NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Sophomore forward Adriana Leon (Maple, Ontario/The Country Day School) celebrated a very happy birthday with a goal and an assist, while freshman forward Lauren Bohaboy (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita) and senior defender/tri-captain Jessica Schuveiller (Plano, Texas/Plano West) also scored goals, leading Notre Dame to its second consecutive shutout victory, a 3-0 BIG EAST Conference decision over Providence on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Stadium.

Senior forward/tri-captain Melissa Henderson (Garland, Texas/Berkner) chipped in with her BIG EAST-leading sixth assist of the season (third of the weekend), while senior defender Molly Campbell (Mission Hills, Kan./St. Teresa’s Academy) and freshman midfielder Sammy Scofield (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) also added assists for the Fighting Irish — for Scofield, it was the first point of her collegiate career.

Notre Dame (6-5-2, 3-2-1 BIG EAST) owned an 18-2 edge in total shots, including an 11-2 margin in shots on goal (the two total shots and two shots on goal by PC both were opponent season lows). The Fighting Irish also had a massive season-high 10-1 advantage in corner kicks, while Providence was called for 13 of the 20 fouls in the physical match, as well as all three yellow cards.

Junior goalkeeper Maddie Fox (San Jose, Calif./Leigh) worked the first 86:03 in the Notre Dame net, making two saves, both on Friar shots that came from well outside the penalty area. Freshman Sarah Voigt (Middleburg, Fla./St. John’s Country Day School) came on to spell Fox during the final four minutes and did not need to make a stop in completing the second shared shutout in three days for the Fighting Irish.

“Now we’re getting back to what Notre Dame soccer is all about,” Fighting Irish head coach Randy Waldrum said. “We got another full 90-minute effort from everyone, and the contributions came from several different players, which is good to see. Overall, this was a good weekend for us with two shutouts and six goals against two solid and determined teams in Connecticut and Providence. We just need to keep plugging away and focus on a good week of training before our next game on the road against a talented and up-and-coming Seton Hall team.”

Notre Dame was in control of Sunday’s matinee virtually from the opening kickoff. The Fighting Irish maintained a sizeable possession edge on the Friars, methodically building up to several prime scoring chance. The first of these came in the 11th minute, when Schuveiller worked a give-and-go with Leon on the right side before sliding a pass inside to Henderson coming down the channel, but the All-America striker’s left-footed drive from the top of the box was pushed wide of the right post by Providence goalkeeper Caitlin Walker (the first of her eight saves on the day).

Patience paid off for Notre Dame, which broke through in the 22nd minute. Junior defender Jazmin Hall (Highland Village, Texas/Marcus) began the scoring sequence with a timely run down the left flank before sending a cross that sailed all the way to Leon on the far right side of the area. The second-year Canadian attacker quickly slipped the ball back towards Henderson in the goal mouth, and in turn, Henderson one-touched a pass to Bohaboy, who made no mistake with her eight-yard shot (21:31).

The Fighting Irish nearly doubled their lead 11 minutes, as Campbell found sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Tucker (Jacksonville, Fla./Bishop Kenny) on a corner kick, and Tucker lofted a cross to the back left post, where Scofield played it back across the face. Schuveiller went high for the surprise header just inside the penalty spot, but Walker went high to make the reflex save, tipping the shot over the bar to keep the visitors within sight at halftime.

Notre Dame would begin to leave Providence in the rear-view mirror in the opening moments of the second half, as the Campbell-Scofield-Schuveiller combination finished what it started in the first half. After Hall knocked down an attempted clearance by the Friars at the edge of the attacking third, she sent a pass out wide on the right flank to Campbell, who alertly whipped a service into the box. Scofield read the cross perfectly and rose up at the back post to head the ball back towards the scoring zone and Schuveiller finished off the play with a short-range flying header at 46:59.

Now trailing by two goals, Providence tried to get physical with the Fighting Irish, committing eight fouls and picking up all three of its yellow cards during the ensuing 20 minutes. Notre Dame wisely kept its composure and instead, the Fighting Irish tried to do more damage where it mattered most — on the scoreboard. Scofield tested Walker in the 58th minute, re-directing a shot by fellow freshman Karin Simonian (Westbury, N.Y./W.T. Clarke) but the PC netminder was equal to the task. Henderson also tried to spring Leon on a run down the right channel in the 74th minute, yet Walker again bailed her defense out, charging off her line to smother Leon’s shot from 12 yards away.

After being in the midst of much of the offensive action during the afternoon, it was no surprise Leon was going to eventually strike. That’s exactly what she did in the 84th minute, picking up the ball in the left channel, cutting inside her defender at the top of the area and firing an arrow that beat Walker on the short side, high into the upper left corner of the net (83:59).

Notre Dame heads back on the road next weekend for a two-match swing through the state of New Jersey. The Fighting Irish will open up at 7 p.m. (ET) Friday at Seton Hall, before moving on to visit Rutgers at noon (ET) Sunday. Live statistics and a live interactive chat will be offered for both matches through the Irish UNDerground blog (www.UND.com/blog) on the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.UND.com).

For more information on the Notre Dame women’s soccer program, join the Fighting Irish women’s soccer news Twitter page (@NDsoccernews) or sign up for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the sidebar on the women’s soccer page at UND.com. 

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POST MATCH NOTES: Notre Dame registers back-to-back shutouts for the first time since last year’s NCAA Women’s College Cup, when the Fighting Irish blanked Ohio State and Stanford by identical 1-0 scores to win their third national championship … Notre Dame continues its recent success on Sundays, as the Fighting Irish now are unbeaten in 23 of their last 26 Sunday matches (20-3-3), while also improving to 39-5-4 (.854) in their last 48 contests on Sunday, dating back to September 2007 … Notre Dame rises to 30-3 at Alumni Stadium, since its new home facility opened in September 2009 … the Fighting Irish are now 16-0 all-time against Providence (9-0 in South Bend), including a 14-0 record in BIG EAST play … Notre Dame has outscored Providence by an aggregate 79-2 margin in the series (74-2 in the BIG EAST) with 14 shutouts in 16 all-time meetings (12 of those clean sheets coming in conference action) … the Fighting Irish earned a season-high 10 corner kicks (previous high was nine against Wisconsin in the season opener on Aug. 19 at Alumni Stadium), while holding Providence to opponent season lows of two total shots (previous was four by Tulsa on Sept. 2 at Alumni Stadium) and two shots on goal (previously done twice, most recently by Indiana on Sept. 4 at Alumni Stadium) … Notre Dame also was flagged for offside a season-high eight times (after having 16 offside calls all season prior to Sunday), the most by the Fighting Irish since Sept. 5, 2008, when they were called offsides nine times in a 1-0 win at North Carolina … Henderson (who left immediately after the match to make her flight to southern California for this week’s U.S. Under-23 National Team camp) has tallied a point in eight of her last 10 matches (including three assists in two contests during the weekend), and Notre Dame improves to 50-2-3 all-time when she collects a point, something she’s also done in 35 of her last 48 matches, dating back to the 2009 season … Schuveiller scored a goal for the third consecutive match, potting her career-high fourth goal of the year and capping off a five-point weekend (Sunday’s goal was the first of Schuveiller’s eight career scores that wasn’t either a match-winner or a tying goal) … Bohaboy has scored all five of her goals this season during BIG EAST play, all in the past five matches … Leon notched her second multi-point outing of the year, after piling up a career-high seven points (2G-1A) against Tulsa on Sept. 2 … Campbell earned her second assist of 2011, and first since the season opener against Wisconsin on Aug. 19, when she set up Henderson’s insurance score in the 61st minute … the Fighting Irish move to 330-0-1 all-time when taking a 2-0 lead, including wins in their last 307 matches when going ahead by that score … Notre Dame also is now 301-3-1 all-time when scoring three goals in a match, including a 203-1-0 record since Oct. 6, 1995 … once again, Notre Dame players wore specially-designed uniforms (modeled after the 2008-09 Fighting Irish men’s soccer kits), with these jerseys available to the public via an on-line auction (UND.com/auctions) that continues through Oct. 17; the proceeds from this auction will go to the Steve Emrich Fund, which helps defray medical expenses for longtime Notre Dame supporter Steve Emrich, who has been hospitalized since late May with severe action myoclonus following a stroke, subsequent cardiac arrest and even a three-week coma that he has since emerged from (see UND.com/emrich for more information, or to learn how you can contribute to this cause).

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