College Lacrosse Game of the Week: No. 3 Virginia vs No.1 Notre Dame

Story posted March 24, 2023 in CommRadio, Sports by Julianna Steinmetz

This Saturday, the No. 3 Virginia Cavaliers will travel to South Bend to face the No. 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish for their ACC season opener. 

The Cavaliers began the season at the number one spot before suffering their first loss in overtime to Maryland last weekend. 

Junior Attacker Connor Shellenberge has been a key player for the Cavaliers, leading them in points with 38 Shellenberge has 26 assists and 12 goals. 

In addition to Shellenberge, players to look out for include Xander Dickson, Payton Cormier, and Thomas McConvey.

With Shellenberge, Dickson, and Cormier all on attack and the addition of McConvey coming down from the midfield, the Cavalier offense is powerful. 

As a collective unit, this team has put up impressive stats. Virginia has outscored its opponents 134-87, has a faceoff win percentage of .560 and has caused 58 turnovers. 

As for the Fighting Irish, they have been off to a 6-0 start completely dominating their competition offensively and defensively. 

Notre Dame began the season sitting at No. 5 in the polls, but it quickly worked its way up to the No.3, No. 2 and now No. 1 rank. 

The only threat the Fighting Irish have come across so far is also the Maryland Terrapins. After three overtimes, Notre Dame came out with a 13-12 victory in College Park. 

The Irish possess a powerful brother duo of Chris and Pat Kavanaugh. Chris leads the team in goals with 21 and Pat leads in assists with 24. Combined, this duo has contributed to 63 of Notre Dame’s 101 points.  

On the defensive side of things, senior goalie Liam Entenmann is the key player down there. Entenmann has been a starter since his freshman season. In the last six games, he has saved 59% of shots on him. 

With both teams having strength on all sides of the field, it will be interesting to see how they match up. The former number one against the current number one will make for an exciting rivalry game. 

Julianna Steinmetz is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, please email jfs6759@psu.edu.

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