Hoosiers to square off with No. 14 Notre Dame

The No. 41 Hoosiers will play host to No. 14 Notre Dame at 3 p.m. Friday before beginning Big Ten play next weekend.

“We’ve got Purdue right before spring break so this is one of the reasons we scheduled this where we did,” IU coach Lin Loring said. “We knew it would be a really good warm-up match.

“Win or lose, it was definitely going to get us ready for Purdue.”

Despite what the teams’ records suggest — IU is 10-2 and Notre Dame is 7-4 — Loring said the Irish come into the match as the heavy favorite. Notre Dame started the season slow but won the Blue-Gray Classic title last weekend by defeating No. 49 Utah, No. 19 Oklahoma and No. 8 Virginia.

“They’re going to probably be favored at every position,” Loring said. “We’re going to have to play the best match we’ve played this year and hope they play like they did a month ago, but they’re just really solid.”

IU senior Myriam Sopel said she knows the Hoosiers are playing a deep and talented team, but it’s something they are going to have to get accustomed to.

“From now on all our matches are a toss-up, either a toss-up or we are not favored,” Sopel said. “This is one where we are not favored, but we are going to give everything we have.”