Memorial Day weekend.  It’s time for the lacrosse Final Four!

Our #2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (12-2) will take on the #6 Syracuse Orange (13-5) in the semi-finals. The boys will have a rematch of their regular season 16-11 win.

The last time these two teams played, there was a lot of emotion and things got chippy, especially at the end. The boys will need to stay focused and play with emotion, not emotionally. They know this team.  The rest will take care of itself.

Schmeisser Season

Congratulations to Shawn Lyght for winning the William T. Schmeisser Award as the nation’s top defenseman in back-to-back seasons! He has proven he is deserving of it all season, and it’s great to see his work pay off!  The list of two-time winners is a list of the icons of the game, with the likes of Notre Dame’s Matt Landis, Tucker Durkin, David Murrow, Dave Pietramala, and Tom Haus. Shawn has a season left to play, giving him the opportunity to be the first in history to win three.

We anxiously await the Tewaaraton Award to see if he gets that as well! But that can wait until after the Irish win the National Championship.

Looking Back

Going back a few weeks to the last time the Irish played the Orange, we saw very similar tends from Irish opponents so far through the NCAA playoffs: a good game plan off the start, and a second half where the Irish adjust and take over. Syracuse will look to again start the script in the same way.

As we have expected all postseason, the boys will need to be ready for this same craziness out of the gate. If they are able to survive whatever early twist Syracuse coach Gary Gait throws at them, they will be fine. The boys went into the half down by one the last time. That should be the absolute limit for this game. The boys can’t allow it to get worse.

Payton Anderson proved to be an unexpected problem for the Irish last time, with 4 goals on 7 shots. Since that game, his goal production has slowed down significantly, with only 2 goals since that game (Notre Dame was his season high). Though, he has improved as a distributor, with 7 assists in the three games since. The boys will need to be prepared for the new look.

Coming off the Schmeisser Award recognition, I feel confident Lyght will lock down Spallina. But as normal, the pick game will be Spallina’s go-to in an attempt to get away from that match-up. If Lyght stays on Syracuse #22 and stays on his hands, we like our chances. As the #1 Spallina skeptic, I reaffirm my position that he has a difficult time with these harder match-ups.

The prospects for Spallina will be the same as for Syracuse as a whole. Gait will create some new looks to give him a few good opportunities early.  Lyght will not panic and will adjust. Spallina’s contributions will then be limited.

The Notre Dame ride was above the season average in the last match-up, getting ride-backs 20% of the time. Doing that again certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Similarly, in the regular season the Irish dominated at the dot. Repeated success would be a great help in getting us to championship Monday. Leaving the Orange with no chance to get on a run would be ideal.

Lastly, there not much to suggest that Syracuse enjoys playing outdoors and on the grass. The unpleasant weather forecast should be to Notre Dame’s advantage.

What’s Changed

So far in the NCAA playoffs, the Orange have struggled to build a lead. Both wins have come off a bunch of goals in one quarter, then slowing down for the rest. The boys will need to keep them from any runs to stay in control. The middle half is where this opponent has thrived, so extra attention will be needed there.

The Orange are converting at 25% on man-up. With how our man-down has played recently, this has me cautiously optimistic if we are in any man-down situations. But to keep things simple: stay out of the box.

On the flip side, their man-down is converting at over 70%, and with the Irish man-up in a slump, improvement and focus will be necessary. Not being able to convert those opportunities will change the game. We know this about Syracuse: If you don’t make them pay man-up, they will significantly dial up the intensity and make it a physically painful day for the boys.

As a last note, the Orange have finally decided to fight for ground balls and have been winning the GB battles recently. Great opportunity to prove the Irish are still the grittiest team out there!

Hype

On the Syracuse side of things, they are looking for validation out of this senior class.  It’s the recruiting class that was supposed to bring them to the promised land.  It’s certainly brought the Orange back to the top of the conversation, but they haven’t taken that last step. They, and their fan base, are extremely motivated.

We’ll leave our followers with our own motivation as we did last week with Johns Hopkins.  Of the many wins over Syracuse that we can look to, let’s watch Jack Near’s two-overtime winner one more time to get the Irish fans in the right mood.

Great opportunity to make the championship game! They know what to do against Syracuse. The only thing he boys need to concern themselves with is their own focus and discipline. As we said at the opening, the rest will take care of itself.

 

 

We will be covering the semi-finals (and hopefully the finals) from Charlottesville, thank you for following us! The weather

The game will be played at 2:30 EDT on ESPN2 with Duke vs Princeton right before, at noon,on the same channel. Tune in!

 

#GoIrish

Luke Burgar

ND-ATL 2.0