The Notre Dame women’s soccer team will not travel to Missouri for their scheduled Friday match against the Tigers due to COVID-19 positive tests, subsequent quarantining and contact tracing within the Irish program, the team announced in a tweet early Monday evening.
The announcement follows the cancellation of Notre Dame’s match scheduled for this past Sunday at Kansas. The cancellation of the game in Lawrence had been announced Friday in a nearly identical tweet.
Both statements noted the Irish were adhering to protocols outlined within the ACC Medical Advisory Group report, which is available on the conference’s website.
With the cancellation, Notre Dame (6-5-0, 4-4-0 ACC) loses the opportunity to complete a spring home-and-away sweep over the Tigers (5-5-3, 4-1-2 SEC). The Irish were last in action on March 20 against Missouri, when Notre Dame prevailed 2-0 on senior day behind goals from senior forward Eva Hurm and sophomore midfielder Maddie Mercado.
The NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee approved a proposal Wednesday for the entire 2020 Division I Men’s and Women’s Soccer Tournaments, postponed in the fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to be played entirely in Cary, North Carolina, and the surrounding area starting April 27. Cary’s WakeMed Soccer Park is scheduled to host both the Men’s and Women’s College Cups from May 13-17.
This season’s Women’s Tournament is slated to include 48 teams instead of the usual field of 64. After falling to eventual conference champions and then-No. 2 Florida State in the first round of November’s ACC Tournament, Notre Dame must earn one of the 17 at-large bids available if the Irish hope to compete for a national championship.
The selections of both the Men’s and Women’s Tournament fields are scheduled for Monday, April 19.
Besides the victory over Missouri, the Irish also picked up a 2-0 win at Cincinnati in their only other official match played this spring. Only a pair of Big-12 opponents remain on Notre Dame’s regular season spring slate, with trips to Oklahoma State and TCU looming on Sunday, April 11 and Saturday, April 17, respectively.
