If Notre Dame does indeed on Monday finally add the missing piece to a blue-blood men’s lacrosse program’s résumé, it will have an incredible backstory to share about how it arrived at that opportunity.
Yale grad transfer Brian Tevlin’s only goal of the game, 29 seconds into overtime, is rightfully the image that likely will be the most indelible about third-seeded Notre Dame’s 13-12 upending of No. 2 seed Virginia in Saturday’s second NCAA Tournament national semifinal at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Awaiting the Irish (13-2) in Monday’s championship (1 p.m. EDT; ESPN) is top-seeded Duke (16-2), itself an overtime survivor Saturday, and a controversial one at that. Replays showed Garrett Deadmon’s foot was in the crease when he unfurled the game-winning goal in a 16-15 Blue Devils victory, a play that by rule is unreviewable.
In their only meeting with Duke this season, the Irish prevailed, 17-12, on April 8 in South Bend, Ind.
"As for Monday, we're just excited for it," Tevlin said. "Excited to have another practice tomorrow, excited to have another game. It's a long season, and another opportunity to play with your brothers is obviously all you could ask for."
The most magical sequence in Saturday’s game for the Irish, and perhaps in program history to this point, started with 3:05 left in regulation. Virginia had a 11-9 lead and the ball when Irish All-America goalie Liam Entenmann stopped a point-blank shot by the Cavaliers’ Griffin Schutz to keep the deficit at two goals.
Twenty-seven seconds later, the deficit was one as Chris Kavanagh got his first and only point of the game on his 44th goal of the season with an assist from Eric Dobson at the 2:38 mark of regulation.
Will Lynch won the ensuring faceoff with Virginia’s Petey LaSalla, and at the 2:07 mark Dobson scored unassisted to forge the eighth tie of the game, 11-11.
"That's kind of why you play, right?" Dobson said. "You don't play for blowouts, you play to play in big games.
"I don't think we lost faith for a second. Yeah, I think we just had trust in ourselves, trust in our defense especially. Our face-up guys were huge for us getting us the ball back, and yeah, I think it was a lot of trust all over the field."
The Irish came into the game 56th out of 72 Division I men’s lacrosse-playing teams with a ,455 faceoff win percentage and was handled by Virginia in that stat category in both of its losses to Virginia this season — a combined 32-22 — in a 15-10 home setback on March 25 and a 12-8 defeat on the road on April 30.
On Saturday, Notre Dame held the edge in faceoffs, 16-12, including 6-3 combined in the fourth period and overtime. The Irish also forced 15 turnovers while committing only 10 themselves.
Still, with 52.2 seconds left in regulation, it appeared Notre Dame and 35th-year coach Kevin Corrigan would be denied their third finals appearance and first since 2014. Thomas McConvey untied the game on an assist from Connor Schellenberger.
But Lynch gained control and picked up a ground ball on a mad scramble following the faceoff. And with 32.2 seconds left Jake Taylor backhanded the tying goal, his 28th, on an assist from Tevlin.
"We weren't talking about big schemes and goal differentials or anything else," Corrigan said of the message in the timeouts late in the game. "We were talking about making the next play. So, the message was we're going to run this action.
"If we don't get anything out of it, we are going to flow into this offense. And if we don't get anything out of that, we're going to 10-man ride and try to get the ball back. We completely focused on the moment in the game and what came next."
Incidentally, five years ago, Tevlin scored a goal against Duke as the No. 3 seeded Elis won their first national title with a 13-11 victory over the Blue Devils.
Dobson on Saturday led the Irish with four goals and an assist. Pat Kavanagh, the No. 3 points producer nationally, had two goals and an assist. Taylor and Jack Simmons scored two goals apiece for the Irish.
Xander Dickson, the leading goal scorer (3.75 per game) on the highest-scoring team in the nation, had a combined 10 goals and two assists in the two Cavalier wins over Notre Dame during the regular season.
On Saturday, the nation’s third-leading goal scorer and No. 2 in shot percentage (.556) was limited to three shots and one goal.
"What I do look at is the context of from when this team became a team in the fall until now," Corrigan said. "And I've never enjoyed coaching a group of guys more because of their focus, their commitment to what we're doing, their all-in attitude, their love for each other, how hard — you saw it at the end.
"Duke, we played them earlier in the year. They're an outstanding team, and obviously they had the same battle that we had today. I think it's going to be a great matchup of two teams that know each other well. This will be the sixth time we've played them in the last three years, I think, so we're pretty familiar with Duke, as are they with us."
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