#4 ranked/#6 seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (7-3) will open their NCAA Championship effort against the #9/#10 ranked/unseeded CAA Champion Drexel Dragons (10-2). The game will be hosted by the Denver Pioneers at Peter Barton Stadium, 5:00 pm EDT, ESPNU.
The Draw
Not unexpectedly, North Carolina was seeded #1, followed by Duke and Maryland. The shock came with Notre Dame’s #6 seed, far lower than projected by anyone. The team has every reason to feel slighted about it.
The slight is justified in the reason given by the committee, that Notre Dame didn’t play anyone good out of conference. It appears to be a standard unequally applied. We suspect the truth is more that the committee needed to send the Irish out west to adhere to the long-standing tournament travel rule and came up with a reason to justify it. Regardless of seeding, the Irish are still playing one of the opponents the were projected to play.
More importantly, the seeding will result in Notre Dame playing at home in the quarterfinals should they beat Drexel. That’s not a bad consolation prize.
The Opponent
This is the fifth all-time meeting against the Dragons, with the Irish holding a 4-1 record. The only loss was at Drexel in 2010, when the Irish fell in overtime. The teams last played in 2012, with the Irish squeaking by 6-5, also played in Philadelphia.
Drexel comes into the came hot and on a 9-game win streak, including a win in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament this weekend. That win earned them the conference’s automatic qualifying berth in the NCAA tournament.
The Dragons only have one common opponent, Robert Morris, who they beat 19-13 (compared to Irish win, 19-7). They have had a successful season which includes wins over ranked UMass, Delaware and Hofstra.
Their coaching staff is led by Johns Hopkins legend Brian Voelker, who is assisted by Steven Boyle and former Schmeisser Award winner and current member of the PLL’s Atlas, Tucker Durkin.
Drexel, on paper, is unusual in that their scoring isn’t particularly deep, but what they have is very prolific. Players like Sean Donnelly (25g, 19a) and Aidan Coll (32g, 11a) score a ton of goals. Canadian grad student Reid Bowering has been on fire since his return from injury, scoring over 4 points a game in his last 5.
Jimmeh Koita is their primary faceoff specialist. He hovers around 50%, but he is a very big guy weighing 215 lbs. That sort of size will require both Gallagher and Leonard to produce equally to avoid getting worn down.
On the defensive end, #17 SSDM George Grippo is a player to watch. He’s good on defense and is very effective getting the ball forward in transition.
Stylistically, they play good defense, and on offense seem to use a lot of pass-down picks and other plays to activate their off-ball strengths. Not altogether different than many of the teams the Irish played at the beginning of the season.
Where we are most impressed with them, in the games we watched, they did a great job of trapping midfielders and in an instant breaking out in transition. The Irish will need to be disciplined in the middle of the field.
Our Notes
Drexel is a good team that has well earned its #9/#10 rank. They are dangerous and can beat the Irish if they don’t show up ready to play. But we have to be careful not to overthink this. The Irish simply have to play like they have in any of their games to date. Meaning no disrespect to the Dragons, the Irish are a deeper, faster and bigger team. If the boys play to their strengths, all will be fine.
To see if this is happening, we’ll observe:
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- Faceoff percentage: Notre Dame can’t let Koita play them to a draw. They need a firm possession advantage.
- Fast start: The Irish have been off for two weeks and are coming off exams, so there is some risk of sleepwalking. They’ll need to concentrate on taking command early.
- Slow down transition: We have every confidence the defense can win a 6-on-6 battle. The key is to make sure transition attempts are slowed and the Dragons are reduced to a half-field offense.
- 13 goals: This is the border between being worried and being more relaxed, as it has been all season. The Drexel defense doesn’t give up goals cheaply, so it will be on the offense to keep up the pressure to get the team quickly to this total. If they can do that, we’ll feel good about their chances. If they struggle to score, we’ll worry to the buzzer regardless of how well the defense is playing.
- Altitude: Denver is hosting the game. With neither team coming from altitude, fitness will be an issue. The Irish depth needs to shine.
It’s tournament time. Just survive and advance.
NCAA Party Pooper
This week the NCAA announced it will only permit a travel and sideline squad of 45 people, which to our understanding includes coaches and staff. This is a real bummer, as it would seem to require 20+ boys to stay home this weekend. It has been heartbreaking reading of the disappointment of the players on social media.
Considering this news came only hours before CDC guidance was changed to permit maskless contact without distancing for vaccinated persons, we are very disappointed for those students affected. As of this writing, the CDC change does not appear to have resulted in any travel rule change.
To those players who are impacted by this rule and their families: Please understand and know that we here at 18 Stripes, and the entire Notre Dame lacrosse fan community, recognize your contribution to the team. We know you earned the right to compete in this championship with your teammates. Notre Dame men’s lacrosse would not be in this position if not for the contributions of each of the 56 student athletes.
#GoIrish
*NCAA is allowing 7 more players to travel. It seems to be an arbitrary increase to attempt to quiet the critics. We remain disappointed that they are still requiring players stay home.
I, for one, cannot believe the NCAA would set arbitrary rules and change them on a whim
Exciting game, but not sure it was a good game? I kind of feel like if we play like that again we’re going to get bounced in the next round, even with it being at home.
There was good with bad. The boys had a rough day and still held the #9 team to 6 goals below their.season average and half those goals were after Entenmann made the initial save. There’s a lot to tidy up on offense, but we have to be careful not to overreact.
Totally fair – goalie play for both squads at least seemed excellent, though I am not the most discerning eye.
So on UND.com it said we play the winner of MD and Vermont, and at ND? Is this a promising path?
Maryland is a very good team, certainly one if the top ones. It’s been a challenge evaluating them because they played big 10 only. But it’s fair to say, path is promising because playing at home, but not promising in that they play a team of Maryland’s assumed quality so early in tournament.
Thanks! Guess that’s the issue with the lower seeding than we deserved? What can we say — beat the Terps!