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Just For Kicks
WHEN the Notre Dame women's soccer team started fall practice in defense of its 1995 NCAA Division I title, there were a number of top recruits competing to help the Fighting Irish remain a national power. Lancaster fought
good fight for IrishThere was one walk-on, Iris Lancaster, a 5-foot-3 freshman midfielder from Kamehameha Schools, who showed up when the team was having two sessions a day.
"I just went through the normal practice," Lancaster said. "After the first day, Chris Petrucelli (head coach at that time) told me if I wanted to stay on the team I was welcome to come back the next day. I was very happy he decided to take a chance on me."
It was a big step for Lancaster. Notre Dame's record (.869 winning percentage) is second only to 15-time national champion North Carolina in the '90s.
Because her soccer skills were complemented by her outstanding speed (two track letters at Kamehameha), Lancaster was moved to the striker position. She became a valuable substitute and was one of six four-year letter winners on the 1999 team that lost the national title game to the Tar Heels, 2-0.
In 58 career matches, she scored eight goals and had six assists. She played in the 1999 title match and in the huge semifinal-round upset of previously undefeated Santa Clara.
"The feeling after that game was just incredible," Lancaster said. "I definitely will never forget it because of the way the game was set up, us coming in as underdogs, Santa Clara having such a great team."
THE final four was played in San Jose, Calif., next door to the Santa Clara campus.
"Our crowd was basically our parents," Lancaster said. "It just felt so good after the game when there was silence. It was the most awesome feeling I've ever had in athletics."
It was a complete swing from her days as a freshman walk-on, which she termed one of the most terrifying things she had ever had to do.
Soccer wasn't a focus when Lancaster narrowed her college choices to Boston College and Notre Dame. Both schools offered academic programs that suited her needs.
"I've always liked to challenge myself so I figured why not try for something I really love to do," she said.
By her sophomore year, she had made the Fighting Irish traveling squad. Her game appearances doubled to 16.
"They have a lot of freshmen coming in with international experience who are a lot better than I am, so it was quite an accomplishment," Lancaster said.
"It was a little overwhelming, but after the first two years I realized experience does count for something."
Lancaster will graduate in May with a double major in English and sociology. She carries a 3.3 grade-point average.
None of Lancaster's achievements would surprise Michelle Nagamine, her coach at Kamehameha.
"Iris is just exceptional. She was always, and to this day, one of the hardest working players I've ever coached," Nagamine said. "She is a gifted athlete who is always striving to improve herself."
But after her freshman season at Notre Dame, Lancaster did surprise Nagamine during Christmas vacation.
"She came into my office with a box all wrapped up," Nagamine said. "I told her we had never exchanged gifts, that I didn't have anything for her, but she said the box was for me. It was her participant's trophy from the 1996 final four with a thank you note. I balled like a baby."
"If it weren't for the coaches at Kamehameha, I wouldn't have had this opportunity. I'm very grateful to them for helping me get to where I got to," Lancaster said.