SOUTH BEND —The last time Notre Dame lacrosse lost on Memorial Day in the NCAA Tournament final, the Irish were right back in the Final Four the next year.
After falling to Duke in the 2014 final, Notre Dame earned the top seed in 2015 before losing to eventual national champion Denver in overtime at the national semifinals.
Despite the disappointment of a 16-9 loss to top-seeded Princeton in this year’s title game, it would surprise no one in the sport to see the Irish still playing on Championship Weekend next year as well.
Irish coach Kevin Corrigan, set to return for a 39th season in South Bend, emphasized the positives after this 13-3 season ended one way win shy of a third national title in four years.
“I said to them right after the game that success has many parents and failure is an orphan,” Corrigan said. “But we’re not going to handle it that way. We’re going to be accountable for all the good things that happened to us this year, which was a lot, and accountable for how we held each other up all year and did all that.
“And then we’re going to be accountable to each other for the things that didn’t go well like today and learn from that and get better from it. We’re not going to point fingers. We’re not going to talk about ‘woudas, shouldas and couldas.’ We’re just going to take it like men and handle ourselves with class and get back to work because that’s the only thing you can do.”
While Notre Dame must replace program stalwarts Will Donovan, Josh Yago and Christian Alacqua and Max Busenkell, the Irish do return Tewaaraton Award finalist Shawn Lyght on defense and ACC Goalie of the Year Thomas Ricciardelli.
Other fifth-year seniors from the rotation beyond Ricciardelli should include Will Maheras, Will Gallagher and Thomas Porell.
Irish will be strong in goal again in 2027
Ricciardelli finished with 19 saves and a .543 save percentage against the Tigers, who piled up 53 total shots on the day (35 on goal).
“I’ve been saying it for a while now, he’s a first-team All-America goalie,” Yago said. “He’s been our rock, and our offense has relied on him to bail us out in numerous games. It didn’t surprise me he stood on his head the way he did today.”
Princeton must replace first-team All-America goalie Ryan Croddick, who made 13 saves in the final, but Ricciardelli, a third-team selection by the U.S. Intercollege Lacrosse Association, will enter next season as one of the game’s premier goalies along with returning second-team All-America Grayson Manning of Denver and third-team selection Caleb Fyock of Ohio State.
Corrigan termed his goalie “terrific” and praised Ricciardelli for his willingness to wait his turn while the Irish won it all in 2023 and 2024 behind Liam Entenmann.
“We knew when we recruited him how good we thought he could be,” Corrigan said. “He had the patience and the character to sit behind Liam Entenmann and watch and learn and continue to work to get better.
“We knew at that point we thought we had a guy who was going to be pretty special, and we still feel that way. He’s got one more year and we look forward to having him back between the pipes next year for sure.”
The rest of the college lacrosse world might not share that view.
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame lacrosse should be right back in the NCAA title mix in 2027
Reporting by Mike Berardino, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
