Printer-Friendly Format     E-mail this article     Notre Dame rising senior forward (and three-time All-American) Kerri Hanks helped the U.S. U-23 Women's National Team win the Nordic Cup for the 10th time in 12 years with a 3-0 win over Germany on Monday night in Borlange, Sweden. Hanks is the fifth Irish player in the past four years to play for a U.S. Nordic Cup champion.

 
Notre Dame Women's Soccer Summer Notebook #3

Hanks helps U.S. U-23s win Nordic Cup; Waldrum has Trinidad & Tobago on verge of CONCACAF U-17 semifinals.

July 21, 2008

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Notre Dame rising senior forward Kerri Hanks (Allen, Texas/Allen) and her United States U-23 Women's National Team compatriots won the prestigious Nordic Cup with a 3-0 victory over Germany on Monday night in Borlange, Sweden. It's the 10th Nordic Cup title in the past 12 years for Team USA, with four of those championships (2000, 2002, 2007, 2008) coming at Germany's expense.

Hanks appeared in all four matches for the U.S. during the Nordic Cup, registering an assist during the Americans' 3-0 group-play win over England. As a team, the Stars & Stripes outscored their Nordic Cup opponents, 9-0, with only Switzerland managing to stay within a goal of the United States (Team USA prevailed 1-0 in the teams' opening-night match).

Hanks becomes the latest Notre Dame player to contribute to a U.S. Nordic Cup championship. Rising junior forward Michele Weissenhofer (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) and recently-graduated Irish forward/midfielder (and new volunteer assistant) Amanda Cinalli played on last year's Nordic Cup-winning squad, which was still at the U-21 level before beginning its current transition to U-23 status. Other former Irish players who were part of Nordic Cup championship teams include midfielder Jen Buczkowski (2005) and goalkeeper Erika Bohn (2005), who played integral roles on Notre Dame's 2004 NCAA national championship team.

Played annually in Northern Europe, the Nordic Cup is considered one of the world's premier youth soccer tournaments. The United States has been far and away the dominant program in the tournament, winning 10 titles since it began playing in the event (and making it the focus of the USA's oldest Youth National Team) in 1993.

Hanks also is the second current Irish player to suit up for the United States in international competition this summer. Rising sophomore defender/midfielder Lauren Fowlkes (Lee's Summit, Mo./St. Teresa's Academy) donned the Stars & Stripes for the CONCACAF U-20 Championships (held June 18-28 in Puebla, Mexico), helping the Americans to a runner-up finish in the tournament and guaranteeing the U.S. a berth in the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, to be held this November in Chile.

In addition, Notre Dame will have a strong presence at the upcoming Olympics in Beijing, China, with four Irish women's soccer alums set to compete -- Shannon Boxx and Kate (Sobrero) Markgraf for the United States, and Candace Chapman and Melissa Tancredi for Canada. The USA enters the Olympic tournament with a 21-0-1 record this year (and is riding a streak of seven consecutive shutouts) under first-year head coach Pia Sundhage, with the Americans set to kick off the competition Aug. 6 vs. Norway (7:45 a.m. ET) at the Olympic Sports Center in Qinhuangdao. Team Canada is 8-5-5 this year as it heads to China, with the Maple Leafs' opening match (their first Olympic contest since the sport was added to the Games' lineup in 1996) also scheduled for Aug. 6 against Argentina (5 a.m. ET) in Tianjin at the Olympic Center Stadium.

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Waldrum Leads Trinidad & Tobago To Brink Of CONCACAF U-17 Semifinals
Notre Dame head coach has Caribbean nation poised to qualify for first-ever FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Irish head coach Randy Waldrum has led the Trinidad & Tobago U-17 Women's National Team to the brink of a semifinals berth at the CONCACAF U-17 Championships, which are currently being played in Trinidad & Tobago.

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- Notre Dame head women's soccer coach Randy Waldrum has wasted little time in successfully molding the Trinidad & Tobago U-17 Women's National Team into a competitive unit on the international scene. Most recently, Waldrum has guided T&T (affectionately known in the Caribbean island nation as the "Soca Princesses") to the verge of a berth in the semifinals at the CONCACAF U-17 Championships, currently being held in Trinidad & Tobago.

The Soca Princesses opened the tournament with a convincing 5-1 victory over El Salvador last Friday night (July 18) before recording a 0-0 draw with Costa Rica on Sunday night (July 20). T&T will face the United States in its last group-play contest on Tuesday evening, with Waldrum's charges in second place on four points behind the USA (six points) in the Group A standings. The hosts can book a place in the tournament semifinals with a win or a tie over the U.S., and can even advance with a loss if the combined margin of its defeat and a Costa Rica win over El Salvador is nine goals or fewer (Costa Rica has one point in the group and a minus-6 goal differential, compared to T&T's plus-4 differential).

By advancing to the CONCACAF U-17 semifinals, Trinidad & Tobago would put itself one victory away from securing a berth in the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, which will take place Oct. 28-Nov. 16 in New Zealand. The two CONCACAF tournament finalists and the winner of the third-place match will claim the region's three spots in the World Cup.

The CONCACAF U-17 Championship semifinals are scheduled for Thursday night (5 and 7 p.m. ET), with the finals penciled in for Sunday, July 27 at 4 p.m. ET (third-place match) and 6 p.m. ET (championship match). The semifinals and finals both will be played on the artificial turf at Marvin Lee Stadium in Macoya, Trindad & Tobago.

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NOTE: For more information on all Notre Dame athletes involved with United States Women's National Teams, visit the U.S. Soccer web site at www.ussoccer.com. For information on Coach Waldrum and the Trinidad & Tobago U-17 Women's National Team, visit that country's official soccer web site (www.ttffonline.com) or its national supporters' group web site (www.socawarriors.net).