July 10, 2012
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Tickets for the 2012 Notre Dame men’s and women’s soccer seasons will go on sale Wednesday morning at the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office (Gate 9 of Purcell Pavilion). Both Fighting Irish squads are approximately one month away from the start of their upcoming campaigns, with the women playing nine regular-season matches and the men playing eight regular-season contests inside Alumni Stadium, one of the nation’s premier on-campus soccer facilities.
Season tickets will be available at a cost of $40 for adults and $30 for youths (ages 21 and younger) and seniors (ages 55 and older), while children ages three and younger are admitted free. In addition, a Fighting Irish “Fan Pack” of four season tickets may be purchased for $100. This year, Notre Dame season ticket packages include a variety of special amenities, including a Fighting Irish soccer scarf (one per season ticket purchased), priority seating in the blue chairbacks at Alumni Stadium, priority purchasing for any postseason matches (BIG EAST Conference or NCAA) hosted by Notre Dame, and free access to chalk talks with Fighting Irish staff prior to the men’s match vs. Pittsburgh (Oct. 3) and the women’s match vs. Seton Hall (Oct. 5).
What’s more, season ticket holders will have exclusive opportunities to meet the members of the Notre Dame men’s and women’s soccer teams, including the annual Notre Dame Soccer “Meet The Teams” BBQ, scheduled for Aug. 18 (time and location to be announced).
Individual match tickets also will go on sale Wednesday at $5 for adults and $3 for youths/seniors. Students at Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s or Holy Cross will be admitted free when showing a valid student ID, while Notre Dame faculty and staff also will receive free admission with their valid ID. Both offers are voided once Alumni Stadium reaches capacity.
Parking for all Notre Dame home soccer matches is free and available in the C1 lot, located south of Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, and southwest of the main entrance to Alumni Stadium.
To purchase a season pass or single-game tickets, call the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office at (574) 631-7356, visit the official Notre Dame athletics ticketing web site, UND.com/tickets or stop by the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office windows during normal business hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday). Tickets also can be purchased at Alumni Stadium on match days.
Special rates are available for groups wishing to attend Notre Dame soccer matches in 2012. Besides discounted tickets, groups may take part in autograph sessions with Fighting Irish players, join the teams on the field for pre-game introductions, and enjoy other unique opportunities. For group discount pricing information, contact Rita Baxter in the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office at (574) 631-4165 or rbaxter1@nd.edu.
Led by head coach Bobby Clark, the Fighting Irish men’s soccer team returns six starters and 14 monogram winners from last year’s club that went 9-5-4 and finished fourth in the BIG EAST’s Blue Division). Clark’s charges will kick off the home portion of their 2012 campaign at 7 p.m. (ET) Aug. 20, playing host to Xavier in an exhibition at Alumni Stadium. That contest will be Notre Dame’s annual game to benefit Grassroot Soccer (GRS), which is an international non-governmental organization that uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire and mobilize communities against the spread of HIV. GRS has a special connection to Notre Dame soccer as Dr. Tommy Clark, the eldest son of the Fighting Irish head coach, founded the organization. This will be the ninth season that Notre Dame has held a match to benefit GRS.
Notre Dame opens the regular season with a bang, welcoming Duke to town at 7:30 p.m. (ET) Aug. 25. Other highlights on this year’s Fighting Irish schedule include the 11th annual Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament on Sept. 7 & 9, with Notre Dame facing Oregon State (7:30 p.m. ET) and Akron (2:15 p.m. ET), respectively, while Indiana rounds out the four-team tournament field. Notre Dame also will play host to regional rival Michigan State (Sept. 14, 7 p.m. ET) and will tangle with Providence at noon (ET) on Oct. 20, just hours before the Fighting Irish football entertains BYU at Notre Dame Stadium.
Meanwhile, the Notre Dame women’s soccer program will open its 25th anniversary season with a pair of home exhibitions against Virginia (1 p.m. ET, Aug. 10) and Baylor (1 p.m. ET, Aug. 12), although both contests will be played at the team’s practice field, located behind the outfield wall of Frank Eck Baseball Stadium. Admission is free, with fans asked to park in the Gold Lot adjacent to Eck Stadium and follow the access road behind the outfield wall to the practice field.
The Fighting Irish kick off their 2012 regular season home schedule at 1 p.m. (ET) Aug. 26, welcoming East Carolina to Alumni Stadium for the first-ever meeting between the two schools. A week later, Notre Dame will play host to the 21st annual adidas Invitational, one of the nation’s top nonconference tournaments, with the Fighting Irish squaring off against fellow perennial powers Santa Clara (7:30 p.m. ET, Aug. 31) and North Carolina (1:30 p.m. ET, Sept. 2), while another BIG EAST member, Connecticut, completes the tournament field.
Among the other spotlighted matches on this year’s Notre Dame women’s soccer schedule are the BIG EAST opener with Louisville (4 p.m. ET, Sept. 14), as the Fighting Irish look to avenge a pair of one-goal losses to the Cardinals last season, including one in the BIG EAST Championship semifinals, and Senior Day against conference rival Rutgers (1 p.m. ET, Oct. 7).
For more information on the Notre Dame soccer programs, follow the Fighting Irish on Twitter (@NDmensoccer, @NDsoccer or @NDsoccernews), like them on Facebook (facebook.com/NDMenSoccer or facebook.com/NDWomenSoccer) or sign up for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the “Fan Center” pulldown menu on the main page at UND.com.
— ND —