#3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (9-2, 3-2 ACC) dropped a difficult game last Sunday to the #2 Virginia Cavaliers, 8-12 (11-3, 4-2 ACC).  The lads regroup and prepare for their regular season finale at #10/#17 North Carolina (7-6, 1-4 ACC) Saturday at noon (ACCN). Mid 70s and sunny weather forecast!

The Virginia Plot

It started as an old-school rock fight. Virginia got on the board first with Shellenberger taking advantage of a pick miscommunication transitioning from Fake to Hagstrom, but for the next 14 minutes, neither team made any offensive progress.  The defenses held firm until CKav was able to find Tevlin to level the score. The opening quarter was a surprising 1-1 stalemate.

The second quarter was a slow exchange of goals, finishing the half at a level 4-4. Again, the defenses and rides seemed to have tight control of the game.

The Irish finally took a lead early in the third on a Ramsey goal, and regained the lead again on a PKav goal. On the following possession, Jake Taylor absolutely flattened a Virginia player on the ride, but instead of a Notre Dame fast break, the ball caromed to a running Virginia player, who advanced the ball for a surprise Virginia goal. This turn of events may have deflated the boys a little bit as the Cavaliers added another 20 seconds later, and followed up with two more before the quarter ended. The Irish had a lot of difficulty responding on offense.

Hagstrom closed the deficit to 9-7 on the 4th quarter faceoff.  Notre Dame went man-up a few minutes later and it appeared imminent that they would close the lead to one when Virginia had a wild defensive breakdown. However, a save by Matt Nunes on a PKav shot resulted in a fast break going the other way and a 3-goal Virginia lead.  The two-goal reversal really dampened the mood.

The Irish were left with few options other than to take some big risks with a 10-man ride.  Virginia held firm and extended their lead.  A late Westlin goal gave us the final score of 8-12.

The Scoring

Jake Taylor (2g), Pat Kavanagh (1g, 2a) and Chris Kavanagh (2a) were at the top of the scoresheet. Westlin, Tevelin, Hagstrom, Ramsey and Simmons had a goal each, and Agent Zero had an assist.

Defensively, Chris Fake stood out with 2 caused turnovers in holding Shellenberger to a goal. Notre Dame held Virginia to 25 of 30 clears, with Pat Kavanagh having and absurd 5 ground balls and CKav 4 more in the process (Don’t forget GBs for CityLax!). Liam Entenmann had 12 saves.

The faceoff unit was a respectable 10 of 25 against Petey LaSalla.  The team was also careful with the ball with only 11 turnovers to Virginia’s 17, and they were even in non-faceoff ground balls.

The defense should be pleased in holding Virginia to a season-low 27% efficiency, but Virginia had their best defensive effort of the year (by some margin) in holding the Irish to 20% efficiency.

Virginia’s Matt Nunes had a game-changing 19 saves.

Virginia Three Questions and Thoughts

Going into the game the questions were straight-forward:

  1. Faceoffs:  Again, 10 of 25 is respectable against LaSalla, and the ride took care of business when they forced LaSalla to exit back towards his goal. This was a good team effort, and Hagstrom scored off the faceoff.
  2. Better defensive communication: It was a significant improvement. The game opened with an unfortunate communication error, but that was more credit to Virginia for taking advantage of a faceoff player caught on defense. The rest of the game was very solid 6-on-6 defense.
  3. Dealing with defensive length:  The offense had a difficult time. The Cavaliers bottled up Dobson and kept the Kavanaghs from being able to access the middle. The offense did a great job extending possessions in an effort to find a weak link to exploit, but they just weren’t finding success. Some argue the boys didn’t always select the best shots, but a lot of credit is due Matt Nunes.  19 saves is 19 saves.

We share much of the same assessment as our colleague Drew Brennan. The Irish made substantial improvements from the first Virginia game. The defense, in particular, was stellar and solved many of the communication problems it had in the first match. The were good enough to silence the Virginia offense and hold a lead well into the third quarter.  However, the improvement was not quite enough to withstand some bad luck at critical times and an unexpectedly hot goalie. Against every other team, Notre Dame has the firepower to withstand a few bad bounces. They weren’t quite there against Virginia on the road. Make no mistake, the Irish made the changes they needed to make to win. It’s just a matchup with no margin for error. If the teams face each other again, the upward trend looks good for the Irish, and it would be a lot to expect another superhuman 19 saves from Nunes.  We’ll see.

On to North Carolina

We’re not entirely sure if this game has any tournament implications for North Carolina.  Our best guess is that they are on the wrong side of the bubble, but who knows after last year. However, it is their senior day and it appears to us that these teams do not like each other very much. The Irish will get the Tar Heels’ best shot and probably a little bit extra. They also had two weeks to stew and prepare for a rematch with no distractions.

The boys need to be very careful.  The UNC 10-man ride is still disruptive and dangerous, and this team gave the Irish a scare in coming back from a 7-1 deficit.

The questions going into this game are simple:

  1. No injuries: The first UNC game got chippy, and their seniors in particular will be looking to make a point against the Irish. The boys will need to stay very disciplined and keep their heads on swivels.
  2. Another week of defensive dominance: The Irish defense is on a roll, holding UNC to single digits two weeks ago, and the Cavaliers to their lowest total of the season. Keeping up this trend of improvement will have Notre Dame in great shape for the tournament.
  3. Flair on offense: We should probably offer coach-speak and say the offense should be disciplined and methodical. The truth is, however, that we all know this offense is at its peak when the boys are loose and the offense free-flowing. The offense got bogged down in Charlottesville. We would like to see them get back to the creativity that keeps them so fun to watch.

The team is well-led and resilient. We are confident they will take the steps in practice during the week to perform at their best in Chapel Hill.


Sunday Scaries

The NCAA tournament selection show is Sunday.  We would like to think the Irish are comfortably in with a high seed, but we still have nightmares from last season. We will be at the edge of our seats like everyone else.

#GoIrish