SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday at the hands of No. 3 Virginia by a score of 15-10 in front of a standing-room only crowd at Arlotta Stadium. The Irish move to 6-1 on the season and 0-1 in ACC play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish scored the opening goal of the game less than three minutes into the contest, as Pat Kavangh found his brother Chris, who rifled a shot into the corner to put Notre Dame on top at 1-0. However, the Cavaliers responded by scoring five straight over the final 10 minutes of the first frame to take a 5-1 lead after the first.
The two sides traded goals over the first 11 minutes of action in the second stanza, as defensive players Jose Boyer and Ben Ramsey found the back of the net for the Irish to move the score to 7-3. Notre Dame finished the half strong and managed to cut the deficit in half at 7-5 heading into halftime courtesy of scores from Pat Kavanagh and Jake Taylor in the final two minutes of the second quarter.
The Irish carried that momentum into the third quarter, leveling the game at 7-7 off goals from Chris Kavanagh and Pat Kavanagh, firing up the Notre Dame faithful.
Once again the visitors fired back, as Virginia went on a 4-0 run of its own over a five-minute stretch to retake control of the game at 11-7. Both sides added two goals at the end of the third quarter to move the game to 13-9 heading into the fourth.
The Cavaliers managed to score the first two goals of the fourth frame to put the game out of reach before Taylor scored his second of the day to make the final score 15-10.
NOTRE DAME NOTES
- With two assists on the day, Pat Kavanagh has 109 career assists, passing Pat Walsh (108) for second place in program history and is just two shy of breaking the program record held by David Ulrich.
- Pat Kavanagh finished with four points, giving him 182 in his career. That total moves him into fifth place in program history, passing David Ulrich (180).
- Entenmann recorded 11 saves, marking his fifth straight game with double-digit saves.
- Taylor now has four goals over his last two games after coming back from injury.
- Jose Boyer had a big game, scoring his second career goal and recording a career-high seven ground balls.
UP NEXT
The Irish are back on the road with an ACC road tilt at Syracuse at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 1 in the JMA Dome. The game will air on ACCN.
— ND —