South Bend Tribune file photo

Skylar Diggins returns for her senior season for her senior season with the Notre Dame women's basketball team. (South Bend Tribune file photo) (September 13, 2012)

By Pete Byrne (pmbyrne@wsbt.com) WSBT-TV WSBT-TV

4:10 p.m. EDT, September 13, 2012
NOTRE DAME - Coming off back to back appearances in the national championship game, the Notre Dame women's basketball team unveiled a challenging schedule that will includes 13 opponents that appeared in last season's NCAA tournament.

The schedule includes a home game against defending national champion Baylor, in a repeat of last year's national championship game.  The Irish will also face UConn twice, travel to Tennessee, and play a game on top of an aircraft carrier when they face Ohio State on the deck of the USS Yorktown.

Notre Dame will play 12 times on national television in the regular season, including a game at rival Connecticut on January 5 on WSBT-TV.

"We have always followed the idea that our non-conference schedule prepares us for the BIG EAST season, and the conference schedule gets us ready for the NCAAs, and this year's schedule fits that philosophy extremely well," Notre Dame's Hall of Fame head coach Muffet McGraw said. "We're going to see a variety of different styles of play during the non-conference season and we're going to be playing in some unique environments that may take us out of our comfort zone. We're also on national TV quite a bit and we have several instances where we're playing on a Saturday-Monday or Sunday-Tuesday format, which will reflect what we will see in the NCAA tournament. There will be a lot of challenges for us, but it's a schedule that should be both highly beneficial for us and entertaining for our fans."