Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Irish Meet Army in NCAA Tournament Opener

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — No. 22 Notre Dame returns to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the past four seasons and opens the competition against the Patriot League Champions Army. First serve is set for noon ET on Wednesday, April 14 and the match will be streamed live via ESPN3. The winner of Notre Dame/Army takes on tenth-seeded Oregon for a berth in the Sweet 16 at noon ET on Thursday, April 15 in a match that will also be streamed on ESPN3.

#22 NOTRE DAME vs. ARMY
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Live Stream: ESPN3
Live Stats
Twitter Updates: @NDVolleyball
Game Notes (PDF)

FOR STARTERS

  •  The Irish enter the NCAA Tournament with a 14-3 record (14-3 ACC) and finished the regular season second in the ACC standings, Notre Dame’s best finish since joining the conference in 2014.
  • This will be the first ever meeting between Notre Dame and Army.
  • Notre Dame posted five sweeps in the spring portion of its 2020-21 campaign, including a road straight-set win at #23 Georgia Tech in its penultimate match of the regular season.
  • The Irish are one of four ACC teams to reach the NCAA Tournament and are joined by Georgia Tech, Louisville and Pittsburgh.
  • Notre Dame owned a 3-1 mark against those other three ACC tournament teams this season, including road sweeps of Louisville and Georgia Tech.
  • Charley Niego enters the tournament having earned a double-double in seven of 10 spring matches.
  • Notre Dame is enters the NCAA Tournament ranked 22nd in the AVCA Top- 25 Coaches Poll.

IRISH IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

  • This marks Notre Dame’s 21st appearance in the NCAA Tournament and is the third time the Irish are dancing in the last four seasons.
  • The Irish have an all-time record of 11-9 in their first match of the tournament.
  • Notre Dame has advanced to at least the NCAA Tournament round of 16 on six occasions.

NCAA TOURNAMENT FORMAT

  • The NCAA Championship field has been reduced to 48 teams this season instead of the tradition 64-team bracket.
  • The field includes 30 automatic qualifiers and 18 at-large selections with the top-16 seeds earning byes to the second round.
  • The entirety of the tournament will be played in Omaha, Nebraska, with the first two rounds set for April 14-15, the regional semifinals and finals set for April 18-19, the national semifinals set for April 22 and the national championship set for April 24.

ALL-ACC ACCOLADES

  • Charley Niego and Zoe Nunez earned First Team All-ACC accolades for the second straight year while Caroline Meuth and Lindsey Miller were named Second Team All-ACC (April 5)
  • Miller was also joined by Aubrey Hamilton and Hattie Monson on the ACC’s All-Freshman Team.
  • Niego and Nunez earn All-ACC accolades for the third straight season after being named to the First Team in 2019 and Second Team in 2018.
  • It also marks the second consecutive All-ACC nod to Meuth, who was named to the Second Team as a freshman a season ago.

—ND—