Why Notre Dame doesn’t believe it’s played its best lacrosse yet entering NCAA Tournament

Since Georgetown scored an overtime winner Feb. 25 in South Bend, Notre Dame men’s lacrosse hasn’t lost. The Irish had several close calls down the stretch of the regular season, but they clobbered Virginia and Duke by nine and 10 goals, respectively, in the ACC Tournament.

Notre Dame enters the NCAA Tournament on a 10-game win streak. The Irish are the defending national champions, the No. 1 seed and the overwhelming favorite to go back to back. They earned a first-round matchup at home against Albany, starting at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday in South Bend.

It would be easy for a team in that position to pat itself on the back. Notre Dame — not just the team itself, but most of the key players — has a ring in its back pocket and has been the best team in college lacrosse for the past year. So was there a sense of accomplishment inside the Loftus Sports Center on Thursday morning?

Not even close.

“I think we still haven’t played our best lacrosse,” graduate student attackman Pat Kavanagh said.

Kavanagh, Notre Dame’s all-time leader in career points (281) and assists (173), said the Irish had been scraping by on talent and effort. He thought the execution wasn’t there, or at least not where it needed to be. At best, it was inconsistent.

He’d seen his team play to its potential in small stretches, but too often, it made games closer than it should have. Kavanagh pointed to Notre Dame’s 14-12 win over then-No. 3 Syracuse, when the Irish took a 13-7 late-third quarter lead but let the Orange back into it.

As the Irish rolled through the ACC Tournament, though, they showed the lacrosse world what they can do if they play a complete game. The No. 2 Blue Devils, in particular, had no chance against a locked-in Notre Dame team.

“During both the Duke and UVA games, we were just so focused and weren’t letting our foot off the gas,” Kavanagh said. “Having that mindset and keeping that same mentality going into the tournament will be huge.”

Putting together a full-team effort had been an issue for the Irish, too. Graduate student goalie Liam Entenmann mentioned Notre Dame’s 18-17 win over Cornell April 13, when he and the defense had an off day and the offense had to pull through. There were other games, Entenmann acknowledged, when the offense didn’t produce as much and the defense had to take control.

“We never had a full effort from every aspect of the field,” Entenmann said.

That changed in the ACC Tournament, but Entenmann, widely considered the best goalie in the college lacrosse, still wanted more.

“Honestly, even then, I feel like there were still some things we could’ve done better” Entenmann said. “I think that we have yet to play our best lacrosse, and hopefully we start to reach that point in the tournament.”

With the success the Irish have had over the past year, they’ve also accomplished several things that could distract them from the task at hand.

Kavanagh going on the Pat McAfee Show, which he said was a surreal experience, is one of them. Entenmann, Kavanagh and senior midfielder Eric Dobson took a break from both finals week and tournament preparation to hear their names called in the 2024 Premier Lacrosse League Draft, with Kavanagh joining his older brother, Matt on the Boston Cannons.

“It’s incredible,” Kavanagh, who is nearly a decade younger than his brother, said. “I’ve been watching him my entire career. I never really thought I’d have a chance to play with him.”

These individual accomplishments, as well as the increased attention that comes with being the team to beat, are certainly worth celebrating. But Notre Dame takes pride in being an unselfish team that remains focused on the common goal.

The goal right now: Beat Albany. Nothing else.

“We’re very aware of the fact that they’re a conference champion,” Entenmann said. “They’re a team that just won a game yesterday, so they have momentum and they’re gonna give us their best. We’re very prepared for them. We’re certainly not looking past them.”