Our #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (7-1, 2-0 ACC) extending their win streak over Duke to five games in a 15-12 win. We’ll remember the game for the Pat Kavanagh 7-point message in the battle of Tewaaraton finalists.

The Irish look to keep their momentum going today Sunday against #8 Cornell (7-3) in a neutral-site game on Long Island, 12:30 pm (ESPN+) (sorry for date correction!!)

We apologize to our readers for a late recap this week!

PKav and the Irish make a statement

Our colleague Drew Brennan outlines the specifics of the game well.

The game began as a close affair with the teams exchanging leads. The Duke strategy seemed to be locking out Jake Taylor in the interior and taking their chances against Pat Kavanagh as a scorer as opposed to a distributor. It was a poor choice, as PKav abused his Duke All-American counterpart, Kenny Brower, and took him to the cooker from all spots on the field.

With the Irish up 8-5 at the half, Duke backed off this strategy, but it did not take long to adjust and PKav returned to being the distributor with Jake Taylor released to do his magic and add 2 goals to the Irish total. PKav finished with 4g, 3a, and his brother Chris with 4g, 1a.

On the other side of the field, Chris Conlin dominated his matchup against 2023 Tewaaraton winner Brennan O’Neil, holding him to 2 goals. Even more impressive was freshman Shawn Lyght, who held Josh Zawada to 2 assists.

Of course, Liam Entenmann continued his form against Duke with 14 saves.

Our Three Duke Questions

We entered last weekend’s game asking these questions, all of which were answered well:

  1. Confronting their offense: Containing the attack was the critical exercise for the Irish, and they performed wonderfully. Dyson Williams got his points, but O’Neill and Zawada did not. Containing all three would have been an unnecessary ask, and keeping a tight lid on two was more than enough and exceeded expectations.
  2. Continue offensive success: Notre Dame has so many options that the Duke effort to limit access to Jake Taylor just meant the same amount of points would come from other players. In this instance it was the Kavanaghs. More critically, we were looking for the Irish to be consistent from beginning to end and to avoid doldrums like they has against Syracuse. They certainly did that and finished strong, scoring 4 of the game’s last 5 goals.
  3. Keep dominating faceoffs: While we won’t call it a domination, Lynch gave the Irish a clear edge in the department so that the superior Irish offensive efficiency could take care of the rest. Once again, this unit proved itself better than its highly-ranked counterpart.

Up Next: Cornell

The Irish travel to Long Island this weekend to face #8 Cornell (7-3) for a neutral site game on Long Island. Strong attendance by Notre Dame alumni, family and fans is expected and will create a festive, home atmosphere for the boys.

Notre Dame and Cornell have not played each other much, but it has been a series dominated by the Big Red over the years, 1-6. The last meeting was an 11-9 loss in 2019 at Arlotta on a miserable, rainy day.  Notre Dame’s lone win was in the 2010 NCAA semifinals. Cornell has wins this year against then-#20 Ohio State, #13 Princeton, and #4 Syracuse in OT. The also have losses to then-#7 Denver (16-17), #10 Penn State (9-20) and #14 Penn (10-11 2OT). The Big Red are a well-tested team.

This week’s game does not require a grand preview, and we’ll spell out the situation plainly: This will be a much different test for the Irish than they are accustomed to, and the challenge will simply be to stay disciplined. Cornell is the third best scoring offense in the country (15.5 gpg) and only slightly behind Notre Dame. However, to use a Quint Kessenich-ism, defense was sold separately.

So why are they a problem? They are happy to get into a shootout with the Irish.  They’ve come back from huge deficits to win games, including down 7 to Syracuse. They will exploit any lapse in concentration.  If the Irish remain methodical, the outlook looks great. If they take the bait and loosen up the game, they will give Cornell a chance at an upset. Given opportunities to score, Cornell will make good use of them.

The Big Red have plenty of offensive stars, but chief among them is #15 C.J. Kirst (34g, 12a, 24 gb, 13 ct!). He is a premier scorer, but his ability to get the ball back for his team will remind Irish fans of our own Pat Kavanagh.  Kirst is a treat to watch! Notre Dame will need to figure out a way to contain him without diverting too many resources from the defense of the other players. The Cornell offense is too good and will exploit unsupported defenders.

The forecast is for some wind and possibly a bit of rain, nothing a team from South Bend can’t handle 65 degrees and some clouds. We do hope it stays dry for the huge Notre Dame crowd that is expected.

#GoIrish

ND-ATL 2.0