Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Volleyball Headed Out West For NCAA Tournament Match With Ohio State

Nov. 28, 1999

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The 1999 BIG EAST regular season champion Notre Dame women’s volleyball team will face Ohio State at the NCAA Central Sub-Regional hosted by UCLA in Los Angeles, Calif., on December 4 at 5 p.m. PST. The Irish (20-8 overall) are making their eighth consecutive trip to the NCAAs and earned an at-large bid to the 64-team tournament.

“I think the main thing for us is that we’re glad that we’re still playing, ” Notre Dame head coach Debbie Brown said. “We felt like we were in a good position to get an at-large bid, but of course you never really know.”

The winner of the Notre Dame-Ohio State match will face the winner of the UCLA (25-3)-Eastern Washington (24-7) contest on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 5 p.m. The Bruins, the Pac-10 co-champions, are seeded third in the central region behind number one Penn State and number two Pepperdine and ahead of number four USC.

The Irish have faced the Buckeyes once prior in NCAA action at the 1996 tournament, when Ohio State defeated Notre Dame in five games at the Joyce Center in the second round. In 1999, Ohio State is 16-11 overall and finished an even 10-10 in the Big Ten Conference. The Buckeyes, under coach Jim Stone, are led offensively by senior outside hitters Rosie Snow (3.56 kills per game) and Jen Flynn (3.29 kills per game), and hold a 4-3 edge over the Irish in the all-time series between the two schools.

“I don’t know a lot about Ohio State, but we’ll probably learn as much as we can in the next couple days and just take it one game at a time,” Brown said.

Notre Dame faced Eastern Washington a year ago for the first time ever in the first round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament at Stanford, defeating them in four games before falling to the Cardinal. Should Notre Dame and sixth-ranked UCLA face each other on Sunday, it would be the first meeting between the two schools.

All-session passes will be priced at $10 for adults, $6 for students/youths, while single-session tickets will be $7 for adults and $5 for students/youths. All seating is general admission. To purchase tickets, contact the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310-825-2946.