May 16, 2017
By Robby Hamman
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Three past and present University of Notre Dame men’s lacrosse players were selected by US Lacrosse to try out for the 2018 U.S. Men’s National Team. Senior midfielder Sergio Perkovic and former standouts attackman Matt Kavanagh ’16 and defenseman Matt Landis ’16 each received invites. The three players have a combined eight All-America honors, which will likely increase to nine following the 2017 season.
Perkovic was one of two current collegiate players that was selected, joining Denver’s Trevor Baptiste. The two players will meet on Saturday in the NCAA quarterfinals in Hempstead, New York. The game is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPNU.
The three Irish selections are part of a group of 59 players that have been selected for the tryout. The first round of tryouts will be held July 9-11 at the new U.S. national teams training center at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md.
Following the initial round of tryouts, U.S. head coach John Danowski and his staff will follow up with additional tryouts and training weekends at US Lacrosse on the weekends of Sept. 1-4 and Oct. 6-9.
Twenty of the players in the tryout pool have previously played for a U.S. team in Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship competition – either at the senior, U19 or indoor championships.
Perkovic (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan) has started 57 games during his career at Notre Dame. Earlier this season the senior became the seventh player in program history to reach the 100-goal milestone. Perkovic currently has 110 goals in his career, which represent the most ever by a Notre Dame midfielder. Perkovic turned in the greatest goal-scoring performance of his illustrious career in an 11-10 win over Marquette on April 11, as he scored a career-high six goals to will the Irish to victory. Perkovic is also a Senior CLASS Award finalist and is on the Tewaaraton Award Watch List. The senior is a three-time ACC All-Academic recipient. Perkovic also served on the NCAA Competition Oversight Committee as the lone student representative in 2015-16.
As a senior in 2016 Landis became the eighth player to ever win the USILA William C. Schmeisser Award in consecutive years as the top defensive player nationally. Landis was also a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year and anchored a Notre Dame defense that ranked seventh nationally in scoring defense (8.0 goals allowed) and seventh in caused turnovers (8.47 per game) during the 2016 season. Landis was one of five finalists for the 2016 Tewaaraton Award (presented by Under Armour) as the top individual player in the nation. Landis was the third overall pick in the 2016 Major League Lacrosse Draft by Florida and now plays for Boston.
Kavanagh was the first player in Notre Dame program history to earn All-America honors in all four years with the Irish. The attackman led the 2016 Irish in scoring with 50 points and a team-leading 29 assists. The three-time all-ACC pick stands second on the Notre Dame career scoring list with 225 points (122 goals and 103 assists, both totals ranking third on Notre Dame’s career charts). Kavanagh registered at least three points in 10 of the 14 contests in which he played in 2016. A Tewaaraton Award finalist in 2015, he notched at least six points 13 times during his career. Kavanagh was the fifth overall pick in the 2016 MLL Draft by Denver and helped the team win the MLL title in his first year with the team.
The U.S. is coming off of a silver medal finish at the 2014 FIL World Championship in Denver. The FIL recently announced that the 2018 world championship was moving from England to Israel with exact dates and location to be announced later this month.
Since 1967, the U.S. has won gold or silver medal at every men’s international world championship in field lacrosse. The U.S. won gold in 1967, 1974, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2010. The U.S. finished as the runner-up to Canada in 1978, 2006 and 2014.
— ND —
The University of Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team pursues excellence on and off the field through the three pillars in which the program is built: Character, Culture & Community. These three foundational values guide the promise of the program, which is to provide its student-athletes with the most compelling and enriching experience in all of college athletics. Through academics, competition, service and travel, the program aims to immerse its players in situations that enhance their student-athlete experience to help them become the people, students and teammates they aspire to be.
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Robby Hamman joined Fighting Irish Media as athletics communications assistant director in September 2016, coordinating efforts for the volleyball and men’s lacrosse program. Hamman is a 2010 graduate of Bethel College, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in sport management and business administration, and earned his master’s degree in business administration from Defiance College in 2013.