Dec. 20, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Head coach Kevin Corrigan has announced the 2008 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse schedule. The Fighting Irish will have 13 regular-season games and two preseason scrimmages. This season will also mark the inaugural Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL) tournament in Birmingham, Mich.
The slate will be highlighted with three games against NCAA Tournament teams from last season in Loyola, Albany and North Carolina. Both Albany and North Carolina advanced to the tournament’s quarterfinal round. The Irish will also have contests in Atlanta (vs. Dartmouth) and Chicago (vs. Denver).
Notre Dame will have home scrimmages against Robert Morris College (Jan. 27) and Bucknell (Feb. 2) before opening the regular season at Loyola (Md.) on Feb. 16. The Irish captured a 9-7 season-opening victory over the Greyhounds last season.
The Irish will begin the home portion of their slate against annual-rival Penn State on Feb. 24. Notre Dame will then welcome in the University at Albany on March 1. That will mark the first-ever meeting between the Fighting Irish and the Great Danes.
Four straight games away from home await the Fighting Irish next. Notre Dame will have road trips to Villanova (March 4) and North Carolina (March 8) before playing Dartmouth in Atlanta, Ga. on March 15.
League play will commence with a showdown at Air Force on March 22. The Fighting Irish return home for a date with Drexel on March 25 before hitting the road once again with a conference clash at Bellarmine on March 29.
Notre Dame faces league foe Denver in Chicago, Ill. on April 5 and then stays in conference play with a home tilt against Quinnipiac on April 18. It will be a quick turnaround as the Irish step away from league action with a contest at Lehigh on April 20. The regular season will wrap up as Ohio State visits the Irish on April 27.
The semifinals of the GWLL tournament are slated for Friday, May 2, with the finals to take place on Sunday, May 4.
The 2008 NCAA Championship gets underway with first-round action on May 10-11 at campus sites and the quarterfinals will be held at Annapolis, Md. and Ithaca, N.Y. on May 17-18. The semifinals and finals will take place in Foxboro, Mass. on May 24 and 26.
“We are excited with the quality of this schedule,” states Corrigan. “We start with a rush of good teams that were excellent a year ago. We are also excited about our two games against Dartmouth and Denver in Atlanta and Chicago, respectively. Our first GWLL tournament is also something that we are looking forward to.”
The Fighting Irish are ranked 5th in the Lacrosse Magazine preseason poll. Notre Dame went 11-4 last season and won the GWLL title with a 5-0 mark before falling to eventual national champion Johns Hopkins, 11-10 in overtime, in the first round of the NCAA Championship.
Go here to view the full schedule: http://und.cstv.com/sports/m-lacros/sched/nd-m-lacros-sched.html
— ND —