Skylar Diggins (24 points, 9 assists, 5 steals, 5 rebounds) named regional's Most Outstanding Player.
Chris Masters is in his 12th year on the athletic media relations staff at Notre Dame, and his third as associate director. He is the primary media relations contact for the Fighting Irish women's basketball and women's soccer programs, and also serves as the on-site content editor for the official Notre Dame athletics web site (UND.com), helping to coordinate extensive redesigns of the site in the summers of 2009 and 2011, while currently overseeing a nine-person student staff that includes four web editors and five photographers.
In addition, he has spent time as the media relations contact for the University's men's and women's tennis, men's golf and men's and women's cross country/track & field programs, while serving as the secondary contact for the Fighting Irish football program. He remains connected with the publicity efforts for the Notre Dame football team as a supervisor of the gameday statistics crew at Notre Dame Stadium and a liaison with the NCAA statistics office in Indianapolis.
During his tenure at Notre Dame, Masters has promoted five NCAA Final Four squads (the 2010 national champion women's soccer team, as well as the 2008 women's soccer and 2011 and 2012 women's basketball national runners-up, and the 2009 women's soccer national semifinalist) and nine BIG EAST Conference championship teams. He also has successfully promoted eight basketball players and six soccer players for a total of 19 All-America honors (including 2008 Hermann Trophy recipient Kerri Hanks and 2010 Honda Sports Award recipient Melissa Henderson), and earned 18 national or regional citations for his publications from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), most recently garnering national runner-up honors for his 2010 women's soccer media guide. In addition, he has worked as a play-by-play broadcaster on radio broadcasts and Internet webcasts of Irish women's basketball, volleyball and softball contests.
Masters also has collected considerable experience as a tournament media coordinator, overseeing publicity efforts at the 2005 and 2010 NCAA Men's Golf Central Regional, the 2011 NCAA Women's Golf Central Regional and the 2008 BIG EAST Women's Soccer Championship, all hosted by Notre Dame. What's more, he has served on the media relations staff at nine NCAA Women's Final Fours since 1998, and has been the official scorer at four BIG EAST Softball Championships (2007, 2010-12), and the 2012 NCAA Softball Regional hosted by the University of Louisville.
Prior to coming to Notre Dame, Masters spent three years (1998-2001) as assistant sports information director at Western Kentucky University, serving as the media relations contact for the Lady Topper women's basketball and volleyball programs. He also spent time as the publications coordinator for WKU's entire 20-sport athletics department, successfully promoted two women's basketball All-Americans, assisted in the development of the school's official athletics web site (wkusports.com), and served as media relations coordinator for the 2000 Sun Belt Conference Women's Basketball Championship, hosted by Western Kentucky.
In 1996, Masters graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in journalism and politics & government from Ohio Wesleyan University, while also serving as a student assistant in the OWU sports information office. Two years later, he earned his master's degree in mass communications (public relations emphasis) from Kansas State University, where he also worked in the KSU sports information office as both a student assistant and graduate intern, specifically focusing on the Wildcats' women's basketball and volleyball programs.
An active member of CoSIDA since 1996, Masters is in his 14th year as a district coordinator on that organization's Academic All-America Committee. He also is a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).
A native of San Francisco, Calif., the 38-year-old Masters now makes his home in Mishawaka.
