This past weekend was week eleven of the Premier Lacrosse League! This was the final week of the regular season! Lots of former Irish made the playoffs and we can’t wait to see how they perform! But the story is the incredible play of California’s Brian Tevlin, Chris Kavanagh and Ryder Garnsey.

Sneaky Dangerous

For the majority of teams, this weekend was lackluster and nothing crazy happened.

However, it was an extraordinary week for the Redwoods. Especially for three of the former Irish on the team: CKav, Garnsey, and Tevlin.

In sports, little is guaranteed. So when a guarantee is possible, you need to fight for it. Both teams certainly did that this game, with the winner locking in their playoff spot. The teams scored 35 combined points, led by our Irish alumni.

CKav led the game in points with 4 goals and 2 assists. At this point CKav and a crazy high number of points almost go hand in hand. This season Chris has 37 points, 21 one point goals, 2 two point goals, 12 assists, and 405 touches. He leads rookies in EVERY ONE of these stats.

While we are admittedly not objective a majority of the time, we can truthfully say CKav is by far the best rookie. If he doesn’t win rookie of the year, the voters might be crazy.

But a student is nothing without a teacher. Garnsey put up a stellar performance of his own with 4 points on the day, made up of 3 goals and an assist. This game was filled with the classic Garnsey goals of no-no-no-YES plays. Ryder scores with style. There is really no one like him.

Not only was he a human highlight reel, but his final goal sealed the win! After 5 straight goals by the cannons to tie the game at 17, Garnsey buried an unassisted goal to take the lead late. While we and many others praise him for his absurd plays, his clutch can’t be ignored. Plays like he had this game are what make him so great. When the team needs someone to set-up, he always will. He has shown that through this win streak and is a big reason this Redwoods team is in the playoffs after a 5 game loss streak.

We can’t mention this week’s Woods game without mentioning Tevlin. He had a goal on the day, which is already great as a SSDM. But he also had 5 caused turnovers. Yes, FIVE. That is the single game short stick record. There are no words to describe how impressive a performance like that is, and to have it in a game as important as this one is amazing.

While now that all the games have happened we know that the Woods would have made the playoffs regardless of the win since the Archers couldn’t close the scoring gap, it’s good to know the team can perform when needed. If they keep playing the way they have, they will be a sleeper pick in the playoffs and we can’t wait to see how they do.

Playoffs

Lots of former Irish will be representing in these playoffs. The 6 teams that made the cut were: the Woods with CKav, Garnsey, Tevlin, Conlin, Fake, and Cohen; the Chaos with Perkovic; The Outlaws with PKav, the Atlas with Entenmann and Costible; and the Waterdogs with Taylor.

There is a one week break before the post season starts! With how much Irish representation there is, it is likely we will have at least one champion! We wish them all the best of luck!

Irish Portal Success

The Summer is normally the time to celebrate out Notre Dame Lacrosse alumni, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t news to share from South Bend. Inside Lacrosse released its transfer rankings, with the Fighting Irish rating the sixth best transfer group.

There isn’t very much separating one from six on paper, and in our view, Coach Corrigan and his staff probably did the best job of filling needs of all the top teams. Air Force’s All-American Josh Yago certainly comes in making the biggest splash.  The 6’3″ attackman from Denver scored 54 points for the Falcons last season, and he’ll bring a wealth of experience to the young Irish attack.

Face-off specialist Tyler Spano will be a key addition to the post-Lynch unit. Luke Stickler (Johns Hopkins) and Alex Andia (Holy Cross) will add critical depth to the defense.

#GoIrish

ND-ATL 2.0