Notre Dame will get a taste of the past and a taste of the future in its two matches this weekend.
The No. 3 Irish (10-0, 3-0) face GWLL foe Quinnipiac (3-7, 1-2) on Saturday and host future Big East foe St. John's Sunday.
The Saturday matchup with the Bobcats will be the penultimate GWLL regular season game for Notre Dame. On April 25, the Irish face Ohio State at Columbus in a prequel to the Buckeye spring football game.
Next season, men's lacrosse is joining the Big East conference and Notre Dame will be leaving the GWLL.
The weekend presents two matchups in two days, halfway across the country. Flying from Connecticut to South Bend on Saturday night could prove tiring. Coach Kevin Corrigan is not overly concerned about this factor. Rather, Corrigan foresees the Irish rolling through as they have all season.
"We are not short on momentum right now; we have not lost yet this year," Corrigan said. "But I don't know how much that will really affect this weekend. We just have to go in with the mindset of outplaying them and outworking them for 60 minutes."
The second game of the back-to-back weekend is at home, and Notre Dame seems to play well at home. Along with the undefeated 10 game start to the season, the Irish have not yet lost at home. In fact, the Irish have not lost at home in the past 24 games. The team last lost at home on April 7, 2005, to Denver.
The seven seniors have never lost at home, and on this senior day will look to add to the 45 victories they have amassed in their four years. That is the most victories over a four-year span in the history of Notre Dame men's lacrosse, and the team still has season left to add to the record.
Senior goalie Scott Rodgers will look to continue to make the most of his first year of playing time. Having sat behind three-time All-American Joey Kemp for his first three years in South Bend, Rodgers made his first collegiate start 10 games ago, and now he finds his name on the short list of nominees for the Tewaaraton Trophy, given each year to the nation's best player.
This weekend Rodgers and the six other seniors look to earn two victories in one weekend hundreds of miles apart. If they do, the team would remain the only undefeated team in the country, and extend the record home streak one more game.
