#1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (9-1, 3-1 ACC) travel to Charlottesville for their rematch against #3 Virginia (10-3, 3-2 ACC), 2:00pm, ACC Network. Another top-5 matchup on this incredible schedule.

The lads look to avenge their only loss in the last 13 months as they ready for the NCAA tournament.

Some old news

The Irish hammered the North Carolina Tar Heels last weekend, 16-9. Football news from our 18 Stripes colleagues took priority for the week, so we encourage you to take a look at the more detailed recap of our friend Drew Brennan.

Gameday began with senior day festivities and senior captain Max Manyak emerging from the tunnel wearing #40. This number commemorates former Notre Dame captain Mike “Steel” Sennett, and it is perhaps the greatest recognition the team can give to one of its members.  Injuries and circumstance have kept people from knowing Max on the field, but his leadership and charitable endeavors such as Pediatric Pep Talk are a source of great pride for Domers.

The Irish jumped out to a 7-1 lead by the early minutes of the second quarter.  UNC, to their credit, fought back and made the home team sweat a little bit as they inched to 7-5.  It didn’t take long for Notre Dame to regain the momentum, and the team methodically increased the lead to 15-7 before the final whistle gave us a result of 16-9.

Eric Dobson led the scorers with a hat trick, but the stories of the game were the 16-save performance of Liam Entenmann, Colin Hagstrom’s 2 goal and 8 of 20 faceoff day, and Pat Kavanagh’s insane 4 caused turnovers.  The Irish turned the tables on UNC.  The Tar Heels came into the game known for the pressure of their 10-man ride, but Pat Kavanagh let it be known his 1-man ride is superior.

We asked our three pregame questions
  1. No bye week rust: Jumping out to a 7-1 Senior Day lead answered this.
  2. Stay disciplined against 10-man ride: 22 of 25 was a good stat, made even better by the superior pressure of Notre Dame’s own ride.
  3. Use Roster Depth: Nick Harris was back in the lineup, and Westlin, Seymour and Hagstrom saw the field a lot, but the coaches didn’t extend the bench much further until the result was certain.

Back to Virginia

Since the March 25 meeting in South Bend, the Cavaliers lost two close games to Duke and beat UNC, Syracuse and Lafayette comfortably.  Connor Shellenberger was out with an injury for part of this time, but he appears to be back and at least close to his old form.

These teams know each other well and there aren’t major personnel changes since the first game, so we’ll get on with the three questions:

  1. Faceoffs:  With his 1,658th faceoff a few days ago, Virginia’s Petey LaSalla has the most faceoff attempts in NCAA Division 1 history. The Irish will need to determine what combination of Lynch, Hagstom and the wings will give them the best opportunity for success.  In the first game, Hagstrom had the better stat line, but both were challenged by LaSalla.
  2. Better defensive communication: The defense had a really hard time communicating picks at X with Shellenberger, and their off-ball coverage was below their normal standard. It will be interesting to see if Coach Wellner makes changes in Notre Dame’s approach.  In the first game Chris Fake tended to give Shellenberger a little bit of space, and it was the only game where Fake has had any difficulty keeping up with his opponent’s footwork.  Perhaps he will look to get in on the body like he did with success against O’Neill the following week.  We trust Coach Wellner and Fake has been dynamite since then. The less support he needs, the easier it will be for the team to cover off-ball.
  3. Dealing with defensive length: The Virginia defense has some very tall players with a lot of range. The Irish offense had a really hard time navigating the lack of space in the interior. Virginia also used their size to flush Dobson to his right.  This severely restricted the Irish.  However, we suspect that solving either situation early will create lots of scoring opportunities.

The forecast suggests mid-60s and raining, which are conditions Notre Dame is more than used to this season.

Another must-watch game.

#GoIrish