PHILADELPHIA — Pat Kavanagh’s game-high five points on three goals and two assists propelled top-seeded Notre Dame to the NCAA men’s lacrosse championship game with a 13-6 win against No. 5 Denver on Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 32,269 at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Irish advanced to Monday’s tournament final against Maryland, which defeated Virginia 12-6 in the second Final Four matchup. Notre Dame will have an opportunity to win its second straight national championship and would join the 1978-79 and 1984-85 Johns Hopkins teams, 1988-89 and 2008-09 Syracuse squads, 1996-98 Princeton teams and 2013-14 Duke squads as repeat titlists.
The Fighting Irish (15-1), who advanced to their fourth title game in school history, also got three goals and an assist from Chris Kavanagh and three goals from Devon McLane. The offense was aided by a strong performance from the No. 2 faceoff specialist in Division I: Will Lynch won 18 of 23 draws and scooped up a game-high eight ground balls.
Nursing a 5-4 lead at halftime, Notre Dame outscored the Pioneers 4-1 in the third quarter. Pat Kavanagh and senior midfielder Eric Dobson each registered a goal and an assist in the quarter.
The Fighting Irish pulled away early in the fourth quarter when they scored three unanswered goals in a span of 61 seconds, including the first two from McLane.
Michael Lambert and graduate Richie Connell paced Denver (13-4) with two goals each. But the offense scored only two goals in the second half and failed to find much room to operate against a Notre Dame defense anchored by goalkeeper Liam Entenmann’s 12 saves, Ben Ramsey’s six ground balls and three caused turnovers and Will Donovan’s three ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Pioneers goalie Malcolm Kleban made five of his 10 stops in the first quarter, and Dan Anderson totaled three ground balls and two caused turnovers.
The setback spoiled a standout debut season from Denver’s Matt Brown, who was only the fourth first-time coach to guide his program to the Final Four since 1986, joining North Carolina’s Dave Klarmann in 1991, Syracuse’s John Desko in 1999 and Cornell’s Connor Buczek in 2022.
Maryland 12, Virginia 6
After exceeding expectations to reach their 10th Final Four in 14 years, the No. 7 seed Terps continued to ride that momentum in the second NCAA Tournament semifinal.
Maryland (11-5) earned its 17th trip to the championship game and eighth in 14 years under coach John Tillman, who succeeded Dave Cottle after the 2010 season. The team takes aim at its fifth NCAA title against Notre Dame on Monday.
Eric Spanos had two goals and three assists to power the Terps, who have been fueled by an underdog mentality that played a significant role in a 16-8 rout of Ivy League champion Princeton in the first round and a 14-11 upset of No. 2 seed Duke in the quarterfinals.
Daniel Kelly scored three goals and Daniel Maltz added two.
But the offense owed much of its success to faceoff specialist Luke Wierman, who won 15 of 22 faceoffs, scooped up a game-high 10 ground balls and scored to cap a 3-0 run in an 80-second span that gave Maryland a 4-1 advantage after the first quarter.
Virginia (12-6) got two goals from attackman McCabe Millon, but he was the only multiple goal scorer for an offense that was held to its lowest output since Feb. 13, 2016, when it suffered an 11-4 defeat against Loyola Maryland.
