Notre Dame fans can relive the heroics of Erika Bohn and her Notre Dame teammates, as ESPN-U will re-air the 2004 NCAA title game on Aug. 7 at 10:00 p.m. EDT.

Defending Champs To Face Several Top Teams During 2005 Season

June 7, 2005

The Notre Dame women’s soccer team’s quest to repeat as the NCAA champion in 2005 will include several games versus some of the nation’s top programs – including Santa Clara, Florida, Maryland, Connecticut, Michigan and Villanova (plus a preseason exhibition vs. Virginia).

Notre Dame’s nine-game home slate in 2005 will open with the annual Adidas Classic, featuring games for the Irish vs. Florida on Friday, Sept. 2 (7:30) and vs. Maryland on the 4th (1:00 p.m.) – with UConn rounding out what again should rank as one of the nation’s top tournament fields in the 2005 season (Connecticut will face the Terps at 5:00 on Sept. 2 and then will play the Gators on the early Sunday game, at 11:00).

The home schedule also includes a Sept. 23 matchup with Cincinnati and games during three home football weekends: vs. BIG EAST Conference newcomer DePaul (Sept. 16) and Michigan (Sept. 18); vs. UConn (Oct. 14) and Providence (Oct. 16); and vs. Villanova (Oct. 21) and Georgetown (Oct. 23). Those games correspond with the ND home football weekends vs. Michigan State (Sept. 17), USC (Oct. 15) and BYU (Oct. 22).

Irish fans will have the chance to see the defending champs in action on the road in seven states during the ’05 season – Indiana, Vermont, California, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Florida and New Jersey. Notre Dame again will visit the Bay Area to participate in the Santa Clara Classic, facing the Broncos on Sept. 9 before taking on another West Coast Conference team, Gonzaga, on Sept. 11.

(Note that a late addition to the 2005 schedule includes an Aug. 14 exhibition at Butler, with a 2:00 start time.)

After battling fellow national power Virginia in an Aug. 18 exhibition (at The Plex, in Fort Wayne), the Irish officially will open their 2005 season at the University of Vermont Classic vs. New Hampshire (Aug. 26) and the host Catamounts (Aug. 28).

Notre Dame’s other road games in the ’05 regular season include five straight BIG EAST matchups away from home: vs. Louisville (Sept. 25), Marquette (Sept. 30), South Florida (Oct. 2), Rutgers (Oct. 7) and Seton Hall (Oct. 9).

The new 16-team BIG EAST alignment will include two divisions, with each team playing the others in its division and four from the other division (the Irish will not play Pittsburgh, St. John’s, Syracuse or West Virginia in ’05).

Notre Dame’s division is set to include four other teams – Georgetown, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Villanova – from the previous Mid-Atlantic Division, plus newcomers Cincinnati, DePaul and Louisville.

The other division includes the returning teams from the old Northeast Division – UConn, Providence, St. John’s and Syracuse – plus former Mid-Atlantic Division teams Pittsburgh and West Virginia and newcomers Marquette and South Florida.

The BIG EAST Championship is scheduled to include 10 teams (pending final approval), with a pair of first-round games to be played on Oct. 26 or 27. Those games will feature the 4th-place finishers from each division vs. the 5th-place team from the other division, with the winners advancing on to the quarterfinals (the top three teams in each division will fill out the quarterfinal field).

The BIG EAST quarterfinals are slated for Oct. 29 or 30 while the semifinals (Nov. 4) and championship game (Nov. 6) will be played at Marquette.

NCAA Tournament first- and second-round games will be played Nov. 11 and 13 at campus sites (corresponding with the ND-Navy home football weekend). Third-round NCAA games then will be contested the following week on campus sites (Nov. 18-20, as will the ND-Syracuse home football game) while the campus-site quarterfinals are set for Nov. 25-27.

The NCAA semifinals (Dec. 2) and championship game (Dec. 4) will return to the state of Texas, at Aggie Soccer Complex in College Station.

See the schedule link at und.com for the complete schedule (also check back to that page for any changes that may occur). The schedule link also is included below:

http://und.collegesports.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/nd-w-soccer-sched.html