Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse: Final Four weekend is upon us... (2024)

It’s here, Memorial Day weekend is just around the corner, and for those of us who are huge college lacrosse fans, it is the best time of year.

Across these upcoming days in Philadelphia, PA the lacrosse community will get together, they will tailgate, they will get out their sticks, they will catch up with family and friends, they will watch high level lacrosse.....and they will eventually see a national champion crowned on Monday afternoon.

For kids who love lacrosse and who plan on attending championship weekend at Lincoln Financial Field, it is that awesome opportunity to head to a parking lot with your stick and pretend you are your favorite player on your favorite team. It’s that chance to wear your team’s jersey and run around as if you were about to get ready to play in a couple of hours. Young boys and girls will surely break into a game of lacrosse, parents probably joining in to make some passes (and maybe relive some glory days) and everyone will just be enjoying and the sport of lacrosse and their friendships made.

For family and friends of the Notre Dame lacrosse players, it is an opportunity to celebrate an amazing season and have everyone get together for one last weekend. It is a chance to continue building bonds and cheer on those who mean the most to them.

For Notre Dame lacrosse fans in general, it’s the second straight year to spend a weekend in Philadelphia, head to Dalessandro’s for a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, gather with others and eventually watch our Irish as we look to go back to back and win our second ever National Championship.

The year has been building to this as this team has looked to get back to Philly with the chance to defend our 2023 title. Here is my preseason look at our 2024 Fighting Irish from back in February and as I stated below from the article, this has always been the goal:

“Some Final Thoughts on the 2024 Team

We are just going to get right to it and say it....

This is a championship-caliber team that has talent at all levels across the field. Every game should be a winnable one and the goal for this team should be to be playing Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia.

The 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Fighting Irish teams might be the most talented four year stretch in the history of Notre Dame lacrosse. And it’s no coincidence that this year’s team is senior laden with a lot of key figures coming back for their fifth seasons as well. This group has been there for this four year run and it is time for these players to make this last go a memorable one.

This 2024 team that has put themselves into position to defend their 2023 national championship. Now it’s time to show everyone else that the 2024 Notre Dame lacrosse team can go back to back.”

The semi-final game is right around the corner so let’s get you ready with a little bit around our opponent and what we can expect from Notre Dame on Saturday. Let’s get after it...

Our opponent:

Denver University comes to Philadelphia following a 10-8 win over Syracuse in the quarterfinals at Towson University. They are 13-3 on the year and are led by Matt Brown who is in his first year as their head coach. His path to this position followed a career as a player at DU and then he was a long time a assistant on Coach Bill Tierney’s DU staff.

I am not going to go in depth on the Denver Pioneers, but if you want to listen to a detailed preview of the game, David Brogan and I covered off on all things Denver in episode 80 of the Exit 77 podcast from Wednesday night. Take a listen to get caught up on the specific Denver matchups and relive the Irish victory over Georgetown.

Some general thoughts on Denver:

Look for JJ Sillstrop to be their offense’s main focal point with Michael Lampert being their facilitator.

Their faceoff man, Alec Stathakis, is a key figure on their team and has been on a lot of post-season All-American lists. He is a formidable opponent at the dot.

Their big defender is Jack DiBenedetto and look for him to try and lock onto Pat Kavanagh.

Their top LSM is AJ Mercurio and he has six goals on the season so he is not afraid to take the ball in transition and look to score.

Denver is going to look to play a similar style of lacrosse as Georgetown did in February against Notre Dame. That means some longer offensive possessions for them in order to limit our Irish on offense and keep the score low.

They play a physical brand of lacrosse that has helped them in a lot of games this year, but I don’t think they have seen a team as physical, as big and as deep as Notre Dame.

This will be a matchup of the #1 ranked man-up unit (Notre Dame) versus the #1 ranked man-down unit (Denver). Something has to give.

What Notre Dame needs to do to win

Play Notre Dame’s brand of lacrosse, it’s that simple. If our Irish play up to our capabilities, and how we have played all season, then we will win this game. There is not another college team that can beat us when we play like we have all year. That’s not a homer take, that is the honest truth.

Look for Pat and Chris Kavanagh to continue playing at the highest level. I think we will see something similar to the Georgetown game where Chris is getting the ball all over the field to facilitate our offense. And Pat Kavanagh will just be Pat Kavanagh....the most disruptive and one of the most valuable players in all of college lacrosse.

Will Denver look to lock down Jake Taylor and force other Notre Dame players to beat them? Always something to watch when playing Notre Dame and pretty much no one has been able to completely stop Notre Dame’s offense this year. I don’t envy Denver’s decision-making on this front.

Look for us to continue going deep with our roster and running nine offensive middies across three different lines on Saturday. This will help keep our team fresh and will allow us to continue having our middies dodging from up top with the chance to either shoot or dish backside to an open middie or attackman.

Watch for the continued ascendance of Shawn Lyght. He has become a lockdown defender and look for an awesome game from him on Saturday.

Anyone remember how good Liam Entenmann was in the Final Four last year? Yeah, I do. And I expect nothing but the same from him in the same environment this year.

Notre Dame starting off fast and getting an early lead will not allow Denver to slow the play down. If this happens, DU will have to speed things up in order to look to catch up.

Notre Dame has lost to Denver the last three times we have seen them in the NCAA tournament. If the Irish are looking for any more motivation, there it is.

Expect the Notre Dame coaching staff to have some adjustments ready for this game (obviously). We have not seen this Denver team in years, but we have a lot of common opponents this year and I am sure Coach Corrigan and staff will be prepared if changes need to be made on the fly on Saturday.

LEADERSHIP. This Notre Dame team just has it and I expect that to be on full display on Saturday. The leaders of this team just will not let this team lose. What a great feeling that is going into this weekend.

Will Lynch and the faceoff unit on Saturday: they continue to prove they are one of the best overall units in college lacrosse and I think they will be one of the key differentiators against Denver on Saturday. Will Lynch has taken these matchups personally when others are ranked (wrongly) ahead of him and he will perform (again) on Saturday. Mark it down.

Additional Notes

A great honor for the Irish as 11 players were named to the USILA All-American team. Beyond impressive, that is a lot of players, very well deserved on all fronts...

Liam Entenmann won the Ensign C. Markland Kelly Jr. Outstanding Goalie honor. This is the second straight year he has won this award, what an amazing run by Liam over his years at Notre Dame. Truly the best goalie in Notre Dame history and one of the best ever in college lacrosse.

Final Thoughts...

THIS. IS. IT.

It is “Time to Be Great...again” as the Irish look to cement our place in history and go back to back as National Champions. Anytime you are in the Final Four, it is a tough task, and Saturday will be no different as each team will be playing like it is their last ever game. We will see the best lacrosse possible from both Denver and Notre Dame, but when it comes down to it, we are the better team and we ARE the defending National Champions. We took our loss to Princeton in the fall and we took our early season falter against Georgetown and we used them both as motivation to propel us toward a season to remember. This path doesn’t stop on Saturday. Our Irish are going to get it done and I am predicting a 13-9 final as we will punch our ticket to Championship Monday for the second straight year.

For those who will be there in Philly, stand and cheer loudly for our Irish. For those who will be at home with family and friends, yell at your TVs, get off the couch and cheer for every Irish play. This is a special team and we will only have two more times to see them play here in 2024. Take full advantage and remember this weekend, it is going to be one for the ages.

Lastly, Memorial Day weekend is for remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Let’s make sure that we honor those who gave so much. Let’s make sure we think not only about those people in the days ahead, but each and every day. Those who went before us and gave everything make this country so great.

Let’s Go Irish!