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Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:

1. Notre Dame women provided one of the biggest highlights in Thursday action as the No. 5 seed Irish upset the No. 4 seed Virginia 11-10 in comeback fashion in the ACC tournament quarterfinal.

Notre Dame trailed 3-1 just 10 minutes in, which led to a five-goal halftime deficit. Out of the break, the Irish exploded for a four-goal run to come within one, with two goals from Maddie Howe.

Virginia responded with an Avery Shoemaker score, but that marked its only goal of the second half.

The Irish finished with a three-goal spurt, the final two coming from Andie Aldave with under four minutes remaining, for the one-goal victory. Aldave led the Irish with four points, Bridget Deehan made nine saves and Savannah Buchanan had a team-high five draw controls.

“Winning a first round ACC game is really important just to get that experience alone and validate how far we have come,” said Irish coach Christine Halfpenny. "We showed outstanding resolve for 60 minutes. Coming back from a five-goal deficit is incredible and they made plays.”

Notre Dame now turns to face undefeated and top-seeded Boston College, which dominated Louisville 19-6. The Eagles got another standout performance from Sam Apuzzo, who had three goals and 17 draw controls to record her 100th point of the season and set a new single-game program record for draw controls.

In other ACC tournament action, second-seeded North Carolina advanced to the semifinals with a 21-12 rout of Syracuse thanks to seven points apiece from Ela Hazar and Katie Hoeg plus six goals from Jamie Ortega. The Tar Heels set a new program record for goals in the conference tournament.

Next up, UNC will play No. 3 seed Virginia Tech, which escaped Duke 13-12 despite two weather delays for the Hokies' first ACC tournament win. It took more than five hours to play 60 minutes, and the Blue Devils rallied for a six-goal run in the final 8:48, but Paige Petty's five points led Virginia Tech to a historic victory for the program.

2. The inaugural Pac-12 women’s lacrosse tournament also got underway Thursday, with No. 4 seed Oregon and No. 3 seed USC advancing to the semifinals today.

With seven assists from Cambi Cukar and six scores from Natalie Modly, the Ducks dominated Cal 22-9 to earn a matchup with top-seeded and host Colorado.

The Trojans cruised past Arizona State 19-7 behind six goals from Sophia Donovan and 11 draw controls from Jackie Gilbert. USC will face second-seeded Stanford today.

3. Maryland women’s lacrosse was crowned the Big Ten regular season champion with a 20-16 win over Northwestern on Thursday.

Despite a 9-6 second half advantage for the Wildcats, Maryland held on for the win thanks to a seven-goal halftime cushion.

Jen Giles had six points on four goals and two assists, while Caroline Steele tallied five on three goals and two assists to lead the Terps. Megan Whittle added four goals and Brindi Griffin and Meghan Siverson each recorded a hat trick.

4. The 2018 Tewaaraton nominees, 25 men and 25 women, were announced Thursday.

Four returning finalists return on the men’s side – Denver senior faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste, Albany senior attackman Connor Fields, Yale senior attackman Ben Reeves and Loyola junior attackman Pat Spencer.

Maryland is among five teams with two nominees apiece, joining Denver (Baptiste and Ethan Walker), Albany (Fields and TD Irelan), Loyola (Foster Huggins and Spencer) and Virginia (Dox Aitken and Michael Kraus).

On the women’s side, Maryland, Boston College and Northwestern each led with three nominees each.

The Terps have junior defender Julia Braig, junior goalie Megan Taylor and senior Megan Whittle. The Eagles placed junior attacker Sam Apuzzo, junior midfielder Dempsey Arsenault and junior defender Elizabeth Miller on the list. Plus, Wildcats senior attacker Shelby Fredericks, junior attacker Selena Lasota and senior midfielder Sheila Nesselbush were also nominated.

Returning finalists Marie McCool (North Carolina) and Kylie Ohlmiller (Stony Brook) are nominees as well.

Check out the full lists for the men and women. The finalists will be announced May 10.

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5. Lindsey Ronbeck is back.

After suffering a knee injury in the March 13 game against Navy, the Florida junior attacker missed just three games after discovering it was a Grade 1 sprain. In that time, Florida’s scoring dropped to 12.7 points per game. With her in the lineup, the No. 6 Gators score 17.2 points per game.

Not only was Ronbeck relieved to return to the field as she had never missed a regular season game, so was the Gators’ head coach.

“I’m really thankful it was an injury that only kept her out a couple of games,” Amanda O’Leary said. “When you see how we did without her vs. how we do with her, I think that speaks to how important she is to the success of this program.”

In Ronbeck’s return, she became just the second Florida player in program history to score 10 points in a game in a 21-8 win over UConn on March 31.

6. Meet “Johnny Clutch.”

John Wagner is becoming the leader of the Marquette offense, having a hand in five of its six wins. The Wagner winners – his five game-winning goals – have become a sensation.

“You don’t realize you have five game-winners until you get all these questions,” he said. “The plays that we’ve drawn up aren’t always designed for me to score the goal, but I guess you get a little tunnel vision.”

7. How did the ACC become just another conference in men’s lacrosse?

It's been a season of unusual mediocrity, at least judged against the lofty standards of the ACC.

“Depending on how things work out over the next two weeks — starting with this weekend’s ACC tournament in Charlottesville, Va. — a shaky regular season conceivably could shake out with the majority of the game’s most prominent conference sitting out the NCAA tournament,” writes US Lacrosse Magazine’s Gary Lambrecht.

Could the ACC recover in 2019? Time will tell.

What We’re Reading

  • The 2018 MLL championship, which will be played Aug. 18, is headed to Charleston, S.C., the league announced Thursday.

  • The all-ACC men’s team was announced Thursday ahead of the conference tournament.

  • There’s a mumps outbreak at William & Mary, which cancelled the season finale at Elon for the women’s lacrosse team.

  • St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes freshman Rita Peterson is back on the field five months after doctors said her lacrosse career was over following an ATV crash.

  • Lacrosse helped one high school girls’ lacrosse player overcome her shyness.

  • Twenty U.S. officials have been selected for the 2018 FIL Men’s World Championship this summer.

What We’re Watching

The top-seeded Syracuse men are preparing for the ACC tournament, which starts today. The Orange play fourth-seeded Virginia at 8:30 p.m., following a 6 p.m. tilt between No. 2 Duke and No. 3 Notre Dame. Games will air on ESPNU.

Duke men's lacrosse is gearing up as well. Faceoff guys will be faceoff guys. It's tournament time, everyone.

 

Faceoff guys will be faceoff guys. Let the fun begin!

A post shared by Duke Men's Lacrosse (@dukemlax) on

Lehigh men’s lacrosse got some new gold helmets from Warrior ahead of its semifinal matchup against Navy today at 7:30 p.m.

Check them out.

What’s On Tap

  • It’s an exciting day for postseason conference tournaments as the ACC men’s and women’s semifinals go down, as do the Pac-12 semis and the Patriot men’s semis. Follow @USLacrosseMag for coverage.

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