the 16th minute as Irish forward Kerri Hanks drove into the six. Carstens pounced on the ball as Hanks took a shot, deflecting the ball to junior defender Emily Zurrer to clear the box.
"Notre Dame has a lot of dangerous attacking weapons," Rayfield said. "I thought we did a really good job in terms of taking good chances away from them and Lindsey (Carstens) was a part of that."
Notre Dame got on the board at 26:34 on a second-chance goal. After the Illinois defense blocked a shot from the top of the box by Irish forward Amanda Cinalli, Weissenhofer took the rebound and drilled it into the net past a diving Carstens to give the Irish a 1-0 lead.
The Illini nearly tied the game in the 42nd minute when senior forward Ella Masar sent a corner kick into the box. Sophomore midfielder Jackie Santacaterina got a head on the ball, but Irish keeper Lauren Karas dove to her right, narrowly making the stop.
Notre Dame went up 2-0 at 43:32 as the ball took an unfortunate bounce off Zurrer and rolled past Carstens into Illinois' own goal. Hanks had dribbled down the right side before centering a pass in front of the goal, but with no Irish attacker nearby, the ball deflected into the net to give Notre Dame a two-goal advantage at halftime.
"We had to catch our breath," Rayfield said of the own goal. "But when we got into the locker room there was no sense of frustration. There was truly a sense of, `We've got to get two now instead of just one.'"
The Illini came out fighting in the second half, taking seven shots to just three in the first half. Despite adding another attacker late in the game, dropping to three defenders instead of the usual four, Illinois couldn't find a crease in the solid Irish defense. Although the Illini continued to battle, Notre Dame held on for the 2-0 win and right to advance to the Round of 16.
"I'm proud of the way we came out in the second half," Rayfield said. "We said, `If you're going to win, you have to fight us.' Credit it to [Notre Dame], but I'm proud of the way our team battled."
Carstens finished the day with four saves to Karas' three. The two teams were evenly matched with three corners apiece, while Notre Dame owned a 13-10 shot advantage. It marked just the third time this season that Illinois has been shut out.
For six seniors, it was the final time to don the Orange and Blue. Rayfield says that the class composed of Carstens, Kara Gostisha, Mary Therese McDonnell, Shannon McDonnell, Masar and Kristy Weeks has left an indelible mark on Illinois soccer.
"It's hard to put in words what this class has meant to the program," Rayfield said. "Each class leaves its own unique mark. This program has adopted this class's personality as its own and it will be part of Illinois soccer forever."
