#6 Notre Dame plays #3 Duke in the ACC semifinal, Friday at 8:30 pm, Durham, NC, ESPNNEWS.
The post-season is upon us. Syracuse will play North Carolina in the first semi, followed by Notre Dame vs. Duke. Virginia will play in a showcase game (some may say the Toilet Bowl) on Saturday versus Penn. The winners will square off on Sunday.
Duke won the regular season matchup and has looked very good since. The usual suspects, Guterding, Bruckner, Fowler and Rowe, have played very well. These four, along with defenseman Van Raaphorst, were awarded all-ACC honors yesterday. Perkovic, Epple and Sexton received the same recognition for the Irish.
The game is being played at Duke. Notre Dame has an excellent record at Koskinen Stadium, but that natural grass field in in rough shape on a good day. Teams should prepare for a terrible field on Sunday for its fourth game in three days.
In the regular season matchup, Shane Doss and Owen Molloy had a very sub-par day in goal. The Irish were very bad in the EMO, and early in the game they had difficulty controlling the Duke midfield. Duke kept Garnsey under wraps fairly well, and Notre Dame shooting overall was not good. Having said this, we can’t imagine Doss having another bad day like that, the EMO has improved, and the Irish did adjust and control the Duke midfield later in the game. Plus, the faceoff unit played well against Rowe, Sexton was a complete beast, and the defense kept Guterding under control. There’s every reason in the world to expect a better Irish performance.
This is what we’ll look for:
- Garnsey: Ryder Garnsey has had a quiet last few weeks, and there is some concern he was injured late in the UNC game. If he’s healthy, we hope to see him find some of the scoring magic from early in the season.
- Shooting: The Irish can’t afford to flub high-percentage shots like they did early in the first Duke contest. The good news is that Perkovic and Wynne have been on fire recently, and the rest of the team has shown a very good scoring touch.
- Defensive balance: Notre Dame seemed content will simply clogging the middle and making life difficult for Guterding in the first contest. They largely kept him off the scoresheet, but it took ND far too long to adjust to the skill on the rest of the field. By this defense’s standard, it was not that good a day. The Irish make good adjustments, so we look to see a better balance.
We like Notre Dame’s chances against Duke and are certain it will be a good game. ND-Atl 2.0 simply doesn’t want another soul crusher like last year’s semifinal OT loss to Duke in our backyard in Kennesaw, GA. Poor kid was every bit as upset over the loss as the players were.
What’s at stake:
For Syracuse, Duke and ND, this will be a great chance to firm up the resume for good NCAA tournament seeding. For UNC, they have to win outright to even be eligible for selection. As such, UNC is our team to watch this tournament.
ND -2 for those interested in that kind of thing (seems disrespectful to the home team).
#GoIrish
We were rightfully chastised this morning by the good folks at Duke for our criticism of their field. Field condition photos show it in excellent condition for tonight’s games, and we are very glad to see it.
Bermuda grass fields at the start of the growing season can be fickle and 4 big-time games in 3 days will test the grounds crew. They are off to a wonderful start and obviously have but a lot of time and energy into producing a great surface for this tournament.
mea culpa
Good to see that you’re high on the grass.
Good one
Have to give them.credit for the effort, they put a lot of time into it
Strangling defense, great win. That game was at Duke but the place was empty (except for ND parents). Pathetic.