The first round game is expected to be at 5:15 pm ET at Arlotta Stadium on ESPNU/ESPN3.

This will be the 5th time that the Fighting Irish have earned 1 of the 8 national seeds for the NCAA Championship. The #4 seed matches the highest-seed-ever for ND. Last year, they were seeded 4th as well (ND lost in the quarterfinals to Duke).

The Irish and the Bulldogs will be playing each other for the 2nd time in history. The first time was in 1983, when the Irish lost 17-5.

The first round match-ups will be the following:

#1 Loyola vs Canisius

#2 Johns Hopkins vs Stony Brook

#3 Duke vs Syracuse

#4 Notre Dame vs Yale

#5 Virginia vs Princeton

#6 Massachusetts vs Colgate

#7 Lehigh vs Maryland

#8 North Carolina vs Denver

The winner of the Virginia-Princeton game will play the winner of Notre Dame- Yale. If Notre Dame wins, they will play home to either team, because the Irish are ranked higher than UVA and un-seeded Canisius.

For the printable bracket, click here. (PDF)

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!

Sophomore attackman Westy Hopkins led the Irish offense with three goals and one assist. Freshman attackman Conor Doyle added in two goals for ND, while sophomore midfielder Jim Marlatt had one goal and two assists.

Junior goalie John Kemp made seven saves in 52:44 of action for the Irish. Yet another strong game for ther Irish defense.

“I’m really happy with the way we played today,” said Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan. “Providence is a tough out. They don’t have a lot of wins, but if you look at their scores, they are playing one and two-goal games with a lot of people. They play for that, to be there in the end. They have done that with just about every team they’ve played this year. So I’m really pleased with how we played today. We didn’t give away anything. We were disciplined, smart and fundamentally sound.” -UND.com

The Fighting Irish will next play next Sunday at Georgetown. The Big East match-up is scheduled for a 1:00 pm ET start in Washington, D.C.

March 24, 2012; Charlottesville, VA, USA; Lacrosse sticks lie on the ground behind the Virginia Cavaliers bench prior to the Cavaliers

Notre Dame (6-1) scored the first 6 out of the 7 goals off the game. They never trailed and they seemed to be the dominant team in the game.  Rutger had a good comeback from the deficit Notre Dame created, cutting the game to 7-6. However, after the game went to 8-7, Notre Dame had 3 straight goals to put the game away.

Here’s the scoring summary for both teams.

Rutgers SCORING: GOALS: DEPAOLERA, Nick 2; MANGAN, Will 2; KLIMCHAK, Scott 2; DIEHL, Michael 2; ZENDA, Zachary 1.

ASSISTS: DEPAOLERA, Nick 2; KLIMCHAK, Scott 1; MANGAN, Will 1; ZERRILLO, Nicholas 1.

Notre Dame SCORING: GOALS: Rogers, Sean 4; Marlatt, Jim 2; Foley, Ryan 1; Corrigan, Will 1; Murphy, Steve 1; Keppeler, Eric 1; Cotter, Pat 1; O’CONNOR, Liam 1.

ASSISTS: Foley, Ryan 2; Corrigan, Will 1; Marlatt, Jim 1.

ND (#6 in the country), will play in the Big City Classic and face off against St. John’s in a rival match-up. The game is in East Rutherford, N.J.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!