Maryland men’s lacrosse can’t keep up in 15-5 pummeling by Notre Dame in NCAA Tournament final

PHILADELPHIA — Charged with trying to derail the juggernaut in men’s lacrosse this spring, Maryland’s bid to play roadblock devolved into being more of a speed bump.

Defying a scheduled start delayed by inclement weather, the No. 7 seed Terps raced to an early two-goal lead but couldn’t keep up with top-seeded Notre Dame, which confirmed its reputation as the season’s most imposing team and captured its second consecutive national championship with a 15-5 thrashing in the NCAA Tournament final Monday afternoon before an announced 31,479 at Lincoln Financial Field.

The crowd was the largest for the title game since 2019 when 31,528 watched Virginia outlast Yale, 13-9, also at Lincoln Financial Field. The attendance for the three-day championship weekend was 80,898.

Senior midfielder Eric Malever totaled one goal and two assists, and senior attackman Daniel Kelly scored twice, but Maryland (11-6) fell well short of its first NCAA title since 2022 and fifth overall. The program dropped to 4-13 in tournament finals and 2-6 in those games under coach John Tillman, who did his best to view the ending objectively.

“There really wasn’t much that we left on the table,” he said. “It doesn’t take away the sting, but you sleep better at night knowing that we gave everything we could. We did. Notre Dame clearly was the best team, and they proved it today, but they proved it all year.”

The Fighting Irish (16-1) wrapped up their season on a 14-game winning streak that began with a 14-9 victory over the Terps on March 3. Notre Dame, which had not lost since Feb. 25 when Georgetown pulled off an 11-10 overtime stunner in South Bend, Indiana, became the seventh team to repeat as national champions, joining Johns Hopkins in 1978-79 and 1984-85, Syracuse in 1988-89 and 2008-09, Princeton in 1996-98 and Duke in 2013-14.

“This is what we play for, this is what we live for — these opportunities, big games, big moments,” said Notre Dame graduate student goalkeeper Liam Entenmann, who made a game-high 16 saves. “The target is still on our back going into next year, but that’s how we want it. We don’t want to be anything other than the best, and we showed that today.”

Senior attackman Chris Kavanagh scored five goals and graduate student attackman and older brother Pat forged a game-high six points, all on assists, for Notre Dame, which scored at least 10 goals in every contest this spring.

Pat Kavanagh broke the school’s NCAA Tournament single-game record in assists while Chris tied the mark in goals. They contributed to the largest margin of victory in a title game since 1998 when Princeton dusted Maryland by the same score.

Despite a 17-for-24, six-ground ball performance by graduate student faceoff specialist Luke Wierman, Maryland had few remedies for Notre Dame’s relentless play in seemingly every facet. The Terps scored the fewest goals in a title game since 2015 when they dropped a 10-5 decision to Denver, committed 11 of their 16 turnovers by midway through the second quarter, went almost 20 minutes in the first half without a goal, and didn’t get a save from graduate student goalkeeper Logan McNaney until 93 seconds had elapsed in the third quarter.

Although McNaney stopped 10 shots, his early struggles were a drastic departure from Entenmann, who rebounded from giving up two quick goals to finish with 16 saves. Kelly, a Towson resident and Calvert Hall graduate, said the offensive futility could be attributed to a mixture of Entenmann’s play and the Terps’ shot selection.

“I don’t think we shot particularly well, but he doesn’t have any weaknesses,” Kelly said. “That’s the hard part. You think there’s an opening, and he closes on it pretty quickly. He’s a big kid, too. He takes a lot of the net up, but there’s a lot of those we would want back.”

As effective as the Kavanagh brothers were, the offense got a significant lift from its second midfield of sophomore Max Busenkell (one goal and two assists), junior Will Angrick (one goal and one assist) and graduate student Reilly Gray (one goal).

Those contributions, as well as goals from juniors Jalen Seymour and Fisher Finley of the third midfield line, propelled Notre Dame despite appearing to mirror a long weather delay that pushed the game’s start time from noon to 2:10 p.m. The time had been adjusted Sunday afternoon from its original schedule of 1 p.m. in anticipation of severe thunderstorms and lightning.

The delay did not seem to affect Maryland, which took a 2-0 lead with 11:35 left in the first quarter with goals from senior midfielder Ryan Siracusa and Kelly.

After the Fighting Irish scored three straight goals to assume a 3-2 lead midway through the frame, the Terps evened the score at 3 just 11 seconds later when senior midfielder Jack Koras fired a jump shot from the left point.

That’s when the Fighting Irish imposed their will. They scored seven straight goals over a 17:40 stretch bridging the first two quarters. The run included three consecutive goals by Chris Kavanagh and three assists by Pat Kavanagh.

Coach Kevin Corrigan said Notre Dame wasn’t especially concerned about the quick deficit even though he jokingly compared the team’s behavior to a duck remaining calm above water while paddling furiously underwater.

“We’re not prone to panic in the first quarter because we know it’s going to be a 60-minute game and given the body of work of the season, we’re confident we’re going to have a chance to make some plays and do that,” he said. “It’s always nice when that first goal goes in though. You kind of see everybody relax and take a deep breath after that first goal goes in and at 2-0, that was nice.”

Malever ended a 19:51 Terps scoring drought when he converted a skip pass by Koras for an extra-man goal with 1:15 left in the second quarter. Even that tally had to withstand a challenge by Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan that was eventually denied by officials before Maryland players and fans could release a sigh of relief.

Armed with a 10-4 lead, the Fighting Irish opened the third quarter with three straight goals — including two by Chris Kavanagh — to extinguish any hopes of a Terps comeback. Notre Dame improved to 6-0 when an opponent scored first and 14-0 when leading at halftime.

Tillman acknowledged that the result stung the players. But he also quoted late coach Dick Edell.

“As Dick Edell said, if this is the worst day of their lives, they’re going to have amazing lives,” he said. “I know they hurt right now, and it should hurt because they put so much in. But if I’m someone that loves Maryland lacrosse and Maryland sports, this group, they laid it all out. Certainly, if you just want to look at us for 60 minutes, you can judge us that way. I refuse to. I know what these guys have done since August.”