The Notre Dame women's basketball team suffered 20 losses at the hands of Tennessee before getting its first win over the Volunteers in the NCAA tournament Dayton Region finals.

The No. 2 Irish (19-1) will have their chance to start their first winning streak against the No. 9 Volunteers (14-4) tonight on a game that will be aired on ESPN2.

Notre Dame, which won back-to-back games against Connecticut for the first time earlier this season, is on a 16-game winning streak. Tennessee rebounded from a loss to No. 8 Kentucky to win its last two games.

The matchup that could define tonight's game in Purcell Pavilion will be between Irish forward Devereaux Peters and Vols forward Glory Johnson.

Johnson averages nearly a double-double with 14.3 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.

"She is a huge matchup nightmare," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "That is exactly what it is. She is so athletic and aggressive and physical and really a difficult matchup for us. She is such a talented player that can do so many things."

Peters averages 11.6 points and 7.3 rebounds. She was named the Big East player of the week today after she averaged 19.5 points and shot 64 percent from the field in two wins last week.

Tennessee feels it has the ability to deal with the 6-foot-2 Peters, because along with the 6-3 Johnson, the Vols can use 6-2 Shekinna Striklen, if she is over her knee injury that kept her out of last week's win over LSU, 6-4 Vicki Baugh and 6-3 Isabelle Harrison.

"Because of our personal, we feel like we can matchup at that particular spot," Tennessee assistant coach Mickie DeMoss said. "We do have some athletic post players with size. But Peters is certainly a very talented young lady. She hits the offensive glass. She has nice moves around the basket and can finish well. She's a great compliment to the four people around her."