The Notre Dame Fighting Irish find themselves on the brink of a national championship. This particular blue and green squad is not led by quarterback Tommy Rees but rather the women’s basketball phenom Skylar Diggans.
The Fighting Irish women’s basketball team has reached the vaunted National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Final Four and will square off against Big East rival and perennial contenders UCONN at Denver's Pepsi Center at 6:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday night. The winner will go on to the championship game and face the winner of Stanford and Baylor.
They embark on their fourth trip to the Final Four and first back-to-back appearance after a convincing win over the Maryland Terrapins in the Raleigh Regional 80-49 Tuesday Night.
The winning effort was spearheaded by the superhuman play of junior guard Skyler Diggans who recorded a triple double with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. She notched only the third triple double in Fighting Irish women’s basketball history.
Notre Dame Coach Muffet McGraw was more than overjoyed with her team’s achievement particularly with the All-American play of Skylar Diggans.
"For the first time in our history, we're going back-to-back to the Final Four," Irish head coach Muffet McGraw said.
"To have the fourth Final Four overall, that puts us in elite company. That's something that Skylar has definitely brought to our program. We now have a place among some of the elite programs in the country, and I couldn't be prouder of that. ... I couldn't be prouder of this team, to handle the expectations all year long of being the No. 1 seed, with a target on our back, and to come through and make it back to the Final Four."
The Fighting Irish have a good record against the Huskies this season having defeated them on two of three occasions. Unfortunately their loss came in the Big East Championship game. Unlike Maryland, this game will not be a cakewalk as Gene Auiremma’s Huskies squad finds themselves in the final four for the fourth straight year.
The Notre Dame women may need a little luck of the Irish to pull off this victory.
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