Jan. 15, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team will have another weekend full of competition as they play host to Louisville on Friday and travel to compete against Toledo on Saturday. Friday’s dual-meet is set to begin at 5 p.m. at the Rolfs Aquatic Center while Saturday’s meet will begin at 1 p.m. at the UT Student Rec Center.
The Irish return to the pool after competing in the Notre Dame Invitational this past weekend against Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Notre Dame finished third in the championship-style meet with freshman Sam Maxwell leading the way, taking first individually in two events.
“I’m really proud of the girls last weekend,” head coach Carrie Nixon said. “They really pushed through the fatigue from winter training and swam some great times. It was a giant leap forward for them with swimming fast when they were really tired.”
In this weekend’s meets, Notre Dame matches-up with Louisville for the fourth time in sport history. The Irish have dominated the Cardinals in past competitions, 3-0. Two of the three victories have come under Nixon in her two previous seasons as head coach. This is the second and final BIG EAST team Notre Dame will meet in dual-meet action before the BIG EAST Championship in February.
“Louisville is a formidable team,” Nixon said. “They are swimming as the number two team in the BIG EAST right now and that makes this meet really important. We’re looking to really go at it against them.”
This will only be the second meeting between Notre Dame and Toledo with the Irish leading the series, 1-0. This will be Nixon’s first meeting against the Rockets, with the last meeting between the Irish and Toledo in 1996.
“Toledo is doing really well this year, but we’ll have a chance for the girls to swim different races that they don’t normally get to swim in competition,” Nixon said. “It’s races though they will see down the line at the conference meet.”
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