During tomorrow’s Blue-Gold game, the #4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse team (6-3, 2-3 ACC) will host the #9 Syracuse Orangemen (6-4, 2-3 ACC) at Arlotta Stadium, noon, ESPNU.

The Irish hope to repeat the strong play of their earlier win at the Carrier Dome. Both teams are looking for a strong showing to end the regular season. It looks like notable Irish alums like Matt Kavanagh and Eddie Glazener will be on campus to cheer the boys on.

The Opponent

Syracuse had a rough patch after their loss to Notre Dame, but they made a sharp correction last week in a win at Virginia and look to finish the season strong.

A expected prior to the season, Syracuse remains known for it’s strong midfield of Trimboli (14g), Dordevic (18g) and Curry (15g).  However, the Orange attack has become a significant weapon led by Reyfess (45pts) and freshman Hiltz (36pts).

Jakob Phaup has had a resurgence late in the season, going 24 of 27 at the dot against Virginia’s LaSalla last weekend. Phaup went 1 of 8 against the Notre Dame tandem in the earlier meeting, but his dominant performance against a top opponent last week made everyone take notice.

What the Irish need to do

Last week was a difficult road trip that tested Notre Dame’s depth and stamina.  A week back on campus is sure to help.  There will be a few things we’ll keep an eye on:

  1. Fast start: The score at the end of the first game indicated a dominant performance, but we can’t forget the Irish started that game down 2-6.  The boys managed to avoid similar slow starts since then, but it would be very bad to let a Syracuse squad that needs a good win get ahead early.
  2. Faceoff: After crushing it the first half of the season, the Irish tandem has played their opponents to a draw the last few games, and their wings have had challenges securing the ball on their wins. With Phaup coming off a confidence-building game, Gallagher and Leonard need to show their peak form and not let him build momentum for Syracuse.
  3. Clears: As the Irish wore down on their road trip, their clearing deteriorated quickly.  Syracuse isn’t the same style of riding team as UNC, but they will look at the film to develop a road map from the Tar Heel’s success.
  4. End possessions:  Against both UNC and Duke, the Irish defense played great, only to be betrayed by sloppy clears or an inability to get ground balls off the turf on their first chance.  The Irish are and will be great defending the full 80 seconds of the shot clock.  They have to be disciplined to avoid possessions from becoming 160, 240 seconds long.  That’s beyond any defense to stop consistently.
  5. Attack: Kavanagh, Yorke and the rest of the attack rotation must go at the Syracuse poles.  They had great success against them in the first game that they must try hard to confidently repeat.

Before we forget…

We did not have an opportunity to post a recap of the North Carolina game, but like every ACC game before it, it had an amazing Pat Kavanagh goal:


#GoIrish