Oct. 29, 2001

The Notre Dame women’s soccer team will open postseason play at home in the BIG EAST Conference Tournament quarterfinals, with the Irish slated to face St. John’s on Sunday, Nov. 4, at 1:00 p.m. The winner of that game then will advance to the first BIG EAST semifinal game (5:00 p.m.) on Friday, Nov. 9, at Rutgers’ Yurcak Field, versus the winner of the Rutgers at Boston College quarterfinal.

The other quarterfinal pairings include Villanova at Connecticut and Miami at West Virginia.

Notre Dame-ranked eighth in last week’s national coaches poll but likely to move up after a rash of upsets across the country -enjoyed its most efficient scoring game of the season in a 7-0 victory over St. John’s on Oct. 12 at Alumni Field. The Irish have won all six of their previous games versus SJU and are unbeaten in 19 previous conference tournament games, including 15-0-0 in the BIG EAST Tournament (with a 60-7 scoring edge in those games).

Notre Dame won the BIG EAST’s Mid-Atlantic Division with a 5-1-0 record in divisional play while St. John’s is the No. 4 seed out of the Northeast Division, after going 3-3-0 in divisional games. The Red Storm carry a 6-9-0 overall record into their final regular-season game, Oct. 31 versus Stony Brook.

In other postseason scheduling news, the NCAA altered the dates for first and second-round games in the 2001 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship, due to the field’s expansion to 64 teams.

All first-round games will be played at campus sites on Friday, Nov. 16, while second-round games will follow on Sunday, Nov. 18 (also on campus sites).

Due to the timing of the NCAA’s change in schedule, most previously-released schedules had indicated that the first-round games would be on Nov. 14 (now Nov. 16) and the second-round on Nov. 17-18 (now just Nov. 18).

The rest of the NCAA schedule remains unchanged, with third-round games on Nov. 23-25 and quarterfinal games on Nov. 30-Dec. 2, with the semifinals on Dec. 7 and the championship game on Dec. 9.

2001 BIG EAST Women’s Soccer Championship Schedule

Quarterfinals – at sites of higher seeded team

Sunday, November 4 (all times are local to the site)

Game 1 – (MA #1) Notre Dame vs. (NE #4) St. John’s, 1:00 p.m.

Game 2 – (NE #2) Boston College vs. (MA #3) Rutgers, Noon

Game 3 – (NE #1) Connecticut vs. (MA #4) Villanova, Noon

Game 4 – (MA #2) West Virginia vs. (NE #3) Miami, 1:00 p.m.

Semifinal & Final – at Rutgers, Piscataway, N.J.

Friday, Nov. 9 – Semifinal doubleheader

Quarterfinal 1 winner vs. Quarterfinal 2 winner, 5:00 p.m.

Quarterfinal 3 winner vs. Quarterfinal 4 winner, 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, Nov.11 – Championship Final, Noon

2001 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship Schedule (note date changes for first and second rounds)

First Round – Friday, Nov. 16 (campus sites)

Second Round – Sunday, Nov. 18 (campus sites)

Third Round – Friday, Nov. 23 – Sunday, Nov. 25 (campus sites)

Quarterfinals – Friday, Nov. 30 – Sunday, Dec. 2 (campus sites)

Semifinals – Friday, Dec. 7 (Dallas, Texas)

Final – Sunday, Dec. 9 (Dallas, Texas)