The Notre Dame women's rowing team is set to compete in this Saturday's Lubbers Cup Rowing Regatta held at Grand Valley State in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The Irish will take on a number of club teams as well as the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan, the only other varsity squads competing in the event.
Schools sending club teams include the University of Dayton, Michigan State, Northern Michigan, Grand Valley State, Western Michigan and the University of Western Ontario.
Notre Dame will compete in both the four- and eight-person boat races and will enter three varsity boats in the four-person races, two varsity boats in the eight-person races and two novice boats in the eight-person races.
"We spent ... our spring training very hard in terms of volume and intensity," coach Martin Stone said after last weekend's races. "We were very productive and efficient ... and got a lot of things accomplished."
The teams will score points for finishing in the top three in each race, with the team finishing first winning the "Don" Lubbers Cup, named after Arend D. "Don" Lubbers, president of Grand Valley State from 1969 to 2001. Contrary to popular belief, the meet has nothing to do with the seafaring insult "landlubber."
The Irish are competing to get ready for next weekend's San Diego Classic, where they will compete against schools including the Naval Academy, the University of Washington, Long Beach State, San Diego State, UC-San Diego, UCLA, UC-Santa Barbara, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Duke and the University of Virginia.
Notre Dame is coming off of a solid performance in last weekend's meet against Minnesota and Tennessee. The team's varsity eight-person boat, made up of Eileen Froehkle, Julie Sobolewski, Amanda Polk, Mary Quinn, Laura Pearson, Allison Marsh, Melissa Felker, Andrea Doud and Sarah Palandech, finished third, third and second in three rounds of racing.
The Irish had their best time in the third race, finishing in 4:48.09, a time that they hope to improve on at the Lubbers Cup.
