The 2022 Notre Dame mens’ lacrosse season is nearly here!  The boys are on campus and practicing, with their first scrimmage scheduled for this Saturday evening against their traditional opening scrimmage rival, Air Force.

As we prepare for the season, we’ll begin with a preview of an area of recent success for the Irish: graduate student transfers.  Players like Carlson Milikin and Patrick Aslanian were critical additions to the defense, and last year, the addition of Thorton, Lipka, Leahey, Yorke and Gallagher was an amazing success. Once again, Coach Corrigan brings in multiple players to support an already great roster.

This year looks to build on last year’s transfer successes with four+ great graduate students:

JASON REYNOLDS, Defense

Defensemen Arden Cohen started each of his 48 consecutive starts alongside the great Jack Kielty.  How does a team replace 48 starts worth of experience?  The answer is you find a player with 52 starts: Jason Reynolds from the Richmond Spiders.

Reynolds started every game of his tenure at Richmond from the very moment he stepped on their campus. Richmond is consistently one of the top defenses in the country, and Reynolds was their most consistent player.  He was twice 1st team All-SoCon and a 3rd team All-American.   60 career caused turnovers and 105 ground balls highlight his stat sheet.

MIKE HAWKINS, Attack

Notre Dame adds the captain of Colgate lacrosse team, Mike Hawkins.  Hawkins scored 31 points last season, and has the experience of playing in 42 NCAA games.


MATT FEDORJAKA, SSDM

The Irish gain 6th year SSDM Matt Fedorjaka.  Like with Hawkins, the team is gaining experienced leadership, as he was the Bucknell team captain.  Simply said, he generates a TON of caused turnovers from the SSDM position. The SSDM position is one where Coach Corrigan has had great success with graduate students.  Carlson Milikin and Patrick Aslanian were stellar additions in prior years. Fedorjaka fits this mold and will be great alongside Matt Hasselbeck and Nick Harris.

MATT DOUGLAS, Defense

Not that Notre Dame is worried about having enough leadership, but they gained even more in adding Lehigh team captain Matt Douglas.  Measuring 6’4″, 220 lbs, Douglas will be one of the bigger guys on the back line.  He started all 12 games of the Bison’s 18th ranked 2021 defense. If we weren’t excited enough to see Douglas on campus, we’ll also note he was Jack Kielty’s defensive linemate in high school!

DAVID LIPKA, Midfield

While not a 2022 graduate student addition, we’ll mention Lipka as well as he returns for his second grad year (his 6th lacrosse year).  He was a key member of the second midfield line with 7 goals and 4 assists, including a critical goal in the NCAA Quarterfinal.  #66 is a great example of how the coaching staff brings in players that gel with the team.  His reaction at the end of this PKav goal is priceless.

IS THAT IT?

Nope!  Not only did the Irish bring in these players from the portal, the list of Notre Dame players staying for their graduate year is absolutely astounding.  We’ll discuss them in detail later, but the list is amazing:

  • Michael Fay
  • Mo Mirer
  • Ryan Hallenbeck
  • Arden Cohen
  • Carson Cochran
  • Wheaton Jackoboice

11 total graduate students to go along with 11 seniors is an incredible amount of experience and leadership.  The Irish are well positioned for a great season!

#GoIrish