College & High School Lacrosse Schedules, Scores, Ratings & Rankings

Notre Dame, Ind. -- Notre Dame women's lacrosse coach Tracy Coyne has announced the 2010 women's lacrosse schedule for the upcoming spring season. The Irish will once again play an ambitious and aggressive schedule that features eight teams that finished the year ranked in the IWLCA top 20. Among those teams are five that advanced to the 2009 NCAA tournament, including five-time defending national champion Northwestern.

For the second consecutive season, Notre Dame will play an expanded BIG EAST schedule as the conference welcomes Villanova into the nine-team league after Cincinnati and Louisville began play last season. The Irish will play an eight-game conference schedule on the way to the BIG EAST Tournament hosted by Rutgers May 6-8 at Piscataway, N.J.

The Irish will open the year on Jan. 30-31, 2010 with a pair of preseason games as they participate in the fifth annual Champion Challenge at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Notre Dame will face the U.S. Women's Elite team on Jan. 30 and the U.S. Developmental Team on Jan. 31.

"We always love competing against the best teams in the country. Playing the U.S. team in January is a great way to get an early-season look at what the team is doing well and what needs improvement. Anything that goes well versus the U.S. team will be a team strength. When the U.S. team exposes our weaknesses, those are areas that will receive more attention in practice."

She continued, "The BIG EAST Conference is such a competitive league and we've developed some great rivalries. As a team we're excited and look forward to defending our BIG EAST championship. We have a strong non-league schedule and some quality Midwest rivalries, playing teams like Northwestern, Ohio State and Vanderbilt."

The Irish will open the regular season on the road on Tuesday, Feb. 23 when they travel to Hempstead, N.Y., to face Hofstra in a 3:30 p.m. game. Notre Dame then opens the home schedule on Sat., Feb. 27 when the Irish play host to Duquesne in a 6:00 p.m. game at the Loftus Sports Center.

Notre Dame plays six games in March with three at home and three on the road. The Irish will play host to Dartmouth on Sun., March 7 at the Loftus Sports Center then open play at brand new Arlotta Stadium versus Vanderbilt on Wed., March 24 and the BIG EAST opener versus Louisville on Sat., Mar. 27. All three of those games are scheduled for the Loftus Sports Center. The road games include trips to the University of California (Saturday, March 13), Boston University (Saturday, March 20) and Northwestern (Tuesday, March 30).

In April, the Irish open the month (April 3 and 5) at Georgetown and Loyola (Md.) before playing three consecutive games at home, battling Villanova (April 9), Syracuse (April 11) and Cincinnati (April 17) in BIG EAST action.

Notre Dame closes the regular season with three in a row on the road, traveling to Ohio State on April 22, Rutgers on April 24 and Connecticut on May 1.

The eight ranked teams that finished 2009 ranked in the IWLCA top 20 teams include Northwestern (#1), Syracuse (t#8), Georgetown (t#8), Boston University (#11), Vanderbilt (#12), Ohio State (#15), Dartmouth (#17) and Loyola (t#18). From that group of ranked teams, Northwestern, Georgetown, Syracuse, Vanderbilt and Boston University participated in the NCAA tournament. The Irish finished the 2009 campaign ranked 6th overall and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinal, defeating Vanderbilt before losing at North Carolina.

January
Saturday   30   vs. Team USA (at Disney - exhib.)    1:00 p.m.
Sunday     31   vs. Team USA (at Disney - exhib.)   11:30 a.m.
 
February
Tuesday    23   at Hofstra                 3:30 p.m.
Saturday   27   Duquesne                   6:00 p.m.
 
March
Sunday      7   Dartmouth                 12:00 p.m.
Saturday   13   at California             12:00 p.m. PT
Saturday   20   at Boston U.              12:00 p.m.
Wednesday  24   Vanderbilt                 2:30 p.m.
Saturday   27   Louisville *               3:00 p.m.
Tuesday    30   at Northwestern            6:00 p.m. CT
 
April
Saturday    3   at Georgetown *            1:00 p.m.
Monday      5   at Loyola (MD) *          12:00 p.m.
Friday      9   Villanova *                4:30 p.m.
Sunday     11   Syracuse *                 1:00 p.m.
Saturday   17   Cincinnati *               3:00 p.m.
Thursday   22   at Ohio State              5:00 p.m.
Saturday   24   at Rutgers *              11:00 a.m.
 
May
Saturday    1   at Connecticut *          12:00 p.m.
 
Thursday    6   at BIG EAST Semifinals       TBA
Saturday    8   at BIG EAST Championship     TBA