March 29, 2002
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THE WEEK AHEAD – The Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team (1-5) travels to Colorado for a pair of Great Western Lacrosse League games as the Irish open up GWLL play against Denver and Air Force. Coach Kevin Corrigan’s squad plays at Denver on Sat., March 30 at 1:00 p.m. (MST) and then travels to Colorado Springs to take on Air Force on Tues., April 2 at 3:00 p.m. (MST). Notre Dame is ranked 19th in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse.com poll, but fell out of the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) rankings.
RECAPPING THE WEEK – Notre Dame dropped its third straight game and fell to 1-5 after losing a 15-5 decision to Hofstra at home. The Irish have not lost three straight since the 1999 campaign when they dropped consecutive decisions to Hofstra (10-9), Georgetown (12-8) and Ohio State (5-4). HOFSTRA – Notre Dame suffered its worst defeat in two seasons as the Irish dropped a 15-5 decision at home to the 12th-ranked Pride. The last 10-goal setback for an Irish team was against Loyola at home tp Loyola (12-2) on March 18, 2000. Hofstra outscored the Irish 7-1 in the second half. Five different Irish players scored in the contest. Dan Berger (Phoenix, Md.), Notre Dame’s leading scorer, led the Irish with a goal and an assist. Hofstra’s three goals had three goals and two assists to lead all scorers. Hofstra jumped out to a 1-0 lead 35 seconds into the contest on the first of Dooley’s three goals. Freshman Chris Richez (Freeport, N.Y.) tied the game with an unassisted goal at the 8:25 mark. Hofstra scored three goals in the final 3:36 of the first quarter for a 4-1 lead after the first 15-minute stanza. The Pride increased their lead to 6-1 in the second quarter before Berger’s goal at the 8:54 mark. The two teams traded goals for the remainder of the quarter as the Irish trailed 8-4 at the break. Hofstra scored the lone goal fo the third quarter for both teams with 5:39 remaining as Notre Dame was held to just one shot (the Irish also were able to only get off one shot in the first quarter). The Pride outscored the Irish 6-1 in the final quarter. Notre Dame’s lone goal in the second half was scored by senior Devin Ryan (Kensington, Md.) with 31 seconds remaining in the game. In addition to Berger, Richez and Ryan, the other goal scorers included Dan Straka (Upper Arlington, Md.) and Owen Asplundh (Bryn Athyn, Pa.).
SERIES RECORD VS. DENVER – Notre Dame has won all five meetings between the two teams, including last season’s 16-6 victory at Moose Krause Stadium. The Irish are making their four visit to Colorado to play the Pioneers. The first-ever meeting between the two teams was during the 1992 campaign in Denver as the Irish defeated the Pioneers 25-4. The next time the two teams played each other, Notre Dame earned a 12-7 victory over Denver during the 1998 season in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Irish played two years ago at Denver and came away with a 12-8 victory.
SERIES RECORD VS. AIR FORCE – Tuesday’s game will be the 15th meeting between the two schools which have played each other continously since the 1988 season. The Falcons were victorious in the first-ever matchup (14-8), but since that time, have won 13 straight. Last year, Notre Dame defeated Air Force 13-2 at home, and two years ago, the Irish were 10-6 victors on the road. In the last four meetings between, Notre Dame has outscored Air Force 51-16 as the Irish have averaged 12.8 goals in those contests.
HEAD COACH KEVIN CORRIGAN – Kevin Corrigan is in his 14th season at Notre Dame and 16th in the collegiate ranks. The four-time Great Western Lacrosse League coach of the year owns a 128-77 (.624) overall ledger and an 118-62 (.656) mark with the Irish. Corrigan has guided Notre Dame to 10 NCAA tournament appearances in the last 12 years (including six straight from 1992-97) and 10 (either outright or shared) conference titles. Last season, he guided the Irish to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship national semifinals. Under Corrigan, Notre Dame has been victorious in the first round of the NCAA tournament on three occasions. In 1995, Notre Dame won its first-ever NCAA tournament game with a 12-10 victory over Duke which propelled the Irish into the quarterfinals for the first time in school history. In 2000, his squad upset fifth-seeded Loyola (Md.) in 15-13 in the first round for the school’s first-ever win over the Greyhounds. Last season, Notre Dame defeated Bucknell 12-7 in first round action and Johns Hopkins 13-9 in the quarterfinals. Previous to his tenure at Notre Dame, Corrigan served as head coach at Randolph-Macon during the 1985 and 1986 campaign where his teams compiled a 10-15 mark.
FACING THE BEST – Seven of Notre Dame’s 13 opponents this season are ranked in both the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) and Warrior/Inside Lacrosse.com rankings. Notre Dame has already played four ranked opponents – Penn State, Virginia, Loyola and Hofstra – in its first six games. Currrently two upcoming opponents – Harvard and Ohio – are both ranked in this week’s polls. 2002 Irish opponents in the polls this week are: USILA Warrior/Inside Lacrosse.com Virginia 2nd 2nd Loyola 4th 3rd Hofstra T12th 13th Pennsylvania 15th 16th Ohio State 17th 15th Penn State 18th 17th Harvard 19th 20th
BERGER BITES – Irish sophomore Dan Berger leads the team in scorng with 11 goals and three assists (14 points) and has started all six games for Notre Dame at attack. Last season, he played in just six games as a freshman and scored one goal. He has had three multiple-goal games this season, including a personal best four in 7-6 loss at Pennsylvania on March 2. Berger has scored at least one goal in each of the Irish’s six games.
SIMON SAYS – Junior Eric Simon (Flemington, N.J.) has been a mainstay for the Irish on defense this season. In addition to help anchoring a defense which has allowed 8.47 goals per game. Simon has started all six games and is second on the team with 24 ground balls. In his first two seasons, he had played in 19 career games and collected 12 ground balls.
RYAN STEPPING UP – Senior Devin Ryan has proven to be one of the team’s top offensive threats this season. The Irish captain has scored nine goals and dished off two assists (11 points) while starting all six contests. Ryan has had two hat tricks this season (Penn State and Loyola) and has recorded a goal in four of six contests. He had two goals in Notre Dame’s 11-6 win over Rutgers.
CLOSE CALLS – Notre Dame’s first losses this season have been by a combined five goals. Two of the five setback have been decided in overtime. The Irish’s 7-6 loss to Loyola marked the first-ever double overtime game in the program’s 21-year history. Notre Dame has played two overtime contests in a single season on three other occasions – 1981, 1994 and 1996.
FRESHMEN IN THE FOLD – Irish freshmen attack Brian Giordano and midfielder Matt Malakoff (Bay Shore, N.Y.) have each been in the starting lineup in five and four games, respectively. Giordano has contributed four goals and two assists, while Malakoff has scored two goals. Malakoff netted a goal in the Penn State and Rutgers games, while Giordano scored two goals in both the Rutgers and Virginia contests. In addition, he had two assists in the win over the Scarlet Knights.
BETWEEN THE PIPES – Junior Nick Antol has started the last four games for the Irish in goal. He made his first career start against Rutgers and was also Notre Dame’s starting goalkeeper against No. 4 Virginia and No. 3 Loyola. He had 10-plus saves in two of those games – Virginia (17) and Hofstra (11). had a career-high 17 saves against the Cavaliers and registered nine saves versus the Greyhounds. In addition, he had eight saves versus Rutgers and nine against Loyola. Antol has a goals against average of 8.04 and a save percentage of .560.
HOME SWEET HOME – Notre Dame was undefeated at home last season and finished with a 6-0 mark. This season, the Irish have struggled and are just 1-3 at home this season. The three losses are the most suffered by a Notre Dame team at home since the 1996 season when it finished with a 2-3 mark. Since back-to-back 5-0 campaigns at home in 1994 and 1995, Irish teams own a 38-11 record for a winning percentage of 77.6 percent. Notre Dame has an all-time 91-30 (75.2 percent) home record since the program’s inaugural season in 1981. Since the ’94 campaign, Notre Dame has been undefeated at home four times.
LOOKS FAMILIAR – Notre Dame’s 2002 schedule will feature the same 13 opponents it did a year ago. The Irish finished with a 12-1 record during the regular season, its only blemish was an 11-10 overtime loss to Hofstra.
ALL IN THE FAMILY – Craig Bishko (West Islip, N.Y.), a freshman midfield on this year’s Irish lacrosse team, is the brother of former Notre Dame standout Steve Bishko, a 2001 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) third-team All-America selection and three-year starter. The Bishkos are the fourth brother tandem to play lacrosse at Notre Dame. The others are Todd (1992-96) and Joe Bialous, Jason (1992-94, ’95) and Connor (’98) Pett and David (1998-2001) and Todd (1998-2001) Ulrich.
ALL IN THE FAMILY II – Notre Dame’s men’s and women’s lacrosse teams are represented by members of both the Simon and Shearer families. Junior defenseman Eric Simon’s sister, Meredith, is a sophomore on the women’s lacrosse team, while freshman midfield Will Shearer’s (Hampstead, Md.) sister, Danielle, also plays for head coach Tracy Coyne’s squad.