March 23, 2004

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The NCAA has announced that the East Regional semifinal game between Notre Dame and Penn State in the 2004 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship will be played Saturday, March 27 at noon (ET) in Hartford, Conn., at the Hartford Civic Center. The game will be televised live to a nationwide audience on ESPN. Connecticut will take on UC Santa Barbara in the other regional semifinal, with the winners scheduled to play at 7 p.m. (ET) next Monday on ESPN for a trip to the Final Four in New Orleans.

No. 5 seed Notre Dame (21-10) advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for the sixth time in the last eight seasons with a 59-46 victory over Middle Tennessee on Tuesday night at the Joyce Center. The Irish are one of only five teams in the nation who have qualified for the NCAA regionals six times since 1997.

Top-seeded Penn State (27-5) was ranked fifth in the final Associated Press poll and currently is seventh in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll. The Lady Lions earned their place in the Sweet Sixteen with a 61-48 win at Virginia Tech on Tuesday night.

Notre Dame and Penn State will be meeting for the fourth time, with the Lady Lions having won each of the previous three games in the series. The last time they played one another was on Dec. 1, 1995, when PSU handed the Irish an 86-77 setback at the Kona Women's Basketball Classic in Kona, Hawaii. The two teams have never faced off in postseason play.

Tickets for the East Regional in Hartford are being sold only in all-session packages for $74. The packages include admission to both regional semifinal games on Saturday afternoon, as well as the regional final on Monday night. Tickets may be obtained through the Notre Dame Athletics Ticket Office, which will be open at Gate 1 of the Joyce Center during normal business hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET) Wednesday through Friday. Fans may also call the ticket office at (574) 631-7356 and make their purchases over the phone.

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