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Notre Dame seeded No. 1 in Lexington, Stanford is No. 2
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) Coach Muffet McGraw is hoping the three losses Notre Dame sustained during the regular season have will have the Fighting Irish better prepared for adversity they will face in the NCAA Tournament.
''We've been in some real battles and I think it really helped. I think the losses that we had, especially the Tennessee game, really made us better,'' she said Monday evening moments after the second-ranked Irish (30-3) learned they were the top seed for the Lexington Regional.
The three losses are the most the Irish have had entering the NCAA Tournament since they started a run of six straight top seeds with three losses during the 2011-12 season. Sixth-ranked Stanford (28-5), which knocked Notre Dame out of the tournament last season, is seeded second in the regional, No. 14 Texas is third and No. 18 Kentucky (21-10) is seeded fourth.
The Irish, who started the season for the first time ever at No. 1 in the AP Top 25, were dominated at home by top-ranked Connecticut 72-61 in early December, were beaten at North Carolina State 70-62 in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener later that month and lost 71-69 at Tennessee in mid-January.
Senior point guard Lindsay Allen said she believes losing to Stanford in the regional semifinal last season will help the Irish avoid overlooking anyone this season.
''I think last year we looked ahead a little bit more than we should have. So I think for us we have to take it one game at a time, which is what we preach every year,'' Allen said.
The Irish will host Robert Morris (22-10), the Northeast Conference champion, in South Bend on Friday. The other game in South Bend pits eighth-seed Green Bay (27-5), which is making its eighth tournament in nine seasons, against ninth-seeded Purdue (22-12), which was a bubble team for a second straight season.
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Other notes of interest in the Lexington Regional:
STANFORD'S STREAK: Pac-12 champion Stanford joins Tennessee as the only schools with 30-year NCAA tournament streaks. The Cardinal will face No. 15 seed New Mexico State (24-6) in Manhattan, Kansas. Stanford was unable to host because it is hosting the Pac-12 women's gymnastics championship.
TEXAS AT 30: Texas will host Central Arkansas on Friday, with the winner taking on the winner of Auburn-North Carolina. The Longhorns are the fourth team to earn 30 tournament berths, joining Tennessee (36), Georgia (32) and Stanford (31).
RUN IT BACK: The Lexington Regional could include three teams that were in Lexington Regional semifinals last year (Notre Dame, Stanford and Kentucky). Stanford advanced. It also marks the second straight season Kentucky could play its first four tournament games at home, starting Friday against Belmont (27-5), which will be making its third NCAA tournament appearance.
OHIO STATE-WESTERN KENTUCKY: Fifth-seeded Ohio State (26-6) faces No. 12 seed Western Kentucky (27-6) in Lexington. The Lady Toppers are making their 19th tournament appearance and have won at least one game in half of their appearances.
