April 27, 2001
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NOTRE DAME, IND. — The No. 3 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team closes out the regular season against Harvard on Sat., Apr. 28 at 1:00 p.m. on Moose Krause Stadium. The Irish head into its home finale with an 11-1 record and will be looking for their school-record 12th win of the year.
Notre Dame picked up a pair of wins against Great Western Lacrosse League foes last week as the Irish beat Butler (12-3) and Fairfield (12-5). The Irish clinched their third consecutive GWLL title, and seventh title in the last eight years, with their victory over the Stags.
Coach Kevin Corrigan’s squad is off to its best start in school history having won 11 of its first 12 contests. The 11 wins equal the school set by the 1993 squad which finished that campaign with an 11-3 record. This is the second consecutive season Notre Dame has posted 10-plus wins in a given season after last year’s team finished with a 10-4 campaign. Overall, it is the sixth 10-plus win season in the program’s history.
A win against the Crimson also mark the longest win streaks since the 1993 and 1994 campaigns. Last season, Notre Dame fashioned a seven-game win streak before losing in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, 15-11. The school record for consecutive wins is nine set in 1992.
The Irish have beaten four ranked opponents (all on the road) thus far in 2001 — Penn State, Rutgers, Virginia and Loyola. Six of Notre Dame’s opponents this season currently are ranked in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Poll this week.
Corrigan’s squad is 5-0 at home and 6-1 on the road this season. A win at home would mark the fourth time a Notre Dame team has gone without a loss in home games.
RECAP OF BUTLER GAME — Notre Dame held the Bulldogs scoreless in the final 35:50 of the contest. Senior attack David Ulrich (Baltimore, Md.) scored three goals and dished off five assists in become the school’s career assist leader breaking the mark of 100 held by Randy Colley. Ulrich set the record at the 11:59 mark of the fourth quarter as he assisted on the second of Jon Harvey’s (Winchester, Mass.) three goals. Ulrich tied the mark on Notre Dame’s previous goal with 3:31 remaining in the third quarter when he fed twin brother Todd. David Ulrich also had the assist on Harvey’s third goal of the game which came with 7:20 left in the contest and the Irish down a man following a one-minute penalty.
In addition to Harvey and David Ulrich scoring three goals, junior Devin Ryan (Kensington, Md.) tallied three goals. John Flandina (West Islip, N.Y.), Tom Glatzel (Ellicott City, Md.) and Todd Ulrich rounded out the scoring with one goal each with Flandina and Glatzel also dishing off an assist.
Notre Dame jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the contest on scores by Ryan and David Ulrich. The Bulldogs knotted the game on back-to-back scores before the Irish took a 3-2 lead on Glatzel’s goal with 6:28 remaining in the second quarter. Butler tied the game for the final time with 5:30 remaining, but 25 seconds following that score, Harvey tallied his first score of the game — the first of nine unanswered goals.
Goalie Kirk Howell (Nashville, Tenn.) finished with 13 saves.
RECAP OF FAIRFIELD GAME — John Flandina scored three goals to lead the Irish to their 11th win of the season and clinched their consecutive GWLL crown. Jon Harvey, Steve Bishko and Chris Young (Manlius, N.Y.) scored two goals, while David Ulrich (Baltimore, Md.) finished with a goal and four assists.
Fairfield controlled the tempo of the game early on and scored the first goal of the game. The Irish, however, countered quickly with give unaswered goals with Flandina, Steve Bishko, Chris Young and Devin Ryan each tallying a goal.
The Stags pulled to within 5-2 midway through the second quarter, but Notre Dame tallied two goals before the half for a 7-2 halftime advantage. The Irish increased their lead to 9-2 on scores by Bishko and Todd Ulrich before trading goals with the Stags for final 22 minutes of the game.
Kirk Howell made 13 stops and helped the Irish hold their fifth opponent to five goals and less.
Notre Dame finished with a 6-1 road record, its second best road mark during the regular season.
HEAD COACH KEVIN CORRIGAN — Kevin Corrigan is in his 13th season at Notre Dame and 15th in the collegiate ranks. The three-time Great Western Lacrosse League coach of the year earned his 100th career win during the ’99 season in Notre Dame’s 10-8 victory over Hobart on March 27 and notched his 100th win as the Irish head coach in 2000 with his team’s 10-5 victory at Army. He owns a 125-75 (.625) overall ledger and an 115-60 (.657) mark with the Irish. Corrigan has guided Notre Dame to nine NCAA tournament appearances in the last 11 years and 10 (either outright or shared) conference titles. Prior to 1998, he had led the Irish to six straight tournament berths from 1992-97. Under Corrigan, Notre Dame has been victorious in the first round of the NCAA tournament on two 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. Last season, his squad upset fifth-seeded Loyola (Md.) in 15-13 in the first round for the school’s first-ever win over the Greyhounds. Previous to his tenure at Notre Dame, he served as head coach at Randolph-Macon during the 1985 and 1986 campaign where his teams compiled a 10-15 mark. Notre Dame’s game against Fairfield marked the 200th in Corrigan’s coaching career.
SERIES RECORD VS. HARVARD — Notre Dame leads the series 5-2 and has won five of the last six meetings. The last two meetings have been decided by a single goal with the Irish coming away victorious on both occasions. Notre Dame earned an 11-10 victory last year at Harvard and a 9-8 victory two years ago in 1999 at Moose Krause Stadium. The last loss for the Irish against the Crimson was in Cambridge, Mass., 9-6, in 1998. Harvard is winless in the three games they have played at Notre Dame.
THE POLLS ARE IN — Notre Dame has played as a top 10 team in all but one game this season. The Irish are ranked third in the USILA/STX poll and fourth in both the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse.com poll and Brine/360 Lacrosse.com rankings. Coach Kevin Corrigan’s squad earned its highest ranking in school history the week of March 19 when the Irish climbed to second for one week before losing to Hofstra on March 24. Previous to that poll, the highest ranking for a Notre Dame team had been sixth — in both March of 2001 and April of 1996.
ULRICH, GLATZEL FINALISTS FOR TEWAARATON TROPHY — Senior attackmen David Ulrich and Tom Glatzel are among the finalists for the inaugural Tewaaraton Trophy to be presented by the University Club of Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the Tewaaraton Award Foundation. The award will be presented annually to the top male and female lacrosse players in the United State. The first-ever honorees will be awarded the trophy on June 7, 2001. Ulrich was among the 15 players named at the start of the season, but Glatzel’s play this season has earned him a spot on the list of nominees.
IRISH POST BACK-TO-BACK 10-WIN SEASONS — Notre Dame’s 11 wins this season marks the second straight year the Irish have recorded 10-plus wins in a campaign. In 21 seasons of lacrosse, Notre Dame teams have won 10 or more games on six occasions. The first 10-win season was in 1988 as that Irish squad finished with a 10-4 record. From 1992-1994, Notre Dame teams posted records of 10-5, 11-3 and 10-2, respectively. The Irish finished 10-4 last season, which was their first 10-win season since the 1994 campaign.
DAVID ULRICH TABBED GWLL PLAYER OF THE WEEK — David Ulrich became the third different Irish player to earn Great Western Lacrosse League player-of-the-week honors after scoring four goals and nine assists. Notre Dame’s other GWLL honorees this season have been Tom Glatzel, who was a two-time winner, and Kirk Howell.
IN HIGH GEAR — Notre Dame’s offense has been in high gear of late outscoring its opponents 83-33 in the last six games. Overall, the Irish have tallied 143 goals in 12 game, 64 more than their opponents who have scored 79 on the season. As team, Notre Dame ranks 10th in scoring offense, and has averaged 13.50 goals per game in its last four outings. The 17 goals scored by the Irish against Army marked a season high.
STINGY DEFENSE — Notre Dame’s defense has been nothing short of spectacular this season as the Irish are third nationally in scoring defense allowing just 6.70 goals per game. Only two opponents (Hofstra and Army) have scored more than 10 goals against the Irish. The Pride tallied 11 in their 11-10 overtime win, while the Cadets put up 13 on the scoreboard, the most given up by the Irish since last season’s 15-13 loss to Johns Hopkins in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Irish have held three opponents — Rutgers, Ohio State, Air Force, Butler and Fairfield — to under five and under goals in their wins. Notre Dame’s 11 opponents have scored just 79 goals this season, the goals allowed by Notre Dame in 12 games. In 1984, Notre Dame allowed 88 goals (7.33) in 12 games.
ROAD TESTED — Notre Dame finished the regular season with a 6-1 road mark as the Irish openedthe 2001 campaign by playing six of its first seven games on the road. The last Notre Dame team to finish with six road wins in a season was the 1996 squad which won all six of its games on the home field of its opponent. That season, the Irish also notched a neutral site victory against Maryland-Baltimore County and lost to Johns Hopkins in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Annapolis, Md. to finish with 7-1 road mark overall.
HOME SWEET HOME — Notre Dame has an impressive .767 winning percentage at home since 1981 in the program’s inaugural season as a varsity sport as the Irish teams have compiled an 89-27 record. Head coach Kevin Corrigan’s squad lost two games at home in 2000 in posting a 4-2 mark. During the past seven-plus seasons, the Irish have compiled a 36-7 (.837) mark and have had three undefeated season — 1994 (5-0), 1995 (5-0) and 1997 (6-0). A win against Harvard would give Notre Dame its fourth undefeated season at home.
LEAVING HIS MARK — For the fourth straight year, senior attack David Ulrich is leading the team leader in assists with 26 this season. The Baltimore, Md. native became Notre Dame’s career assist leader on Apr. 18 and has 107 in 52 career contests. Ulrich has 107 career assists for an average of 26.8 assists per season. Randy Colley (1991-95), Notre Dame’s career scoring leader, topped the Irish career assist chart with 100 before his mark was eclipsed. Ulrich had 30-plus assists during both the 1999 and 2000 campaigns. Last year, he tied the Irish single-season mark when he dished off 32 assists during the season. Ulrich’s 173 career points places him third on the all-time career scoring list.
MOVING UP THE RANKS — The numbers registered by Tom Glatzel have been staggering as the Irish senior has scored 29 goals and dished off 14 assists through the first 10 games of the season. He is averaging 2.90 goals per game and 4.30 points per game. Most impressive, are his numbers over the past two-plus seasons. As a freshman, he scored just two goals and dished off an assist, but since that season, he has scored 93 goals and dished off 47 assists in 38 games. Glatzel has career totals of 95 goals and 48 assists for 143 points, which places him in a tie for sixth on the all-time scoring list.
IRISH IN THE NATIONAL STATISTICS — Two Irish players –Tom Glatzel (7th in points per game and 13th in goals per game) and Kirk Howell (5th in goals against average and 16th in save percentage) — are ranked among the national leaders. As a team, Notre Dame is tied for third in winning percentage, fourth in scoring defense, sixth in scoring margin, 13th in man-down defense and 14th in scoring offense and man-up offense.
MAKING THE GRADE — Junior Owen Asplundh (Bryn Athyn, Pa.) was honored and recognized at the recent Academic Excellence Awards Dinner by Notre Dame’s Office of Academic Services for Student-Athlete as the men’s lacrosse player with the highest cumulative grade point. Asplundh, who is enrolled in the College of Arts and Letters and is majoring in English and African-American Studies, owns a grade index of 3.457 following five semesters. As a team, the men’s lacrosse team earned a 3.193 grade point average in the fall semester, which ranked as its best cumulative total ever.