Our #1 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse are set to play the #7 Maryland Terrapins for the NCAA National Championship!

A win to repeat as champions would elevate this team to one of the greatest ever. But in their way stands the school with claim to the most recent dynasty in the sport. This game is going to be epic.

Severe weather is forecast for Monday’s game, and the start time has been moved up to noon.

The Opponent

Maryland (11-5) is a team we played earlier this season, emerging victorious 14-9 (preview and recap). It took some time for them to find their footing the season with losses to Virginia, Michigan, Johns Hopkins and Penn State. However, Maryland has been on a roll during the NCAA playoffs, with convincing wins over Princeton, Duke and on Saturday, Virginia. The Irish are catching the Terps at a dangerous time.  They are full of confidence and playing well.

Luke Wierman at faceoff and Logan McNaney are formidable specialists and among the best in the nation. McNaney, like our Liam Entenmann has been the NCAA most outstanding player of the tournament (2022).

On the offensive end, Daniel Kelly, Eric Spanos, and their pair of Atlantans, Eric Malever and Braden Erksa, continue to consistently produce for Maryland.

We observe that their recent success has been in the strength of their defense. Against Virginia, Will Schaller (2ct, 4gb) and Colin Burlace (2ct, brother of ND’s B.J. and Gavin) were very effective. Their leader, Ajax Zapitello was particularly good (3ct). Together they held Virginia to a paltry 15 shots on goal.

It will be a surprise if the Terps do not try to lock off one of the Kavs with Zappitello and force the Irish to find scoring elsewhere.  This plan did not work well in March, but given the recent success they had against O’Neill and Schellenberger, we understand why they would continue with what has gotten them this far.

If we can identify an area where the boys can find impactful success against Maryland, it is in the middle of the field. In the March game, the Irish found a lot of success and tormented them in the middle. Virginia found similar success on Saturday, with Maryland having 18 turnovers, and only going 21-25 on clears. Notre Dame’s ground ball excellency and their scrappy rides should cause a huge problem from Maryland.

In the earlier game, Notre Dame relied heavily on output from its first midfield line.  At the time, they were only beginning to activate the second line and had hardly deployed the third.  As we know now, the second and third lines have become a problem for opponents. On short rest, these units will be relied upon to keep constant pressure on the Terp defense.

Maryland is a team that will not be overwhelmed by the big stage.  This is a squad with a championship pedigree and with a roster full of players who have themselves hoisted the trophy.  They boys will have wrestle this championship from them.

Our Three Questions

Ultimately, tomorrow is simply about who will recover enough to be able to perform near their best on one day of rest. There is little time for film study and practice. Just win.

  1. Mandy Merritt Magic: This Irish team is blessed with who may be the best trainer in the business. Mandy Merritt will be counted on to use all the skills she learned with her years with the Irish and US National teams to get the boys recovered and ready. She is the one who was able to get PKav on the field for last year’s game. Let there be no doubt as to her ability to have the boys prepared.
  2. Zappitello: Maryland has made no secret of their strategy to use their USILA Enners Award winner to erase a key player on their opposition. It’s a strategy that has worked for them in the three tournaments games leading into this final. Expect the Terps to have Zappitello sell out completely against either of the Kavanagh brothers, but also expect the Irish to have a good counter-strategy (if Maryland’s plan works at all, the Kavs may have something to say!)
  3. Depth: It’s been on our list all month, and it’s not leaving today. If there has ever been a need for depth it is during the Memorial Day game. Everyone is hurting, but our Irish simply have more guys to share the load and play close to their max. The more we see Angrick, Walker, Finley, Buchner and others, the better you will know we are doing.

As we noted in our recap yesterday, this team is focused on nothing else but the win. They are committed to accepting nothing but a supreme effort from one another. This is a championship formula.

Driving to the game, please listen to the Exit 77 podcast with our friends and colleague Drew Brennan and David Brogan previewing the championship tilt.

The last game of the season is also the last game to impact the PKav and CKav ground balls for CityLax initiative.  Please consider donating if you are able.

One more!

#GoIrish

ND-ATL 2.0