March 25, 1999

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Home games with North Carolina and Connecticut and a road trip to Santa Clara highlight the 1999 Notre Dame women’s soccer schedule, first-year coach Randy Waldrum announced Thursday. The Irish open the Waldrum era at Notre Dame against 14-time NCAA champion North Carolina on Fri., Sept. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at Alumni Field.

“Our schedule has some great teams on it this year,” said Waldrum. “We have an excellent home schedule including North Carolina and Connecticut. It will be a wonderful challenge to open the season against North Carolina. Traveling to Santa Clara will be a very good experience for us as well. This is a great schedule.”

A newly revised nine-game BIG EAST schedule features two divisions, the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Villanova and West Virginia join four-time defending champion Notre Dame in the Mid-Atlantic division. Boston College, Connecticut, first-year BIG EAST women’s soccer member Miami, Providence, St. John’s and Syracuse comprise the Northeast division. Connecticut will make two trips to Alumni Field in 1999, joining the Irish in playing Duke and North Carolina Sept. 3 and 5, and facing Notre Dame in the BIG EAST regular season on Oct. 22.

In addition to welcoming North Carolina and Duke to its tournament, Notre Dame travels to the Challenge Cup in Houston, Texas, for the first time in four years for a pair of games against Texas A&M and SMU. Other non-conference games include Butler, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana.

The 12th season of women’s soccer at Notre Dame will see the Irish play six teams that made the NCAA tournament last year, including runner-up North Carolina and semifinalist Santa Clara. The Irish coming off a 21-3-1 season in which they won their four consecutive BIG EAST championship and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.

Day  Date       Opponent         Location          TimeFri. Sept. 3    NORTH CAROLINA   Alumni Field      7:30 p.m.Sun. Sept. 5    DUKE             Alumni Field      1:00 p.m.Sun. Sept. 12   at St. John's *  Jamaica, N.Y.     1:00 p.m.Wed. Sept. 15   BUTLER           Alumni Field      7:00 p.m.Fri. Sept. 17   vs. Texas A&M    Houston, Texas    4:00 p.m.Sun. Sept. 19   vs. SMU          Houston, Texas   12:00 p.m.Fri. Sept. 24   at Seton Hall *  S. Orange, N.J.   1:00 p.m.Sun. Sept. 26   at Rutgers *     Piscataway, N.J.  1:00 p.m.Fri. Oct. 1     GEORGETOWN *     Alumni Field      7:30 p.m.Sun. Oct. 3     VILLANOVA *      Alumni Field      1:00 p.m.Tue. Oct. 5     MICHIGAN         Alumni Field      4:00 p.m.Fri. Oct. 8     WEST VIRIGNIA *  Alumni Field      7:30 p.m.Sun. Oct. 10    at Pittsburgh *  Pittsburgh, Pa.   1:00 p.m.Sun. Oct. 17    at Santa Clara   Santa Clara, Calif. 1:00 p.m.Fri. Oct. 22    CONNECTICUT *    Alumni Field      7:30 p.m.Sun. Oct. 24    MIAMI *          Alumni Field      1:00 p.m.Wed. Oct. 27    at Wisconsin     Madison, Wis.     4:00 p.m.Sun. Oct. 31    at Indiana       Bloomington, Ind. 1:00 p.m.
Tues.-Wed. Nov. 2-3 BIG EAST Championship quartertfinals TBAFri. Nov. 5  BIG EAST Champ. semis Piscataway, N.J. 5/7:30 p.m.Sun. Nov. 7  BIG EAST Champ. final Piscataway, N.J. 12:00 p.m.
Wed.      Nov. 10    NCAA first round     TBA Sat.-Sun. Nov. 13-14 NCAA second round    TBAFri.-Sun. Nov. 19-21 NCAA third round     TBAFri.-Sun. Nov. 26-28 NCAA quarterfinals   TBAFri.-Sun. Dec. 3-5   NCAA semis and final San Jose, Calif.  TBA
* indicates BIG EAST Conference game.  Caps indicates home game.  All times are local.