Regular season game days don’t get much bigger than this one for Syracuse lacrosse, as we’ve got a full day of action inside the JMA Dome with the ACC portion of the schedule rolling on for both teams.
The women will kick-start the day’s festivities at noon on ACC Network Extra when they host the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a game with huge implications for a packed upper-middle section of the conference standings. It is also Senior Day for the Orange.
The men will follow with a big rivalry game and
a program celebration. The renewal of their rivalry with the Virginia Cavaliers is set for 4 PM on ESPN U, on a day that’s also been reserved for John Desko’s Ring of Honor induction as well as Alumni Day.
Season so far
Notre Dame is having a great season at 11-3 and 5-3 in the ACC. They’re on a five-game winning streak dating back to the middle of March.
They got their season off to a tremendous start with an impressive win over Michigan, a 25-0 demolition of Central Michigan, a big win over Boston College in Chestnut Hill and another solid road win over a ranked-at-the-time Harvard team.
They hit their “rough patch” in the middle of the season, when they lost three of five in alternating fashion to Virginia, Clemson and Stanford. In between each loss, they beat Pitt and Elon.
Since their loss to the Cardinal on March 14, they’ve won five in a row against Florida State, Robert Morris, Cal, Virginia Tech and Liberty. During that win streak, they’ve outscored their opponents, 93-25.
Scouting Notre Dame
The Irish have put up some serious numbers this year, ranking in the Top 10 in the country in 14 different categories and just outside the Top 10 in a bunch of other key ones.
They essentially do everything well. They have a high-powered offense that puts up points and takes care of the ball, a stingy defense that limits teams to less than 20 shots per game and causes turnovers, an excellent draw unit and a ground-ball oriented team.
For starters, they’re No. 10 in the country in scoring offense (14.79) and No. 6 in scoring defense (7.43).
They’re No. 8 in points per game (23.36), No. 9 in assists per game (8.57), No. 6 in shots per game (33.93), No. 2 in shots on goal per game (25.29), No. 7 in clearing percentage (.926) and No. 5 in turnovers per game (10.79).
They’re No. 15 in draw control win percentage (.599), No. 13 in caused turnovers per game (11.29) and No. 20 in ground balls per game (17.57).
Names to Know
ND’s offense is spearheaded by junior Kate Timarky and sophomore Madison Rassas.
Timarky leads the team with 52 goals and 68 points. She’s tied for 11th in the country with 3.71 goals per game and is 19th in the country with 4.86 points per game. She’s scored at least a hat trick 11 times in 14 games this season, and is shooting the ball at a .559 percentage.
Rassas is not far behind her with 46 goals (3.29) and 56 points (4.00). They have been quite the lethal 1-2 punch for the Irish all season long.
They’re joined on offense by a quartet of 30-point scorers in support, including Grace Maroney (37), Charley Bacigalupo (32), Emma Murphy (30) and the appropriately-named Maura Irish (30).
Irish (the player) is a typical do-everything midfielder in her freshman season for her namesake school, having accumulated 15 goals, 15 assists, 22 ground balls, 20 draw controls and 18 caused turnovers. Meghan O’Hare is another midfielder that fits that description with 13 goals, seven assists, 22 GBs, 34 DCs and 12 CTs.
Draw specialist Uma Kowalski has exploded onto the scene as a freshman with 120 draw controls through her first 14 games. She’s second in the ACC and 17th nationally at 8.57 draws per game.
Graduate student and team captain Julia Carr leads the defense with 24 caused turnovers and 20 ground balls, alongside fellow captain Franny O’Brien with 20 CTs and 23 GBs.
Another big freshman contributor is their goalie, Ceci Patterson, who’s third in the ACC with a 7.78 goals-against average, sixth with a .429 save percentage and eighth with 5.21 saves per game.
Season so far
Virginia is currently 7-4 overall and 2-0 in the ACC.
They got off to a rough start this year with a six-goal loss to Richmond, a second-half collapse in which they lost a seven-goal lead to Hopkins, a four-goal loss to Towson and a triple-overtime loss to Maryland.
Sitting at 3-4 after seven games, it appeared as though UVA was already a long shot to even be in the NCAA Tournament conversation. But they’ve entered the chat like the Kool Aid man, winning four straight, including resume fortifying wins over previously unbeaten and No. 1 Notre Dame and Duke, against whom they snapped a 20-game regular season losing streak.
They now come to the Dome as one of the hottest teams in the country, just in time to resume their high-flying rivalry with SU.
Scouting Virginia
As we’ve come to expect from Virginia, they possess one of the nation’s best offenses, ranking No. 6 in the country at 14.27 goals per game. They’re also No. 3 in the country in points per game (24.00), No. 6 in shooting percentage (.341) and No. 1 in assists per game (9.73).
The offense isn’t the only part of the team getting the job done. As any typical Lars Tiffany-coached team, they’re aggressive and physical in the way they go after loose balls and pressure teams with their ride.
The Cavaliers rank No. 3 nationally in caused turnovers per game (11.91) and No. 4 in ground balls per game (37.36).
Their defense has transformed themselves as one of the biggest reasons for their season turning around. They’re currently tied-No. 41 in the country at 11.18 goals-against per game, but they were at 12.3 per game during their 3-4 start and have reduced it significantly to 9.3 per game during their 4-0 stretch. They held Notre Dame and Duke to a combined 19 goals in their first two ACC games.
Names to Know
The Cavs offense is centered around the Millon brothers, McCabe Millon and Brendan Millon.
The brothers are tied for the team lead with 54 points and have combined for 65 assists, accounting for 61 percent of UVA’s helpers on the season. They’re tied for sixth nationally at 4.91 points per game, and McCabe is second in the country at 3.09 assists per game while Brendan is fourth at 2.82 assists per game.
The offense runs through them, so finding any way to disrupt them and keep them from finding a rhythm is paramount for the Orange defense.
Truitt Sunderland is the primary beneficiary of the Millon’s passing, leading the team with 32 goals and a .427 shooting percentage. Ryan Colsey is second on the team with 26 goals and a .347 shot percentage.
The above quartet of versatile attackers have accounted for 77 percent of the team’s assists, 64 percent of their goals, 70 percent of the team’s points and 64 percent of the team’s shots.
Lars Tiffany recently called midfielder Joey Terenzi the ‘heart and soul’ of the team. Terenzi missed a bulk of the action earlier in the season when the Cavs were going through their struggles, and his return has coincided with their resurgence. Last week, he made his first career start and posted his first hat trick and a career-high five points in helping the Cavs beat Duke.
UVA has a solid face-off unit with three players contributing at over a 50 percent success rate. Andrew Greenspan has turned himself into the starter as the season’s progressed and has won just under 59 percent of his restarts. Griff Meyer and Henry Metz complete the FOGO trio.
Greenspan is one to keep an eye on, because last year he had a big game against Johnny Mullen and the Orange, going 13-for-18.
Speaking of big games against ‘Cuse, defender John Schroter has been phenomenal recently in the series. In the last two games between the teams, Schroter has been tasked with marking Joey Spallina, and he has shut him down to the tune of zero goals, one assist and 0-for-9 shooting. That will clearly be a matchup to watch out for again this time around.
Goalie Jake Marek is one of the biggest X-factors in this game. During their 3-4 start, Marek was struggling to save roughly 46 percent of the shots he faced. During their winning streak, he’s jumped that up to 59 percent to help hold down UVA’s opponents. If he stays hot between the pipes, it could be a rough one for the Orange.
