Notre Dame Improves to 14-0
from press release
BIRMINGHAM, Mich. - The No. 2 Notre Dame men's
lacrosse team captured a 7-4 win over Quinnipiac in the semifinals
of the Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL) tournament on Friday
evening at Seaholm High School. Junior attackman Neal Hicks
(Atlanta, Ga./The Lovett School) paced the Irish with three
goals.
The Fighting Irish improved to 14-0 with the victory. The win total
matches a program record that has been reached previously in 2008
(14-3) and 2001 (14-2). Notre Dame will face either Ohio State or
Air Force in the GWLL title game on Sunday at 12 noon (ET). The
Irish are the defending champion of the tournament.
Quinnipiac, the fourth seed in the tournament, got on the board
first, yet the top-seeded Irish responded with the game's next six
goals. Kevin Kelly scored the goal for the Bobcats at the 7:57 mark
of the first quarter. Hicks deposited his first tally of the night,
off an assist from Peter Christman (Simsbury, Conn./Westminster
School), with 6:25 on the clock in the opening period to even the
contest. A goal from junior midfielder Grant Krebs (Annapolis,
Md./St. Mary's) with 14 seconds remaining in the period gave Notre
Dame a 2-1 lead by the end of the first quarter. Nicholas Beattie
(Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) picked up the assist on the
play.
Beattie, a freshman attackman, put the Irish up by two (3-1) with
11:10 left in the second quarter. Goals from senior attackman
Duncan Swezey (Ambler, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) and Hicks five seconds
apart midway through the period gave Notre Dame a 5-1 lead at
halftime. The Hicks goal was on a man-up situation and was assisted
by sophomore Jake Marmul (Livonia, Mich./Detroit Catholic Central),
who was playing near his hometown.
Notre Dame upped the margin to a game-high five goals (6-1) as
Krebs scored off a feed from Swezey with 13:53 left on the clock in
the third quarter. Kelly responded for Quinnipiac to make it 6-2
with 11:34 left in the quarter. Those were the only two goals of
the period. Prior to the second Bobcat goal, the Irish defense had
held Quinnipiac scoreless for 25:29.
The Irish regained their five-goal edge when Hicks completed his
hat trick with Swezey picking up the assist at the 12:22 mark of
the fourth quarter. That was the third time this season that Hicks
had scored at least three goals in a game. Quinnipiac's Jack
Oppenheimer scored 15 seconds later to make it 7-3. The game's
final tally came from the Bobcats' Ted Dimond with 6:11 showing in
regulation.
Notre Dame held a 48-19 advantage in shots. Irish goalie Scott
Rodgers (Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur), the 2009 GWLL Player of the
Year, made 13 saves to remain perfect on the season. His
counterpart Kevin Benzing had 14 stops in the loss. The Notre Dame
defense has held its opponents to four goals or fewer on four
occasions this season. The Fighting Irish lead the nation with a
6.07 goals-against average.
The Irish went 9-for-15 in the faceoff X. Marmul went 6-4, while
junior Trever Sipperly (Greenwich, N.Y./Greenwich) was 3-2.
