Horizon League champion Loyola draws Notre Dame to open NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament
Nov. 13, 2007 INDIANAPOLIS --
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Loyola (14-8-1 overall) captured its second consecutive Horizon League title on Sunday (Nov. 11), rallying from a two-goal deficit in the final 15 minutes of regulation to gain a 2-2 tie before outlasting top-seeded University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 3-2 in penalty kicks in the championship match. The Ramblers finished second behind UWM in the Horizon League regular-season standings, posting a 7-1-0 record in loop play.
Loyola stood at 3-5-0 on Sept. 16 but has compiled an 11-3-1 ledger since that time. Rambler coac Frank Mateus leads the circuit's highest-scoring team (40 goals in 2007). LU has matched the program's single-season record for victories, set by last year's team which finished 14-7-3.
The Rambler attack features the 2007 Horizon League Player of the Year in sophomore forward Cynthia Morote-Ariza. The Chicago native assisted on both Rambler goals in the League title match to earn Most Valuable Player recognition in the League tournament, and tops the loop charts in goals (17), assists (nine) and points (43). The goal and point totals represent LU single-season records, with Morote-Ariza already owning the Rambler career scoring mark at 70 points.
Senior forward Katie Heidenreich and junior forward Alexia Murray provide support on the Rambler attack. Heidenreich boasts five goals and three assists (13 points) this fall, with Murray's four goals and two helpers giving Loyola a trio of double-digit scorers. Freshman Colleen Dougherty has compiled a 1.02 goals-against average with seven shutouts. She has yielded only two goals in her last four outings, anchoring a defense which owns 11 shutouts this year.
Friday's contest is a re-match of sorts for Loyola. The Ramblers' first NCAA run came to an abrupt end with a 5-0 loss to Notre Dame in 2003. LU returned to the national summit last fall, falling to the University of Florida, 2-0.
Notre Dame carries a 13-match unbeaten streak into this year's event after finishing second in last year's national tournament. UND (15-4-2) had won 12 matches in a row before dropping a penalty-kick shootout to West Virginia University in the Big East Conference championship contest. A pair of juniors lead the Fighting Irish attack with Kerri Hanks boasting 13 goals and 15 assists (41 points) while Brittany Bock has 12 goals and three helpers for 27 points.
The winner of Friday's match meets either the University of Louisville (13-5-2) or the University of Illinois (11-6-2) in the second round at Notre Dame's Alumni Field. The pod is one of 16 sites hosting first- and second-round action, with this year's national champion crowned Dec. 9 at the Aggie Soccer Complex in College Station, Texas.
Loyola attempts to continue one trend for the Horizon League, which has had teams advance to the second round in each of the last three national tournaments. The University of Detroit Mercy defeated the University of Michigan 3-2 in the first round of the 2004 tournament, with Milwaukee advancing following penalty-kick shootouts against Purdue University in 2005 and versus Michigan last fall.
Defending national champion University of North Carolina and the University of Connecticut are the only two teams who have been invited to the tournament every year since its inception in 1982. UNC has won 18 of the first 25 NCAA women's soccer championships.
UNC is the top seed in Loyola's quadrant of the bracket, with Stanford University (14-3-4), Penn State University (16-3-2) and UCLA (16-1-2) receiving the other number-one seeds.
The complete list of pairings can be found in the PDF version of this release.
###
