#3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (6-1, 0-1 ACC) lost their first game in exactly a year to the Virginia #1 Cavaliers  (7-1, 1-0 ACC), 10-15.  The weather was miserable and the result not what we wanted, but the atmosphere was electric and the Irish clear on what they need to tidy up.

The Plot

A packed Arlotta Stadium welcomed the team in absolutely miserable cold and rainy weather.

The Irish lost the opening faceoff but turned back the first Virginia possession. Coming the other way, Dobson opened with the great move to set up the shot that has opened Irish scoring so often this season, but Virginia’s Nunes guessed correctly.

About three minutes into the game, PKav looked the defense into collapsing on Jake Taylor and passed to his brother for a solid goal to open the scoring.

Faceoff woes persisted, and Cavalier pressure, particularly from X, resulted in a steady stream of opponent goals until the quarter ended with the visitors up 1-5.

The teams played to a stalemate for the next 5 minutes until a Jose Boyer pole goal followed soon by a Ben Ramsay effort goal moved momentum back to the Irish.  The boys continued to claw back on goals by Taylor and PKav, finishing the half down 5-7.

The stadium energy and momentum were clearly with the Irish to start the third quarter. A diving goal by CKav and a man-up goal by PKav knotted the scores at 7.  The faceoff situation was slowly coming to parity with the introduction of Colin Hagstrom.

Unfortunately, three quick Cavalier goals in reply created distance the Irish could not recover from.  The teams exchanged goals until the end, with the Irish falling to a score of 10-15.

The Scoring

Pat Kavananagh paced the Irish with 2 goals and 2 assists (and 3 ground balls for CityLax charity). Jake Taylor and Chris Kavanagh has 2 goals each.

Quinn McCahon had a goal and an assist, and Ricciardelli, Ramsey, and Boyer had a goal. Dobson and Tevlin added assists.

In addition to his goal, Jose Boyer had an incredible 7 ground balls and owned the middle of the field.

The Irish got off to a bad start at faceoff (1 of 7), but changed tactics and brought the final total to 12 of 29.

The teams were fairly even statistically in the other standard categories.

Efficiency stats (lacrossereference.com) were less kind to the Irish, with the offense only operating at half their normal output (22.7%).  They held Virginia to their second lowest of the season at 31.2%.

Matt Nunes had a good day in the Virginia goal stopping 14 shots including many point-blank efforts.  It was his best outing of the year by some margin.

Connor Shellenberger (2g, 5a) and Xander Dickson (6g, 1a) dominated the Virginia scoresheet.

Our Three Pregame Questions

  1.  Survive the first 10 minutes: Virginia got the better of the boys after the Irish scored first. Had the first Dobson shot gone in, we think it would have changed things, but instead they faced a confident Cavalier group that pumped 17 shots in the first quarter and went 6 of 7 at faceoff.  Credit to the Irish, they came back from this assault, but it took everything they had in the tank to do so.
  2. Score efficiently: The Irish struggled with the possessions they had.  Whether it was the weather or difficulty with the ranginess of the opponent defense, it is hard to tell, but they will be disappointed with the rate at which they scored. To our observation, the midfield looked hesitant, and their were a lot of wasted possessions looking to force the ball into the interior to a waiting defense.
  3. Find possessions: After serious difficulties in the first quarter, the Irish made great adjustments.  Faceoffs and groundballs were even the last three quarters, and the Irish did a little bit better than the Hoos in clearing the ball and not turning it over. It was a tough start, but the Irish did what they needed to do to create enough possessions to get back into the game.

Thoughts

The return of Jake Taylor to the starting lineup was a great moment. But it appeared it tempted the offense to depart from what brought them success so far this season and to instead try to treat Taylor as a cheat code and force the ball to him inside. We hope the boys remember that there is nothing that will make Taylor more wide open to do what he does best than for his teammates to be threatening on the perimeter as shooters or as dodgers. Trust what you have been doing!

On the defensive end, the boys will be unsatisfied with their communication.  They appeared to be troubled in switching their assignments on picks and supporting in front of the goal.  They had long stretches where the communication improved, but the inconsistency caused them a lot of grief.

Carter Parlette ran off the field with a broken stick, but the defense was slow to notice and an easy goal was scored by Virginia, blunting any momentum.  Monday morning quarterbacking, we can argue that Parlette should have stayed and taken the penalty, but at that range Virginia probably scores anyway.  It’s also difficult to fault Parlette. These players were drilled since they were little kids to get off the field the second their stick breaks. It’s a terrible rule, not Parlette’s fault.

It was very exciting to have student athletes from across Notre Dame attending the game along with 1000s of fans.  Hockey, football, etc. were indeed supportive and added a lot to the atmosphere on a miserable weather day. We hope to see more of this!  To those who complained that the football players had to leave early, let’s remember they are in the middle of spring practice, too, and taking any time away from that limited practice time is a big deal.  Coach Freeman has been extremely supportive of the entire Notre Dame athletic community, and it’s great to see him and the boys at Arlotta for whatever time they can.

It’s a bummer to end a 12-month winning streak, and no one likes losing. But there is the positive that a team learns best in a loss (“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn”).  For the final stretch, this team needed to be tested at midfield and with its defensive communication to find areas in need of improvement. That happened in this game and lessons were learned for which there are available solutions. The loss stings, but this is a helpful development.

Up Next

The Irish travel to Syracuse (6-4, 0-2 ACC) for a 2:00 pm Saturday game at the Dome, ACCN.  The Orange have been on the periphery of the top-20 all season, but have become a very dangerous team to play, especially at home.  LIU transfer goalie Will Mark has been fantastic in cage. They also have one of the greatest assemblies of young talent at attack in #1 freshman Joey Spallina (46 pts), freshman Finn Thompson (25 pts), and redshirt sophomore Owen Hilz (38 pts).  Denver graduate transfer Alex Simmons and Lehigh transfer Cole Kirst lead the midfield.  Their man-up unit is very, very good.

The Irish, and in particular, Pat Kavanagh, have had excellent recent success against Syracuse, having won the last 5 in this series, including 18-11 wins each of the last two times they have played at the Dome.

If things go according to plan, we should see some midfield scoring open up the interior if the Syracuse defense, which hopefully allows PKav and Taylor to go wild. On the other end, we will see disciplined communication limit the scoring opportunities for their electric young players. It will be a fun game to watch as most games at Syracuse are. It remains one of the top lacrosse venues and it’s a treat to watch the Irish play well there.

#GoIrish