Dec. 8, 2008
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame women’s lacrosse coach Tracy Coyne has announced the 2009 women’s lacrosse schedule for the upcoming spring season.
The Irish will once again play an ambitious and aggressive schedule that will feature four teams that advanced to the NCAA tournament, including four-time defending national champion Northwestern, and two other teams that finished the 2008 season ranked among the top 20 teams in the nation.
Notre Dame will also play a larger BIG EAST schedule as the conference welcomes two new teams this season as Cincinnati and Louisville begin play in the expanded eight-team conference. The BIG EAST postseason tournament will be played April 24-26 at Georgetown with the top four teams playing for the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
“We’re excited about the caliber of competition that we will be facing,” said head coach Tracy Coyne.
“We have our traditional rivalry games that we always look forward to and we’ll face several new teams like Louisville and Cincinnati who we’ll be welcoming to the BIG EAST this season.”
The Irish open the regular season on the road on Saturday, Feb. 14 when they travel to Pittsburgh, Pa., to battle the Duquesne Dukes in a 1:00 p.m. game. The Irish then open the home schedule the following weekend, Feb. 20-22, versus Midwest rivals, Northwestern and Ohio State. Both games will be played indoors at the Loftus Center with the Wildcats visiting on Friday, Feb. 20 and the Buckeyes on Sun., Feb. 21. Notre Dame then closes out February with a visit from Stanford on Saturday, Feb. 28
On Saturday, March 7, the Irish return to the road when they travel to Hanover, N.H., to face Dartmouth in a noon contest that leads into Spring Break. This will be the first meeting between Notre Dame and the Big Green since facing each other in the 2006 NCAA semifinals.
From New Hampshire, the Irish go south to Orlando, Fla., to face James Madison at the Disney World Complex on Tuesday, March 10 at 7:00 p.m.
Notre Dame returns home from Florida to play host to five consecutive home games from March 14 through March 29. In that span the Irish will face Hofstra (March 14) and then begin BIG EAST play with games against Rutgers (March 17), Georgetown (March 27) and Loyola (MD) on March 29. They also face California in a non-conference game on March 22.
From there, its on the road for four straight games as Notre Dame will face Cincinnati and Louisville for the first time in the program’s history on April 3 and April 5. The Irish then travel to Syracuse on April 11 to meet the Orange and close out the trip four-game road trip in Nashville, Tenn., on April 15 versus Vanderbilt.
The BIG EAST regular season comes to an end on April 18 when Notre Dame plays host to Connecticut on Saturday, April 18, in the final game before the BIG EAST Tournament.
Following the BIG EAST , the Irish close out the regular season with a final road game at Cornell on Saturday, May 2.
“I expect the BIG EAST Conference to be very competitive again,” said Coyne. “We’ve established ourselves as a powerhouse conference. Our team’s focus again will be on advancing to BIG EAST Tournament and winning our first BIG EAST Championship. That will be a priority.”
The six teams that Notre Dame faces that finished 2008 ranked in the IWLCA top 20 are: Northwestern (#1), Syracuse (#4), Georgetown (#10), Vanderbilt (#11), Cornell (#14) and Stanford (#18). From that group of ranked teams, Northwestern, Georgetown, Syracuse and Vanderbilt participated in the NCAA Tournament. Duke, Hofstra, Syracuse and Vanderbilt participated in the NCAA Tournament. The Irish finished the 2008 campaign ranked 12th overall and played in the NCAA Tournament, losing to Northwestern in the opening round.
2009 Notre Dame Women's Lacrosse Schedule
FebruarySaturday 14 at Duquesne University 1:00 p.m.Friday 20 Northwestern 7:00 p.m.Sunday 22 Ohio State 1:00 p.m.Saturday 28 Stanford 1:00 p.m.
MarchSaturday 7 at Dartmouth 12:00 noonTuesday 10 vs. James Madison (at Disney World, Fla.) 7:00 p.m.Saturday 14 Hofstra 1:00 p.m.Tuesday 17 Rutgers * 7:00 p.m.Sunday 22 California 1:00 p.m.Friday 27 Georgetown * 6:00 p.m.Sunday 29 Loyola (MD) * 1:00 p.m.
AprilFriday 3 at Cincinnati * 4:00 p.m.Sunday 5 at Louisville * 1:00 p.m.Saturday 11 at Syracuse * 1:00 p.m.Wednesday 15 at Vanderbilt 3:30 p.m. (CT)Saturday 18 Connecticut * 1:00 p.m.
BIG EAST Tournament Friday 24 at BIG EAST Semifinals (at Georgetown) TBASunday 26 at BIG EAST Championship (at Georgetown) TBA
MaySaturday 2 at Cornell 12:00 noon
* BIG EAST Conference gameBold denotes home game.Home games played at Loftus Sports Center and outdoors at Alumni Stadium.All times are local.