Notre Dame roundup: Men’s lacrosse wins national championship rematch

On May 29, 2023, Notre Dame men’s lacrosse beat Duke 13-9 to win its first national championship. Three hundred fourteen days later, the Irish got the Blue Devils again.

Behind graduate attackman Pat Kavanagh‘s 7 points, No. 1 Notre Dame beat No. 3 Duke 15-12 on Sunday in Durham, N.C. The Irish are 7-1 (3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), with the lone blip being an overtime loss to Georgetown on Feb. 25.

Notre Dame retained the top spot on the Inside Lacrosse Top 25. The Blue Devils, meanwhile, fell to No. 4.

Kavanagh struck first for the Irish, scoring 1:27 into the first quarter. The two juggernauts went back and forth from there, with Duke holding only one lead throughout the matchup (4-3). Notre Dame extended its advantage to 9-5 early in the third quarter, on one of junior attackman Chris Kavanagh‘s 4 goals.

The Blue Devils battled back, tying the game at 11 with 9:09 to go in the fourth quarter. However, the Irish scored the next three goals and held Duke scoreless until only 1:03 remained on the game clock. Graduate goalie Liam Entenmann totaled 14 saves as the Notre Dame held on for its fifth-straight win.

Up next, the Irish will travel to Old Westbury, N.Y. to face another top-10 opponent in No. 8 Cornell at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Notre Dame women’s lacrosse makes easy work of No. 23 Duke

No. 6 Notre Dame — although one outlet, USA Lacrosse, had the Irish at No. 1 — kept rolling Saturday in South Bend. Head coach Christine Halfpenny‘s group dispatched No. 23 Duke 19-7, improving to 11-2 (5-2 ACC) and moving up to No. 5 in the ILWomen/IWLCA top 25.

Only Northwestern, Syracuse, Boston College and Maryland, respectively, are ahead of Notre Dame in the poll. The Irish are 2-1 against those teams, beating the Wildcats and Eagles and losing to the Orange.

Five Notre Dame players — graduate midfielder Kasey Choma, graduate attack Madison Ahern, graduate attack Jackie Wolak, senior attack Abby Maichin and graduate attack/draw specialist Arden Tierney — led the way with 3 goals each. Maichin scored first for the Irish after an early Blue Devils strike, starting a 15-2 run that put the game away in the early third quarter.

Notre Dame is back in action at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday in Lynchburg, Va., as the Irish take on Liberty. They have a quick turnaround at noon ET on Saturday in Blacksburg, Va., where they’ll face Virginia Tech.

Fighting Irish softball takes one of three vs. Virginia

Notre Dame welcomed Virginia into South Bend this past weekend and went 1-2, losing 9-2 on Friday and 6-3 on Sunday but winning 10-3 on Saturday. The Irish are 22-14 overall and 7-8 in the ACC, which puts them in seventh place in the conference.

An offensive barrage in the sixth inning Saturday secured Notre Dame’s win, with 5 runs in the frame. Freshman infielder Addison Amaral got things started with a 2-run single up the middle, giving her 4 RBIs in the game. Junior catcher Rachel Allen, coming in as a pinch-hitter, singled down the left-field line to drive in the 10th run of the day for the Irish.

Earlier in the game, senior infielder Karina Gaskins hit her sixth home run of the season to right-center field. It was a 2-run shot that scored Amaral, who leads the team in long balls with 7.

The Irish have a mid-week game against Western Michigan at 4:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday in South Bend before traveling to Tallahassee, Fla. to face Florida State. That will be a three-game, weekend series starting at 6 p.m. ET on Friday.

Notre Dame baseball swept by No. 2 Clemson; losing streak hits seven

The Irish put up a fight against No. 2 Clemson, losing three games by a combined 5 runs. But losses are losses, and Notre Dame has suffered seven of them in a row, dating back to March 24.

After falling 7-3, 3-2 and 13-12 (11 innings) in this past weekend’s Friday-Sunday series in South Bend, the Irish dropped to 14-15 overall and a whopping 2-13 in ACC play. The next-lowest team in the Atlantic division standings is Boston College, who is 3.5 games ahead of Notre Dame at 5-9.

On Sunday, the Irish trailed 11-6 entering the bottom of the ninth. They stormed back, scoring 5 runs in the frame to tie the game and send it into extras. Sophomore infielder Estevan Moreno blasted a 3-run homer to left field to shorten the Clemson lead to 11-9. An RBI single from graduate outfielder Tito Flores and a passed ball that scored junior infielder Jack Penney, respectively, evened the score.

However, the Tigers scored 2 runs in the top of the 11th inning on a Penney error at shortstop. The Irish couldn’t answer in the bottom of the frame as Clemson secured the sweep.

Notre Dame stays home for a game against Butler on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET before a three-game series that begins 6 p.m. ET on Friday against No. 13 North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.