The Post-Week Tailgate: April 23, 2023

Top-ranked Notre Dame got quite the scare before Saturday’s game even started against North Carolina. Star goalie Liam Entenmann took a shot off the left shoulder in warmups and went back into the locker room to be evaluated.

Fortunately for the Irish, Entenmann got the start and showed no effects, making 16 saves to lead Notre Dame to a 16-9 victory.

It was a stark reminder of how fragile things are when you’re chasing a championship.

Of the top contenders for this year’s NCAA title, Entenmann is by far the most decorated of the goaltenders on any of those teams. Entenmann, a three-time All-American, is approaching 500 career saves and won a gold medal with the U.S. men’s U21 last summer in Ireland.

Faceoffs and goaltending are often the X-factors when it comes to championship. With Notre Dame winning just 44 percent of its faceoffs this season, it can ill-afford losing Entenmann who ranks in the Top 10 in the country with a 56.9 save percentage.

Random Observations

Is <insert school name> back? It’s one of the favorite memes in sports, and in most cases, no the team is not in fact back. There was a lot of buzz surrounding this year’s Johns Hopkins-Maryland game, but were the Blue Jays really back?

It certainly seems that way. A year after getting blitzed by its rival 22-7, Hopkins beat Maryland 12-11, its first win in the series in five years. Patrick Stevens was there in College Park to report on the Blue Jays and Gary Lambrecht had a feature last week on the Blue Jays revival.

Notre Dame’s metallic green helmets? That would be a yes from this corner.

Look Good, Play Good.#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/SnWt847YBi

— Notre Dame Lacrosse (@NDlacrosse) April 23, 2023

Lars Tiffany as former Virginia coach Ace Adams? Yep, I'm down for that look as well.

 Who wore it best?

Retweet for Lars Tiffany (2017-pres.). Like for Jim "Ace" Adams (1979-92). pic.twitter.com/ap5M3H8xB5

— Virginia Men's Lacrosse (@UVAMensLax) April 23, 2023

If I told you on February 1 that the winner of the Penn State-Rutgers game would be decided by a score of 14-5 and the winner would improve to 9-3 for the season, you would have thought Rutgers was really rolling after last year’s semifinal run. But the Scarlet Knights, who were strong early this year, went 1-4 in the Big Ten and will be the No. 6 seed for the conference tournament.

Penn State, on the other hand, has made a remarkable turnaround, punctuated by Friday's night win over Rutgers. When Jeff Tambroni was at Cornell, one of colleagues called him “pound for pound the best coach in the country.” The combined 7-18 record from the 2021 and 2022 seasons is beginning to look like a distant memory in Happy Valley. Penn State reached the semifinals under Tambroni the last time Championship Weekend was held in Philadelphia (2019) and with a share of the Big Ten regular season title clinched, they could find themselves at The Linc once again.

Michigan has beaten Ohio State before, but this was the first time I can recall where the Wolverines truly felt like the favorite. The Wolverines answered the bell, outgunning the Buckeyes 19-14 in a rivalry that continues to grow in stature. Michael Boehm had a school-record eight goals and the Wolverines got dominant play from their faceoff unit with Nick Rowlett (15 of 20) and Justin Wietfeldt (14 of 17) leading the way.

It was a much-needed win for a Michigan team that had dropped four of its last five, including close losses to Rutgers and Penn State after its signature win over Maryland. Michigan will host a Big Ten quarterfinal game next weekend, but the reward is another matchup with Ohio State.

If you like four seasons of weather, Denver is the place to be. I was reminded of that watching snow flurries during the Pioneers 13-6 win over Providence on a Friday night in late April. Denver’s the only place I’ve been where you can go from a beautiful 75-degree day to snow within a span of 24-48 hours. But the storm to pay attention to is Bill Tierney’s final team. Denver has now won four straight games as it tries to make a run and send out the legendary coach in style.

Delaware clinched the CAA regular season title with a strong offensive showing in an 18-13 win over Drexel. Last year’s NCAA quarterfinalists are coming together and are more than the three-headed attack monster of Tye Kurtz, Mike Robinson and JP Ward. Sophomore midfielder Jason Kolar had a career-high goals on Saturday and was one of 10 goal scorers in the win for the Blue Hens who are now on a five-game winning streak.

Army really enjoyed singing second. After losing six of its last seven regular season games to rival Navy, including an overtime game last year, the Black Knights took great pleasure in an 11-6 win over at Navy on Saturday.

Is Utah tournament bound? The Utes clinched the Atlantic Sun regular season championship with a 19-12 victory over Cleveland State on Saturday night. Coupled with Air Force’s upset win over Jacksonville, Utah is the clear favorite in the league. The program is just five years old, with one of those years ending early for COVID, and features the country’s No. 2 scoring offense behind Virginia.

By the Numbers

100 • Career points for Yale sophomore Chris Lyons. Lyons, who had five goals in the Bulldogs 14-6 win at Albany on Friday night, has reached the milestone in just 24 games.

2010 • The last time Lafayette played in the postseason before a 14-13 win over Bucknell on Friday night clinched a spot in the Patriot League playoffs. Head coach Pat Myers has led the Leopards to six wins this season, the most since the 2010 team went 8-6. Lafayette hosts Virginia on Tuesday night before beginning play in the Patriot League tournament.

55 • Goals this season for Cornell’s C.J. Kirst, matching the total he set as a rookie last year. Kirst, who had six goals in the Big Red’s 16-9 win at Brown, has matched last year’s 19-game total in just 12 games.

10 • Wins for Bellarmine this season after an 18-3 win over Detroit Mercy. That sets a school record for the most wins in a season in the program’s Division I era.

5 • Caused turnovers for Boston University’s Roy Meyer in a havoc-wreaking performance that helped the Terriers beat Lehigh 14-11. BU travels to Army next weekend with the winner taking the Patriot League regular season title.

104 • Seconds between Austin Fraser’s game-tying (0:33 left in regulation) and game-winning (1:11 into overtime) goals in Villanova’s 16-15 win over Marquette. Fraser had four goals for the Wildcats.

100.0 – Winning percentage on faceoffs for Vermont’s Tommy Burke (15 of 15) in the Catamounts 21-3 win over UMass-Lowell. Vermont locked up the No. 1 seed for the America East tournament.

8 • Consecutive trips to the Ivy League tournament for Penn, which dominated Dartmouth 17-6. The Quakers have won the Ivy League tournament the last two times it has been held (2019 and 2022).

9 • Consecutive wins for Georgetown, which opened the season 0-3, after beating St. John’s 18-12 behind four goals each from Tucker Dordevic and Jacob Kelly.

10 • Points in a game for Princeton’s Coulter Mackesy for the second-time this season. Mackesy had eight goals and two assists in a 17-11 win over Harvard. Princeton plays at Cornell next Saturday with the winner bringing home the Ivy League regular season title.

166 • Combined points for Virginia’s Peyton Cormier (42g, 10a), Xander Dickson (48g, 13a) and Connor Shellenberger (15g, 38a) this season. In Saturday’s 19-12 win over Syracuse, Dickson had seven goals and Cormier had his ninth hat trick in 10 games. Good luck stopping them.

19 • Consecutive conference wins for Saint Joseph’s after the Hawks beat UMass 11-10 to earn at least a share of the Atlantic 10 title. Saint Joseph’s goalie Shayne Ryan made four of his nine saves in the fourth quarter as the Hawks blanked the Minutemen for the final 15 minutes.

2 • School-record tying fewest goals allowed in a game for Manhattan in a 6-2 victory over Wagner. Joseph Persico made eight saves in the win as the Jaspers clinched the MAAC tournament’s top seed.