Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse: “Time to Be Great” is Upon Us

I am going to start this read by apologizing my for lack of articles of late. As we all know, sometimes life gets busy and that has been the case for me, so my articles have suffered. I have missed write-ups after the UNC win, the Duke win, the Syracuse win and the UVA loss.

During that time, we have seen a lot of different things happen which I wish I could have written about at the time. But there is no moment like the present so let’s get into it… What I have missed The emergence of Thomas Ricciardelli as one of the best goalies in college lacrosse Notre Dame’s stifling defense in back-to-back wins over Duke and UNC Tyler Spano’s emergence as a legitimate weapon at the faceoff dot Beating UNC meant back-to-back wins over the #1 ranked teams in the country Teddy Lally’s hat trick against the Tarheels Matt Jeffery’s hat trick against Duke Aidan Diaz-Matos’ return to the lineup Dylan Faison’s emergence across the second line Will Maheras’ complete game against Syracuse Max Busenkell’s first goals on the season which turned into a hat trick against the Orange Notre Dame’s SSDM group solidifying themselves as one of the top groups in the country Notre Dame’s third line midfield getting on the field in meaningful minutes Christian Alacqua and Will Gallagher playing like captains and not backing down from anyone Notre Dame winning the regular season ACC championship Notre Dame finishing the regular season at 10-1 and being ranked #1 in the country Thomas Ricciardelli winning goalie of the year in the ACC and Shawn Lyght being the co-defensive player of the year in the ACC Will Donovan and Matt Jeffery joining Shawn and Thomas on the All-ACC team Coach Corrigan being named the Coach of the Year in the ACC Notre Dame losing for the second time this year against UVA Josh Yago and Luke Miller leading the team in scoring Notre Dame getting the #2 seed in the NCAA tournament Let's Dance The Irish will play the winner of Jacksonville/Robert Morris on Sunday, May 10 at 12 PM at Arlotta! #GoIrish ☘️ pic.

twitter. com/8xUWJGy4wT — Notre Dame Lacrosse (@NDlacrosse) May 4, 2026 Duke making the tournament after losing four of their last five games Maryland not making the tournament for the first time in over 20 years Penn State winning the Big Ten title and getting a first round home game Richmond hosting in the first round as the #4 seed Virginia moving up to the #5 seed after a flurry of a finish Princeton winning the Ivy League and getting the #1 overall seed in the tournament The defending champs, Cornell, getting the #7 seed Yale finishing strong and getting a spot in the tournament with a matchup in the Dome Georgetown, as they do every year, winning the Big East and making the tournament ARMY winning the Patriot League and getting back to the tournament Jacksonville making the tournament for the first time in program history Shawn Lyght is a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist The last 2 defensemen in the nation to be named Tewaaraton finalists: ☘️ Matt Landis (2016) ☘️ Shawn Lyght (2026) #GoIrish pic. twitter.

com/r9DahbWHuz — Notre Dame Lacrosse (@NDlacrosse) May 6, 2026 What I haven’t missed is the “Exit 77” podcast so hopefully a lot of you have been listening to the shows with David Brogan and me. We will be recording again this week on Thursday night and by that time we will know Notre Dame’s first round opponent. The Irish will play the winner of Jacksonville versus Robert Morris and we will be playing on Sunday, May 10 th which is Mother’s Day.