Dec. 13, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame women’s lacrosse coach Tracy Coyne has announced the 2008 women’s lacrosse schedule for the upcoming spring season.
The Irish will once again play an ambitious and aggressive schedule that will feature five teams that advanced to the NCAA tournament, including three-time defending national champion Northwestern, and eight other teams that finished the 2008 season ranked among the top 20 teams in the nation.
Notre Dame will also play host to the BIG EAST Tournament the weekend of April 25-27 with the four top teams in the conference playing for the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
The Irish open the regular season with a Friday and Sunday home games versus Canisius and Duquesne on Feb. 15 and 17. Both of those games played indoors at the Loftus Sports Center. They then close out February with a trip to Columbus, Ohio to face Ohio State on Feb. 24. That will be the first of a four-game road trip that will send Notre Dame to the West coast for three games over spring break.
On Sunday, March 2, Notre Dame travels to Stanford and then heads south to San Diego for a first-ever game versus the University of Oregon on Thursday, March 6. The Irish then close the trip with a game at Pasadena, Calif., in the Rose Bowl versus the University of California on Saturday, March 8.
Notre Dame returns home from March 13-22 for a three-game home stand that features games with Delaware (March 13), the BIG EAST opener against Syracuse (March 16) and a second BIG EAST home game against Loyola (Md.) on March 22.
After that, it’s a five-game road swing through the end of March and early April that will include games at Hofstra, Connecticut, Duke, Northwestern and Georgetown, before returning home to face Vanderbilt on April 16. The team travels to Rutgers on April 20 to close the BIG EAST regular-season schedule and will return home to host the BIG EAST Tournament. The BIG EAST began its conference tournament in 2007 at Syracuse with the Orange winning the automatic NCAA tournament bid.
Notre Dame then closes out the regular season on Saturday, May 3 when they play host to Cornell at Moose Krause Stadium.
“We play another challenging schedule in 2008,” says head coach Tracy Coyne.
“We have a strong mix of teams on this year’s schedule that should prepare us for postseason play. We’re very excited to be hosting the BIG EAST Tournament in April. The BIG EAST is one of the strongest conferences in the country with five of the teams ranked in the top 20 last season. I think we’ll have an exciting team this year and we’re looking forward to the coming season.”
The 2008 schedule also features three first-time opponents for the Irish, as they will face Oregon and Hofstra for the first time in the program’s 12-year history.
The nine teams that Notre Dame faces that finished 2007 ranked in the IWLCA top 20 are: Northwestern (#1), Duke (#6), Syracuse (#7), Georgetown (#8), Vanderbilt (#10), Rutgers (#14), Hofstra (#16), Ohio State (#19) and Connecticut (#20). From that group, Northwestern, Duke, Hofstra, Syracuse and Vanderbilt participated in the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame finished last year ranked 13th in the IWLCA poll.
2008 Notre Dame Women's Lacrosse Schedule
FebruaryFriday 15 Canisius 5:00 p.m.Sunday 17 Duquesne University 12:00 noonSunday 24 at Ohio State 1:00 p.m.
MarchSunday 2 at Stanford 1:00 p.m. (PST) at East West ChallengeThursday 6 vs. Oregon (at San Diego, Calif.) 8:00 p.m. (PST)Saturday 8 vs. California (at Pasadena, Calif.) 1:00 p.m. (PST)Thursday 13 Delaware 4:00 p.m.Sunday 16 Syracuse * 1:00 p.m.Saturday 22 Loyola (Md.) * 1:00 p.m.Tuesday 25 at Hofstra 4:00 p.m.Saturday 29 at Connecticut * 12:00 noon
AprilThursday 3 at Duke 4:00 p.m.Wednesday 9 at Northwestern 6:00 p.m. (CST)Saturday 12 at Georgetown * 1:00 p.m.Wednesday 16 Vanderbilt 4:30 p.m.Sunday 20 at Rutgers * 12:00 noon BIG EAST TournamentFriday 25 BIG EAST Semifinals (at Notre Dame) TBASunday 27 BIG EAST Championship (at Notre Dame) TBA
MaySaturday 3 Cornell 12:00 noon
* BIG EAST Conference gameBold denotes home game.Home games played at Loftus Sports Center and outdoors at Moose Krause Stadium.All times are local.