Aug. 16, 2006
NEW YORK, NY.- The #21 University of Notre Dame women’s volleyball team will have its Sept. 2 match against #13 Missouri at the Joyce Center (7 p.m. EST) shown by College Sports Television (CSTV), while the final of the BIG EAST Championship (Nov. 19 in Cincinnati) – which ND has played in each of the last 11 years – also will be part of the 2006 NCAA Volleyball on CSTV: AVCA Match of the Week series, the network announced recently. Notre Dame is one of just eight schools that have been chosen by CSTV to be included in the regular-season portion of its match-of-the week package in all four years.
CSTV announced plans to televise more than 25 matches prior to the NCAA Championship, with 19 different schools getting the opportunity to play in the television package this season. The network will return to the Joyce Center following last year’s upset of then #11 Texas by then unranked Notre Dame in a five-game thriller also in the Inn of Saint Mary’s Shamrock Invitational. The only other schools that have been a part of all four seasons of CSTV’s match-of-the week series (identified with ’06 preseason national rankings) are #1 Nebraska, #4 Stanford, #6 Santa Clara, #8 Texas, #19 Pepperdine, #24 Utah and Colorado State.
Missouri will be visiting the Joyce Center for the first time to take part in The Inn at Saint Mary’s Shamrock Invitational. In the only other meeting between the teams, Missouri defeated ND in four games in 1985. The match will be shown on tape-delayed basis by CSTV on Sunday, Sept. 3 at 6 p.m. (EST).
The BIG EAST Championship will take place from Nov. 17-19 at the Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati. The Nov. 19 finals will be televised by CSTV at 4:00 p.m. (EST) as part of a doubleheader of conference finals with the Conference USA Championship game to follow. ND has reached the finals in all 11 years since becoming a BIG EAST league member, winning nine championships. In 2005, the Irish beat Louisville in five games at the Kentucky International Convention in Louisville.
In addition, CSTV announced broadcast times for its groundbreaking, performance, performance-based reality series “Go Pro or Go Home”, which documents the top women’s collegiate volleyball players on and off the sand as they make the transition from the hard-court to the beach game through a three-day AVP Invitational Camp. The three-part reality series debuts on Sunday, Sept. 3 at 8:00 p.m. following the tape delay broadcast of the Notre Dame- Missouri match. The two other episodes will air on Sept. 10 and Sept. 17 at 8:00 p.m. (EST).
Jason Knapp and Chris McGee will alternate handling the play-by-play duties, while Olympic Bronze Medalist Holly McPeak and Tammy Blackburn provide analysis. Anne Marie Anderson will also be member of the team handling play-by-play duties and analysis throughout the season.
Notre Dame, which last week were tabbed as the preseason favorite in the BIG EAST Conference and are ranked #21 in the AVCA preseason poll, return three starters and eight monogram winners from its squad that went 30-4 a year ago and advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
Tickets for all 2006 Irish home matches are available via the Notre Dame ticket office at (574) 631-7356 and can be purchased online at und.com.
For more information on CSTV and a complete schedule of all the volleyball games to be aired this season, check out cstv.com.