Girls’ soccer: Gianni’s goalie conversion helping Notre Dame

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For someone who had never seen playing time as a goalie until this season, Notre Dame senior Jeannie Gianni is proving you can teach old soccer players new tricks.

Gianni was a midfielder for the Knights as a junior, but she underwent a ‘hands-on’ conversion over the off-season once Coach Sarah Farnham realized the team would have to find a replacement for graduating Mission League MVP Katie Beaulieu. And since there weren’t any players joining the team this fall with goaltending experience, Gianni became the lucky new owner of a pair of gloves and an off-colored jersey.

‘She’s really come a long way,’ Farnham said. ‘I remember in a preseason game we played, she kept looking over at the sidelines with that questionable look on her face. Now, she’s playing with a lot of confidence and she’s learned to trust the defense in front of her.’

Thanks to Gianni’s contributions and a strong defensive corps led by CSUN-bound sweeper Marie Hirsch, the Knights are surrendering less than a goal a game and are sporting a 7-0-2 record heading into what should be a very competitive Flintridge Sacred Heart tournament on Thursday. There are even some murmurs, thanks to its Simi Valley tournament title last week, that this Notre Dame squad could finally break Harvard-Westlake‘s Mission League stranglehold and bring home the program’s first league title.

‘This is the best team we’ve ever had,’ said Farnham, who played for Notre Dame back in the late ‘90s. ‘We’re really hoping to finally win a league championship.’

-- Austin Knoblauch