June 3, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s soccer team, under first-year head coach Bobby Clark, will play an 18-game regular-season slate in 2001. The upcoming campaign will be highlighted by two tournaments during the season — the Furman Invitational (Sept. 7 & 9) and the first annual Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament to be held at Notre Dame’s Alumni Field, Sept. 14 & 16.
Notre Dame will open up the season with two exhibition games against IUPUFW (Aug. 25) and Michigan (Aug. 26) at the IUPUFW Showcase in Fort Wayne, Ind. This will be the second straight year that the Irish will be participating in this preseason event.
The regular season begins with a BIG EAST matchup at home against Villanova on Sat., Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m. It will be the first of 10 BIG EAST contests during the ’01 campaign for the Irish. Following that contest, Notre Dame travels to Greenville, S.C. where it will participate in the Furman Invitational. The Irish are scheduled to play host Furman (Sept. 7 at 7:00 ) and Clemson (Sept. 9) in the two-day event. It will be the first-ever meetings with each of the schools.
The following weekend, Fri., Sept. 14 and Sun., Sept. 16, Notre Dame will play host to the first annual Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament, in honor of former Irish head coach Mike Berticelli, the Irish head coach for 10 seasons (1990-99) before his death untimely death in January of 2000. St. Mary’s of Calif., Akron and Rhode Island will be the three other participating teams in the tournament. On Sept. 14, St. Mary’s will play at Akron at 5:00 p.m. followed by the Irish and Rams at 7:00 p.m. On Sept. 16, Rhode Island meets St. Mary’s at noon, and in the fourth and final game of the tournament, Notre Dame will square off against Akron at 2:00 p.m.
Following the tournament, the Irish will play host to Cleveland State as the Vikings travel to Alumni Field for the third straight year. Notre Dame concludes the month of September with a BIG EAST home match against Rutgers on Sat., Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m before two road games at Bradley (Sept. 25) and Seton Hall (Sept. 29).
Nogtre Dame begins the month of October with a conference game against Georgetown on Fri., Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. before three straight road games against West Virginia (Oct. 11), Virginia Tech (1:00 p.m.) and Indiana (Oct. 17). The Hokies will be making their debut in men’s soccer this season as a BIG EAST Conference member. The Irish and Hoosiers will be renewing their in-state rivalry as this will be the first meeting between the two schools since the 1997 campaign.
Following the three straight road games, Notre Dame returns home to face Boston College on Sat., Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m., before playing two consecutive road contests against Providence (Oct. 24) and defending national champion Connecticut (Oct. 27). The Irish conclude the month of October at home against IUPUI on Tue., Oct. 30 at 7:00 p.m. before closing out the regular season at Alumni Field with a match against conference foe Syracuse on Sat., Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Notre Dame returns eight starters and 19 letterwinner from last season’s squad which finished with a 7-8-2 overall mark and 4-7-0 record in BIG EAST play.
Clark is the fourth coach in the program’s history after being named on Jan. 19, 2001. The 14-year veteran of the collegiate ranks owns a 153-63-25 record in his coaching tenure. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, he spent five seasons at Stanford (1996-2000) where he compiled a 71-21-12 for a .740 winning percentage. He led the Cardinal to four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances from 1997-2000, including a runner-up finish in 1998. Clark also spent nine seasons (1985-93) at Dartmout with his teams posting an 82-42-13 ledger that including two NCAA tournament berths.