On Saturday afternoon, the top-ranked Notre Dame men's lacrosse team will take on the No. 11 Georgetown Hoyas in its first road game of the season.
Irish still the team to beat
Notre Dame held on to its spot at the top of college lacrosse last season after going 16-1 and securing its second championship in program history. In their first two games of 2025, the Irish have picked up right where they left off, decimating Cleveland State and Marquette by a combined score of 46-15. However, No. 11 Georgetown will prove to be the first real test of the year for this new-look Irish squad. Despite having massive gaps to fill in Tewaaraton winner Pat Kavanagh and all-everything netminder Liam Entenmann, the returnees have come out of the gate playing their best lacrosse. Graduate attackman Jake Taylor, the leading scorer for the Irish last season, already has 10 goals through his first two, scoring 7 against Cleveland State in the opener. Leading point-getter Chris Kavanagh also looks to be in midseason form already, the senior captain tallying 13 points on 6 goals and 7 assists.
Notre Dame entered the season with a wealth of returning players who might fill Pat Kavanagh’s shoes, but the bigger question was always regarding the goalkeeper. Head coach Kevin Corrigan expressed confidence in his two options, junior Thomas Ricciardelli and senior Alex Zepf, despite their only 70 combined career minutes. Both saw game time in the first two contests, but Ricciardelli started both and played more minutes overall, suggesting the Irish will ride with him heading into Saturday’s game.
History of the matchup
Notre Dame has become familiar with Georgetown over the years, boasting a 12-9 record over the Hoyas historically. The two traded decades of dominance, however, with Georgetown taking six of seven in the first decade of the Pat Corrigan era and the Irish winning six of seven in the 2010s, following a 10-year break from the matchup. 2017 was their last meeting before another five-year hiatus, and the two have split 2-2 since sparking the contest again in 2022. Each team’s pair of victories have notably come off of home soil. The Hoyas downed a then-No. 4-ranked Irish squad at Arlotta Stadium in 2022 before a No. 2-ranked Irish squad would get revenge on the road in 2023. Georgetown won its second straight in South Bend last season to hand the would-be champions their only loss of the season. The game would prove to be the catalyst for Notre Dame’s return to the top, as it would get revenge over the Hoyas in Hempstead, New York, en route to the NCAA Tournament semifinal and eventually the championship.
Now presenting the No. 1 Irish with their first test of the season, the No. 11 Hoyas will look to get it done on their home turf in this year’s edition of the matchup.
The defense-driven Hoyas
Head coach Kevin Warne, who enters his 13th season with the Hoyas, takes a new-look squad into 2025, one that graduated over two-thirds of its offensive production, including three of its top scorers in TJ Haley, Graham Bundy and Alexander Vardaro. Last season’s leading scorer, All-American Aidan Carroll will be left to shoulder the burden, but he will have some help in the form of graduate transfer Fulton Bayman, who joined from their upcoming opponents. The Hoyas, however, will once again be anchored by their defense, which returns the star sophomore pairing of longpoles in Ty Banks and Anderson Moore. Set to be one of the nation’s best units, the group has shined during a 2-1 start to the season, holding opponents to only 7.7 goals per game.
After a 13-6 win against Loyola to open the season, the Hoyas took an 11-6 loss on the road to No. 3 Johns Hopkins before bouncing back with a victory against No. 17 Penn in an 8-6 rock fight at home. Already facing two marquee teams, the Hoyas will be up to speed come time for Saturday. That said, the nation’s No. 1 will present a whole different challenge than even an elite Hopkins team. Like last season, when they stole one in South Bend, they will need to lean heavily on their defense to corral the Irish attack and force turnovers leading to numbers-up opportunities in transition to pull off the upset.
Face-off for the top-15 matchup is set for noon at Cooper Field on Saturday, Feb. 22.
