Jan. 28, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s lacrosse, which advanced to its first-ever appearance to the national semifinals in 2001, will begin the 2002 campaign ranked in both the preseason polls of Face-off Yearbook and Lacrosse Magazine at 11th and 13th, respectively.
Notre Dame finished fifth in the final ”01 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) poll after registering a 14-2 mark, its best record in school. The Irish return four starters and 13 letterwinners from last year’s squad this season, including four players – seniors Chad DeBolt (Waterloo, N.Y.), John Flandina (West Islip, N.Y.) and A.J. Wright (Timonium, Md.) and junior John Souch (Watertown, N.Y.) were selected to Lacrosse Magazine’s preseason honorable mention All-America team.
DeBolt played in all 16 games for the Irish last season and scored one goal in addition to picking up 60 ground balls. Notre Dame’s top face-off man each of the past two years, he won 53.1 percent of his face-offs in 2001 (135-254). Flandina, a season-team Great Western Lacrosse League honoree in ’01, started all 16 games and returns as the team’s top returning scorer this season. He was fourth a year ago in the scoring column with 20 goals and seven assists (27 points). Wright, a first-team all-GWLL selection, returns as Notre Dame’s top defenseman this season after starting all 16 games last season and picking up 28 ground balls. Souch, who earned second-team all-GWLL accolades last year, has been one of the Irish’s top longstick midfielders the past two seasons. He played in all 16 games last year and was credited with 52 ground balls.
Notre Dame, under 14-year head coach Kevin Corrigan, opens up the 2002 campaign at home against Penn State on Sun., February 24 at 1:00 p.m.