Women's basketball hosts '97 Final Four squad Notre Dame

After having won its home opener Wednesday night, the women's basketball team is now looking ahead to this Saturday's 7 p.m. matchup with Notre Dame in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

This non-conference game features two teams seeking to establish themselves early on in the season. The Blue Devils, ranked 19th nationally, are looking to build on a 78-51 victory over UNC-Greensboro in their opener, and the Fighting Irish are coming off a 71-65 win over Butler in their opener in South Bend.

Notre Dame is a team that has had a great deal of success in the past four years. Last season, they went far into the NCAA Tournament before eventually succumbing in the Final Four. For the Lady Irish, the 31-7 mark and trip to the Final Four a year ago represent the most successful season in the 20-year history of Notre Dame women's basketball.

However, Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw lost four starters from last year's team to graduation, and of those four, two were 1,000-point career scorers. The lone returning starter is senior Mollie Peirick. Coach McGraw faces the challenge of trying to duplicate the team's success from a year ago with a less talented, largely unproven squad.

Despite the challenge of repeating last year's success, there is not nearly as much pressure on this year's team to do so. In the past four years, there have been high expectations placed on the Fighting Irish, but this year with the loss of the team's core players, there are many question marks surrounding this year's squad. The Irish start this year unranked and thus will be looking to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with this year in their first real test against the Blue Devils on Saturday.

Coach Gail Goestenkors and the Blue Devils also hope to establish themselves early on this year. A win over Notre Dame would give Duke a boost. Notre Dame represents a program with an excellent national reputation. The fact that they were within one game of the national championship last year is incentive enough for the Blue Devils to be ready to play. It does not matter that Notre Dame is a very different team this year.

One interesting aspect of Saturday's game will be the play of the guards. Duke's Hilary Howard and Nicole Erickson will square off against Peirick and junior sharp-shooter Sheila McMillen, who performed excellently as the team's sixth man last year. Howard and Erickson have played well this year as evidenced by their numbers from Wednesday night's contest, when they racked up 32 points and six assists between them.

Peirick and McMillen have a lot of experience under their belt having played in the Final Four last year and will be key to the team's success this year. Coach McGraw will look to them to carry a lot of the scoring load and also become leaders of this year's team.