March 7, 2016

As a junior, University of Notre Dame senior men’s lacrosse All-American Matt Landis won the award for the top Division I defenseman in the country.

A year later, Landis proved he hasn’t lost his touch.

The Irish captain spearheaded a standout team defensive effort Saturday in top-rated Notre Dame’s 9-4 triumph over eighth-rated Maryland in the Pacific Coast Shootout in Costa Mesa, Calif.-and that earned Landis the Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week Award.

Landis defended primarily against standout Maryland attack Matt Rambo and held him to one goal and six shots (Rambo was Maryland’s top returning point-scorer from a year ago with 59 and top returning goal-scorer with 40).

Notre Dame holding the Terps to four goals qualified as the best effort by an opposing team defense since Johns Hopkins defeated Maryland, 7-4, in 2013. Landis had three ground balls versus the Terps and played a key role as the Irish forced Maryland into 21 turnovers and six failed clear attempts.

Offered Landis after the Maryland game, “The attack rode really well, they (the Terps) couldn’t clear the ball as well as they wanted to and all that played into holding them to four goals. It was a tight game until the very end, but I feel like a lot of these guys have played in a lot of big games and been in a lot of these situations. It really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for us.”

Landis last month received the Weaver-James-Corrigan Award representing an honorary postgraduate scholarship from the ACC. The 6-2, 195-pound defenseman from Pelham, New York (Pelham Memorial High School), is a finance major in the Mendoza College of Business.

Landis received the William C. Schmeisser Award from the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association as the outstanding defensive player in Division I as a junior in 2015. He was a 2015 USILA first-team All-American, the 2015 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and a 2015 first-team All-ACC selection. A two-time selection as ACC Defensive Player of the Week in 2015, Landis was named the Lacrosse Magazine Player of the Week last May after holding Albany star Lyle Thompson to a single goal and four assists in a 14-10 Notre Dame NCAA Championship quarterfinal win over the Great Danes in 2015. He also was a 2015 ACC All-Academic Men’s Lacrosse Team selection.

Landis led Notre Dame to a 12-3 record as junior in 2015, including the ACC regular-season title, the number-one overall seed in the NCAA Championship and a berth in NCAA Championship weekend. He paced Notre Dame to a 12-6 record as a sophomore in 2014, including the ACC Tournament crown and an NCAA Championship title game appearance.

He is in his third season as a starter on defense for Notre Dame in 2016.

Last month Landis was a first-round pick (third overall selection and first defenseman picked) by the Florida Launch in the 2016 Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft.

Landis and his teammates lead Notre Dame (4-0 and ranked number one in the Inside Lacrosse media and Lacrosse magazine polls) against 5-0 Denver (ranked number one in the USILA poll of coaches) at 5:30 p.m. EDT Sunday at Arlotta Stadium on the Notre Dame campus.

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