April 20, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Junior Matt Kavanagh’s late-game heroics in Saturday’s 15-14 win over second-ranked North Carolina earned the University of Notre Dame attackman Atlantic Coast Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors for the first time in 2015.
The Rockville Centre, New York native scored four goals in the contest, including the game-winning tally with seven seconds remaining to lead the top-ranked Irish to the come-from-behind victory. Kavanagh registered two goals in the final 1:15 of the contest with Notre Dame trailing 14-12. He netted his third goal of the game to begin the three-goal run before sophomore Sergio Perkovic’s game-tying score with 33 seconds left in the contest.
With the win, No. 1-ranked Notre Dame captured its first ACC regular-season crown and improved to 9-1 on the season and 4-0 in the ACC.
Kavanagh leads the Irish in scoring with 43 points (21 goals and a team-leading 22 assists). His four-goal output against the Tar Heels marked the 29th multiple-goal game of his career and the 15th time that he has registered at least a hat trick in a game. He also scored four goals earlier this season in Notre Dame’s 11-10 overtime loss at Denver on March 7.
Kavanagh has started 43 of the 44 games he has played in during his career. Named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List this season, he has 95 goals and has dished off 71 assists (166 points) during his two-plus seasons for the Irish.
Kavanagh and his top-seeded Notre Dame teammates, winners of six straight, will look to defend their 2014 ACC tournament crown beginning on Friday against No. 4 seed Duke (10-4, 1-3) at PPL Park, located outside of Philadelphia. The game, which begins at 5:30 p.m. (EDT), is the first of the two semifinal matchups with No. 2 seed North Carolina (12-2, 3-1) facing No. 3 seed Syracuse (9-2, 2-2) in the second contest. Both games will be televised live on ESPU and streamed via WatchESPN.
The semifinal winners will square off in the ACC Championship game on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. (EDT) on ESPNU and WatchESPN.
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