May 18, 2016
Complete Game Notes 
| Statistics | Irish NCAA Tournament Central
— #5/#6/#5 NOTRE DAME (11-3, 3-1 ACC) at #12/#14/#9 NORTH CAROLINA (9-6, 3-1 ACC)
— Sunday, May 22, 2016 – Noon EDT
— Ohio Stadium – Columbus, Ohio
Rankings are USILA (coaches)/Inside Lacrosse (media)/Lacrosse magazine
THE STORYLINES
Notre Dame (11-3) Sunday makes its record seventh straight NCAA Championship quarterfinal appearance, playing in its 11th consecutive NCAA bracket. The Irish earned the No. 3 national seed and defeated Air Force 15-7 in their first-round assignment.
–Notre Dame and North Carolina shared the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title; North Carolina earned the top seed in the ACC Championship by virtue of its regular-season win over the Irish.
–This marks the third-highest seed received by the Irish in the NCAA bracket. Notre Dame was the top seed a year ago and a No. 2 seed in 2013.
–Notre Dame and Maryland are the only two programs to earn an NCAA berth each of the last 11 seasons.
–Notre Dame owns an 18-20 record in this, its 21st trip to the NCAA Championship.
–The Irish in 2015 were the No. 1 seed and topped Towson in the first round and Albany in the quarterfinals before falling in overtime to eventual NCAA champion Denver in the semifinals.
–This is the ninth time overall
–and eighth time in the last nine seasons
–the Irish have earned one of the eight national seeds for the NCAA Championship. The Irish also were seeded for the 2001 (5th), 2008 (6th), 2009 (7th), 2011 (4th), 2012 (4th), 2013 (2nd), 2014 (6th) and 2015 (1st) tournaments. Notre Dame advanced to NCAA Championship Weekend in 2001, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015
–and played in the title game in 2010 and 2014.
–The 18-team NCAA Championship field is comprised of 10 automatic-qualifying teams and eight at-large squads. The top eight teams in the bracket are seeded. Four ACC programs made the field and two are seeded
–Notre Dame No. 3 and Syracuse No. 8.
–Notre Dame faced four of the other seeded teams this season (posting a 3-1 mark) and six programs overall that made the NCAA field. The Fighting Irish went 4-3 against those six squads (victories over No. 1 seed Maryland, No. 6 Marquette, No. 8 Syracuse and Duke, with losses to No. 2 Denver, Duke and North Carolina). Top overall seed Maryland has not lost since its 9-4 defeat against Notre Dame on March 5.
2016 NCAA QUARTERFINAL SCHEDULE
Saturday, May 21 at Brown (Providence)
#1 Maryland (Big Ten AQ, 15-2) vs. #8 Syracuse (ACC champion, 12-4), noon EDT, ESPNU
#5 Brown (Ivy League at-large, 15-2) vs. Navy (Patriot League at-large, 11-4), 2:30 p.m. EDT, ESPNU
Sunday, May 22 at Ohio State (Columbus)
#3 Notre Dame (ACC at-large, 11-3) vs. North Carolina (ACC at-large, 9-6), noon EDT, ESPN2
#7 Loyola (Patriot League AQ, 13-3) vs. Towson (Colonial Athletic Association AQ, 16-2), 2:30 p.m. EDT, ESPN2
Numbers represent NCAA national seeds
TV
Live on ESPN2 (Eamon McAnaney, Quint Kessenich, Paul Carcaterra)
LIVE STATS
UND.com ()
2016 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE AND SCORES (11-3, 3-1 ACC)
IRISH AND THE 2016 RANKINGS
The Irish have spent nine weeks in 2016 ranked number one in at least one of the three major polls–including nine weeks atop the Nike/Lacrosse magazine poll, eight in the top spot of the Cascade/Maverik/Inside Lacrosse media poll and two in first place according to the USILA (coaches) listing.
— Notre Dame began the 2016 season rated first in both the Lacrosse magazine and Inside Lacrosse preseason polls, while the Irish were second (behind 2015 NCAA champion Denver) in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association preseason poll of coaches.
THE NORTH CAROLINA SERIES: TAKING ON THE TAR HEELS
Sunday will be the 15th meeting all-time between Notre Dame and North Carolina. The series is tied 7-7, and the Irish have won the three of the last four encounters. Notre Dame’s first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference contest came in a win in Chapel Hill in 2014.
— The most recent meeting in April was decided by two goals, the previous four meetings all were decided by a single goal, with two of those games going to overtime–and the previous two before those four were decided by two goals each.
— All 14 showdowns in the series have been decided by three goals or less.
–This qualifies as the first meeting in the NCAA Championship between the Irish and Tar Heels.
The series is tied 7-7 (4-2 at Notre Dame, 2-5 at Chapel Hill, 1-0 at neutral site)
NOTRE DAME IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP
Notre Dame in 2016 is playing in the NCAA Championship for the 11th straight year and 21st time in school history. Every NCAA appearance Notre Dame has made has occurred under current Baumer Family head coach Kevin Corrigan.
— The Irish own an all-time record of 18-20 in their 21 trips to the tournament. Notre Dame finished as the NCAA runner-up in 2010 and 2014 and also advanced to the NCAA Championship semifinals in 2001, 2012 and 2015.
— The Irish earned a spot in the 2015 semifinals following a first-round victory over Towson (12-10) and a quarterfinal win over Albany (14-10).
View the Complete Game Notes