Nov. 9, 2000

The No. 1-seeded Notre Dame women’s soccer team (20-0-1) will open play in the 2000 NCAA Tournament versus the University of Michigan, with the game to be played at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov., 12, at Notre Dame’s Alumni Field.

Michigan (13-8-1) advanced to the second round with a 4-3 double-overtime win over Miami (Ohio) University in NCAA first-round action Wednesday afternoon at the Michigan Soccer Field.

The winner of the Notre Dame-Michigan game will advance to the Nov. 17-19 third round, with a game versus the winner of Saturday’s Harvard at Hartford game (1 PM). Harvard advanced with Wednesday’s 2-1 win over visiting Quinnipiac.

Notre Dame-which was one of 16 teams to receive a first-round bye-holds a 6-0-0 edge in the Michigan series, including a 5-1 win at UM in the 2000 regular-season finale on Oct. 24.

The teams have met once previously in NCAA Tournament play, with the Irish posting a 3-0 win over the visiting Wolverines on Nov. 15, 1998.

Seven of the second-round matchups will be played on Saturday, Nov. 11, with the other nine to be played on Sunday afternoon.

Wednesday’s 16 first-round games saw just two teams win on their opponent’s field, with Boston University posting a 1-0 win at Holy Cross while Montana won by the same score at Washington State. BU moves on to play at Dartmouth (Sunday, 1 PM) while Montana next plays at second-seeded Washington (Sunday, noon).

On Notre Dame’s quadrant of the bracket, Stanford posted a 4-1 win over San Jose State (the Cardinal next plays a 5 PM game at BYU on Saturday) while Santa Clara downed visiting Cal Poly, 3-1 (SCU next travels to 8th-seeded California for a 1 PM Saturday game). The winners of those two games then will play in the third round, with that winner advancing to the Nov. 24-26 quarterfinal round vs. the team that emerges from Notre Dame’s portion of the bracket.

Other first-round results included Wake Forest’s 6-1 win over Liberty (WFU plays at 5th-seeded North Carolina on Sunday at 1 PM) and UNC Greensboro’s 3-2 win over William & Mary in double overtime (UNCG next plays at Virginia on Sunday at 2 PM).

Wisconsin survived a double-overtime scare from Princeton (1-0) and will play at Connecticut in a Sunday noon matchup while Richmond earned the chance to take on 4th-seeded Nebraska (Saturday, 7 PM) thanks to the Spiders’ 5-1 win over West Virginia.

Duke will get a chance to beat 3rd-seeded Clemson for the third time this season (Saturday, 7 PM) after opening with a 3-1 win over Furman. Florida State will renew its rivalry with Florida on Sunday at 2 PM, after FSU posted a first-round win over Jacksonville (4-1).

Marquette stayed alive with a 2-1 win over Wright State and next will play at Texas A&M (Sunday, 1 PM) while USC downed San Diego, 2-1, for the right to play at 6th-seeded UCLA (Saturday, 1 PM).

On the other side of BU’s portion of the bracket, Illinois downed Xavier (2-0) and next will play at 7th-seeded Penn State (Sunday, noon). The teams opposite Montana-Washington are Arizona State at Portland (Saturday, 1 PM), following ASU’s 2-0 win over Southwest Missouri State.