Jan. 23, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame women’s lacrosse coach Tracy Coyne has announced the 2007 women’s lacrosse schedule for the upcoming spring season.
As has been the program’s history, the Irish will once again play an ambitious and aggressive schedule that will feature six teams that advanced to the NCAA tournament, including defending national champion Northwestern, and seven teams that were ranked in the preseason top 20 by Lacrosse Magazine.
The Irish open the regular season on Sunday, February 18 when they travel to Harrisonburg, Va., to meet the James Madison Dukes in a 12:00 noon contest. The Dukes played in the 2006 NCAA Tournament and are ranked 12th in the preseason rankings.
Notre Dame opens its home schedule the following weekend, Saturday, February 24 when the Irish play host to the Stanford Cardinal at the Loftus Center with a 12:00 noon start time. The Cardinal played in last season’s NCAA tournament and is ranked 16th in this year’s preseason rankings.
Following the visit from Stanford, the Irish will face Midwest-rival Northwestern at the Loftus Center on Thursday, March 1 in a 7:00 p.m. contest. The Wildcats have won the NCAA championship in each of the last two seasons and are ranked No. 1 by Lacrosse Magazine to start the season. Over the last two seasons, Northwestern owns a 40-1 record.
The Irish will have six games under their belts before they open BIG EAST conference play on Sunday, March 18 at Syracuse beginning at 1:00 p.m. They will host three BIG EAST games at Moose Krause Stadium this season with Connecticut (March 30), Georgetown (April 14) and Rutgers (April 21) all visiting Notre Dame this season.
Notre Dame hopes to close the regular season by appearing in the first-ever BIG EAST Tournament that will include the top four teams in the conference playing for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The inaugural tourney will be held at Syracuse on April 27 and 29.
“We’re excited about the challenge that our schedule presents this season as we will be facing some of the top programs in the country,” said Irish coach Tracy Coyne.
“We will know what our strengths and weaknesses are after the first four games of the season when we open with James Madison, Stanford, Northwestern and Cornell, all teams that made the NCAA tournament last season. Again the BIG EAST will be one of the tougher conferences in the country and we will be looking forward to having the opportunity to participate in the first-ever BIG EAST Tournament in late April.”
The seven teams that the Irish will face this season that finished in the top 20 last year include: Northwestern (#1), Duke (#3), Georgetown (#8), Cornell (#11), James Madison (#12), Stanford (#16) and Syracuse (#17).
The Irish are coming off a season that saw them finish with a 15-4 overall record and advance to the NCAA’s Finals where they fell in the semifinals to Dartmouth. Notre Dame is ranked fifth in Lacrosse Magazine’s preseason poll, for its highest preseason ranking in the program’s history.
2007 Notre Dame Women's Lacrosse Schedule
FebruarySat. 10 at Dartmouth (scrimmages) at Hanover, N.H. 10:00 a.m.Sun. 18 at James Madison at Harrisonburg, Va. 12:00 noonSat. 24 STANFORD Loftus Sports Center 12:00 noon
MarchThur. 1 NORTHWESTERN Loftus Sports Center 7:00 p.m.Sun. 4 at Cornell at Ithaca, N.Y. 12:00 noonSat. 10 at Canisius at Buffalo, N.Y. 12:00 noonWed. 14 vs. Yale at Wellington, Fla. 7:00 p.m.Sun. 18 at Syracuse * at Syracuse, N.Y. 1:00 p.m.Wed. 21 OHIO STATE Moose Krause Stadium 4:00 p.m.Sun. 25 at Loyola (Md.) * at Baltimore, Md. 1:00 p.m.Fri. 30 CONNECTICUT * Moose Krause Stadium 7:00 p.m.
AprilThurs. 5 DUKE Moose Krause Stadium 4:00 p.m.Sat. 7 CALIFORNIA Moose Krause Stadium 12:30 noonTues. 10 at Ohio at Athens, Ohio 4:00 p.m.Sat. 14 GEORGETOWN * Moose Krause Stadium 1:00 p.m.Wed. 18 at Vanderbilt at Nashville, Tenn. 4:00 p.m. (CST)Sat. 21 RUTGERS * Moose Krause Stadium 3:00 p.m.Fri.- 27-29 at BIG EAST Tournament at Syracuse, N.Y. TBASun.
* BIG EAST Conference game
Bold denotes home game.
Home games played indoors at Loftus Sports Center and outdoors at Moose Krause Stadium.
All times are local.