About Notre Dame Fighting Irish Women's Basketball
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Women's Basketball at the Purcell Pavilion at the Edmund P. Joyce Center
The women of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball team take the court at the Purcell Pavilion at the Edmund P. Joyce Center, where they have seen an unstoppable reign of success over the last two decades. Under coach Muffet McGraw since 1987, Notre Dame has been a mainstay in the upper echelons of college basketball, and their fans are among the most passionate in the country. Take a trip to historic South Bend, tour the iconic college, and settle in for the best team on campus.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Women's Basketball History
Since the turn of the millennium, Notre Dame has been one of women's college basketball's premier programs. The Fighting Irish have advanced to the national championship four times just this decade (2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015), with an additional out in the Final Four in 2013. They've also made the Elite Eight every year this decade, except for 2016 (when they were outed in the Sweet 16).
The Fightning Irish's first trip to the mountaintop came in 2001, when they knocked off fellow No. 1 seed UConn on the way to the first title in school history. The 2018 edition, however, will not soon be forgotten by Notre Dame fans.
Not only did they beat UConn again in the national semifinals, this time they did it in an overtime classic, one of the best games in tournament history. Their reward was facing 2017 runners-up Mississippi State, the previous team to stop the Huskies. It was a battle of giant killers, but Notre Dame finished on top with a 3-point victory to cement the program as one of the best of the 2010s.
