Vikings to Play at Notre Dame in NCAA First Round

CSU to Play Fighting Irish on Sunday, March 21

March 15, 2010

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State, the 2010 Horizon League Champions, will open the NCAA Tournament as the 15th seed in the Kansas City Regional on Sunday, March 21, at second-seeded Notre Dame at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center. Tipoff is slated for 2:30 p.m.

The Vikings enter the tournament at 19-13 overall and finished in fourth place in the Horizon League in the regular season at 11-7. CSU went on to defeat UIC, Green Bay and Butler in the league tournament to earn the Horizon League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

CSU will be making its second appearance in the NCAA tournament in school history with its only other appearance two seasons ago when the 15th-seeded Vikings fell at second-seeded Stanford in the opening round, 85-47.

Notre Dame is 27-5 overall and received an at-large bid after going 12-4 in the Big East, falling to top-seeded Connecticut in the semifinals.

This will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two schools with Notre Dame winning all five previous meetings. The most recent match-up was a 107-65 Fighting Irish win on Nov. 26, 2002.

The winner of the Notre Dame-CSU contest will advance to the second round to face the winner of another first round game between seventh-seeded Wisconsin and 10th-seeded Vermont on Tuesday, March 23.

The regional semifinals and finals will be played from March 27-30 in Kansas City, Mo., with the Final Four scheduled in San Antonio on April 4th and 6th.