Kevin Corrigan has a theory about the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament.
"Everybody who gets in it can play, obviously,
" the veteran Notre Dame coach said. "Then you win a game and everybody loosens up. The pressure is gone. That's why you see a bunch of tight teams in the first round and such great games in the second round.
"
If Corrigan's theory is correct, college lacrosse fans will be in for a treat today when his Fighting Irish (14-2) meet Syracuse (13-2) at 3 p.m. in the Division I quarterfinals at Schoellkopf Field on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca. Top-seeded Duke and Ohio State will meet in the first game at noon.
Unfortunately, Corrigan has mostly missed the thrill of standing on the sideline during one of those second-round masterpieces. He has guided the Irish to 13 trips to the Tournament in his 20 seasons, but only four times have they made it past the first round. Overall, they are 5-12 in the dance.
For a long stretch a week ago it appeared they would be 4-13, as they trailed visiting Colgate by two goals with less than five minutes to play before rallying to tie it in regulation and then win it 8-7 in overtime.
"Quite honestly, in the first half we were terrible,
" Corrigan said. "We did everything we told our guys we didn't want to do. We were impatient. We knew Colgate was very opportunistic and very patient and willing to wait for you to make mistakes, and that's what we did. Luckily, we have a pretty experienced group and very together group, and they found a way to survive.
"
SU coach John Desko cautioned that SU fans who watched the Colgate-ND game on television failed to see the real Notre Dame team.
"I don't think that's a good game to watch them in,
" Desko said, "only because it was on the grass in the rain, and I think if anything it probably helped Colgate.
"
The real Notre Dame team, Desko said, features two great dodging attackmen in Duncan Swezey (22 goals, 16 assists) and Alex Wharton (19-30), a superb crease man in Ryan Hoff (40-4) and two fine midfielders in Grant Krebs (25-9) and Michael Podgajny (23-8). Its offense would have been even more potent had freshman All-American Will Yeatman, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound matchup nightmare who also plays tight end on the football team, not been suspended for the season after his arrest for drinking and driving on campus.
Even without him the Irish are fifth in the nation in scoring, averaging 12.31 goals per game. Syracuse, meanwhile, is No. 2 in that category, pouring in 13.93 goals per game behind Tewaaraton Trophy finalist Mike Leveille (42-28), Kenny Nims (30-23), Steven Brooks (25-11), Dan Hardy (19-12) and Greg Niewieroski (21-4). Each team features seven players who have double-digit goals for the season.
There are other striking similarities. SU's Danny Brennan, sufficiently recovered from a pulled leg muscle to see some action in last week's 20-3 victory over Canisius, leads the nation in faceoff percentage (.676). ND's Taylor Clagett is No. 2 (.645), setting up what should be a fierce struggle at the X. Syracuse is No. 9 in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 7.27 goals per game. Notre Dame is No. 5 (6.81).
One significant difference will be experience in goal, where SU will start freshman John Galloway and the Irish will counter with senior Joey Kemp, who is second in the nation in goals-against average (6.40) and third in save percentage (.636).
"We want to be patient early on,
" Desko said. "I think if you watched our Colgate game we knew they had a solid goaltender (Tim Harrington), but we're throwing a bunch from 15 yards to his stick side, and now he's warmed up and has confidence and you know you're in for a battle. We definitely don't want to do that against this guy. We want to take some higher-percentage shots early and try to put a couple by him before can make a save.
"
While Notre Dame had to stage a desperate rally to overcome Colgate in its opener, SU manhandled MAAC champion Canisius 20-3, a game in which the starters were relaxing on the sideline by midway through the second half.
"It feels good to come out this week in practice and know we're really hitting our stride right now,
" Hardy said. "Going into Notre Dame, being the good defensive team they are . . . probably the best one in the country, it feels good knowing we shot about 50 percent against Canisius. It's good for our confidence.
"
Historically, SU has also enjoyed much more success in the postseason than the Irish, which made it past this round only once before, in 2001, when it lost to SU 12-5 in the semifinals. The Orange, meanwhile, has won nine national titles and is making its 27th visit to the quarterfinals.
Now, it is back in the magical second round of the playoffs, the one in which Corrigan believes teams relax and get down to business. So is the Irish.
