The #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (8-1, 2-1 ACC) will host the #10/#14 North Carolina Tar Heels (7-5, 1-3 ACC). The game is scheduled for noon at Arlotta Stadium, ACC Network. The forecast is for high-40s temperature and scattered showers.
This is the first of two scheduled games against this ACC opponent, with the return match in two weeks in Chapel Hill.
The Opponent
North Carolina has had a up-and-down season with big wins over teams such as #7 Johns Hopkins, but also some clunkers like their 5-8 loss to Ohio State. The remain a great threat when they get hot, as they have scored 25 goals in a game three different times.
The Irish are 10-11 against the Tar Heels all-time. The boys won last year 12-5 at Arlotta, but have otherwise had a very mixed bag of results against this opponent the past several years. Unlike many of the team’s rivals, these games do not fit a pattern.
Logan McGovern, Lance Tillman and Mercer transfer Sean Goldsmith are their main scoring threats. Andrew Tyeryar wins just above 50% at faceoff, but is an unusual, old-school threat in that he typically stays on the field, is a scoring threat, and is more than competent in all aspects of the game. Junior Collin Krieg serves as their starting goalie for a third season. On the defensive end, we like watching Connor Maher and Ty English.
The Tar Heels go with the 10-man ride a lot. For those unfamiliar, it is the rough equivalent of a full-court press in basketball, and where the goalie generally comes out of the crease to cover a player. Historically, the Irish were known for using the 10-man in certain circumstances even if they don’t use it much anymore, but North Carolina use is as their first line of defense. The 10-man is very high risk/reward. The boys will need to be careful and be wise in choosing times to attack it.
Our Three Questions
What we are looking for this week is a lot different than what we’ve been doing this season:
- No bye week rust! The boys needed some rest for sure, they just need to be careful that rest doesn’t equal rust.
- Stay disciplined against 10-man ride: It’s not a big secret that the Tar Heels are looking to make it a mess for the Irish in the middle of the field. Notre Dame has plenty of veteran experience and will need to lean into it.
- Use roster depth: As noted after the Duke game, the Irish need to trust and utilize their defensive midfield depth, particularly with Nick Harris recovering from injury. Against the 10-man, the workload will be a lot for just Tevlin, McCahon, Ramsay and Parlette.
Our Seniors
It’s also the last regular season home game for many of our boys. Please tip your hat to our seniors and graduate students for a career well done:
Fulton Bayman
Emmet Barger
Maximus Schalit
Jake Taylor
Kevin Lynch
Max Manyak
Reilly Gray
Marco Napolitano
Sam Assaf
Liam Entenmann
Jon Ford
Pat Kavanaugh
Nick Harris
Jack Simmons
Chris Fake
Brian Tevlin
Quinn McCahon
Chris Conlin
Griffin Westlin
Some we may see use their extra eligibility, some we may see in the PLL, but we are sure all will impress us with their success after Notre Dame.
#GoIrish
I’m not certain how the streaming works with both properties owned by ESPN, so it might be on both, but UND.com has the game being broadcast on ESPNU, rather than ACCN.
Also this week both Kavanaughs and Entenmann were named among the 25 Tewaaraton Award nominees. I don’t think they have a great chance of winning because the Irish spread the points around the midfielders too much and it hurts their counting stats compared to CJ Kirst or Brennan O’Neill, but still cool to lead the NCAA with three nominees.
There’s enough buzz around PKav that a strong final 3 weeks on national TV would make a strong case (as it does would for O’Neill). Kirst is toiling in anonymity in Ivy.