Notre Dame remained No. 1 in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25 with a pair of wins in Big East games that drew almost 6,000 fans at Alumni Field.
The Irish rallied from a goal down at halftime to beat previously unbeaten West Virginia, 3-1, before 3,056 fans on Friday night. The Irish got goals from freshman Michele Weissenhofer, Kerri Hanks and Amanda Cinalli and held the Mountaineers without a shot for the final 74 minutes.
Two days later, Weissenhofer scored twice to lead the Irish to a 5-0 win over Pittsburgh before 2,681 fans — the largest Irish crowd ever on Sunday. Notre Dame improved to 11-0-0 with the victory.
With Rice‘s 1-0 loss to Central Florida and West Virginia’s defeat in South Bend, Notre Dame, Villanova (11-0-2) and Navy (12-0-0) are the only remaining unbeaten teams in the NCAA Division I women’s ranks.
No. 4 Portland drew a sellout crowd of 4,892 for its 5-0 win over Pacific Northwest rival Washington. Despite playing without All-Americans Megan Rapinoe and Stephanie Lopez, both away with the U.S. national team for its match against Chinese Taipei, the Pilots dominated UW. Freshman Michelle Enyeart led the attack with two goals and an assist.
Two days after the Mountaineers’ loss at Notre Dame, Canadian sophomore Deana Everrett tied the West Virginia record by scoring three first-half goals in a 4-0 win at DePaul.
Penn State‘s 31-game winning streak in Big Ten regular-season play came to an end when the Nittany Lions blew a 2-0 halftime lead against Illinois and lost, 3-2. Ella Masar’s second goal of the game gave the Illini the victory before a record 2,667 fans at Illinois Soccer and Track Stadium.
- STAT OF THE WEEK
UCLA freshman Lauren Cheney has five game-winning goals in seven collegiate games since joining the Bruins after the Under-20 Women’s World Championship. Cheney, widely considered this year’s top recruit, registered two goals in the Bruins’ 3-0 win over San Diego and scored the only goal in their 1-0 win over Gonzaga.