Printer-Friendly Format     E-mail this article     Martin Stone and the Irish will compete for the '07 national championship May 25-27 in Oak Ridge. Tenn.

Notre Dame looks to improve upon ninth-place finish of a year ago.

May 15, 2007

Notre Dame, Ind. - The Notre Dame rowing team is returning to the NCAAs. For the second consecutive year, and second time in school history, the Irish earned a team berth into the 2007 NCAA Division I Women's Rowing Championship. This year's championship will be held May 25-27 at Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and will be hosted by the University of Tennessee.

Notre Dame finished ninth a year ago at the 2006 NCAA Championships that were held in West Windsor, N.J. The Irish were bolstered by its varsity eight crew winning the Petite Final for an overall seventh-place finish, and the second varsity eight and varsity four crews garnering 12th and 11th-place finishes overall, respectively.

Notre Dame was one of 12 schools to earn a team berth into the championship. Joining the Irish in the team competition will be: Brown, two-time defending national champion California, Harvard, Minnesota, Ohio State, Princeton, USC, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Yale. Four boats from Central Florida, Dartmouth, Stanford and UCLA earned at-large berths in the varsity eight race.

In earning a team berth, Notre Dame's varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four boats will compete in the championship. The Irish varsity eight crew is currently ranked a program-best third in the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA)/US Rowing Poll.

While this will mark Notre Dame's second appearance in the team competition, it will be the fourth time an Irish team has competed in the NCAAs. In both 2002 and 2004, Notre Dame's varsity eight boats received at-large berths with the varsity eight crew in '04 finishing 11th.

"I couldn't be more pleased for our team and our coaching staff," head coach Martin Stone said. "I'm ecstatic that we are back in the team competition for the second consecutive year. It's a great testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team and the program we have built that we get to compete again as a team. I am so proud of our accomplishments over the past two seasons.

"I believe we were rewarded with the schedule we put together and rowing the teams on both coasts. I thought all season long that our schedule was very competitive and would help us when it came time for handing out the team bids."