It’s not quite David vs. Goliath, but it’s close.
When Utah faces Notre Dame in the NCAA lacrosse tournament Saturday (12:30 p.m. MDT, ESPNU), it will be a battle of one of the nation’s most historically successful lacrosse programs against a team that just became a Division I program just five years ago.
“We felt like with whoever we matched up against (in the NCAA tournament) we should have the preparation and the experience from those early games to just have a belief that we can compete with any team in the country regardless of who it was that we drew in the bracket.” — Utah lacrosse coach Andrew McMinn
The Fighting Irish are 21-time conference regular-season champions, have made five NCAA Final Fours and have appeared in every NCAA tournament since 2006.
Notre Dame ranks No. 3 in both Inside Lacrosse’s media poll and USILA’s coaches poll, while the Utes are No. 17 and No. 18 in those polls, respectively. Only 17 teams make the NCAA tournament.
It’s expected to be a high-scoring shootout between some of the best offenses in the sport. Utah ranks No. 2 in the country with 16.69 goals per game, while Notre Dame is scoring 15.83 goals per game, ranking No. 3.
But the Utes give up the sixth-most goals in DI lacrosse — 12.21 per game — while the Irish allow just 9.83, good for sixth-fewest in the country.
Notre Dame goalkeeper Liam Entenmann was named both the ACC Goalie of the Year and ACC Defensive Player of the Year. The Irish had seven players on USA Lacrosse Magazine’s All-America team, while the Utes have none.
Five Utah players — Jordan Hyde, Ryan Stines, Tyler Bradbury, Koa Todd, Jared Andreala and Carson Moyer — have scored 20 or more goals, led by Hyde, who leads the team with 49. The Utes’ fast style of play has led to offensive success.
The Irish are led by Entenmann, Pat Kavanagh (20 goals, 45 assists) and Chris Kavanagh (38 goals, 13 assists).
The Utes do have experience against some of the top teams this season. After getting off to a 1-4 nonconference start — losing to top competition like Johns Hopkins and Rutgers — the Utes went undefeated in conference play.
“We talked to the guys at the beginning of the year about how we put on some of the top teams in the country that we felt would be some of the top teams and that was to prepare us to get to this point,” Utah coach Andrew McMinn said.
“We felt like with whoever we matched up against (in the NCAA tournament) we should have the preparation and the experience from those early games to just have a belief that we can compete with any team in the country regardless of who it was that we drew in the bracket.”
The Utes play the biggest game in program history Saturday, when they play the role of David against the Fighting Irish.
“I think we’ve always kind of taken pride in being an underdog. We kind of have that chip on our shoulder at all times and I think that’s gonna give us an edge going against Notre Dame,” Bradbury said.
