The Bulldogs will play their first true home game of the season Saturday afternoon, hosting Notre Dame at the Sellick Bowl on the Butler campus. This will be Butler's fourth match of the spring season, but the first three were each played indoors at the Grand Park facility in Westfield, Ind.
 
Butler and the Fighting Irish will kick at 1 p.m. The match will be streamed live on the Butler Athletics YouTube channel as a student-run production in conjunction with the university's College of Communication.
 
Butler enters the contest with a record of 0-3, dropping decisions to SIUE, Western Michigan and Saint Louis. With the typical fall season modified and moved to the spring due to COVID, the Bulldogs will play an abbreviated non-conference slate in addition to a regional BIG EAST slate being implemented this spring.
 
Notre Dame is 5-4 on the season. The ACC played a fall schedule and Saturday's match will be the first for the Fighting Irish this spring. Notre Dame's fall season ended Nov. 18 when they fell to top-seeded Pittsburgh in the ACC semifinals.
 
This will be the seventh meeting between the two programs, but the first regular season match-up since Nov. 4, 1994 (the teams have played exhibition contests in recent seasons). Notre Dame won that 1994 decision by a score of 4-1. In the overall series, Notre Dame holds a slight 3-2-1 advantage.
 
Butler was picked as the preseason favorite to win the BIG EAST's Midwest Division. Butler topped the Midwest Division Poll with 15 points, tallying three first-place votes. Creighton followed in second with 14 points and the remaining two first-place tallies. Xavier followed in third place with 10 points, followed by Marquette with seven points and DePaul with four points.

Butler had two standouts named to the 2021 Preseason All-BIG EAST Team in sophomore Wilmer Cabrera Jr., and senior Rhys Myers.
 
Cabrera, Jr., was named the 2019 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, scoring eight goals, including six game-winners. Myers played a pivotal role in anchoring Butler's defense that only allowed 1.3 goals per game in 2019.

Butler's returners also include junior midfielder Jack Haywood. He earned All-BIG EAST third-team honors following the 2019 campaign, tying for the conference lead with nine assists. The nine assists are tied for fifth on Butler's single-season list.

Cabrera, Jr., earned a third-team spot as TopDrawerSoccer unveiled its Preseason Best XI teams earlier this spring.
 
Saturday's game is the final non-conference match-up on the Bulldogs' spring schedule. Butler opens the modified, regional BIG EAST slate Wednesday (March 3) with a home contest against DePaul. The Bulldogs will play DePaul, Marquette, Xavier and Creighton in home-and-home series.