CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish fell in a hard-fought affair to No. 3 Virginia at Klockner Stadium on Sunday afternoon by a final score of 12-8, suffering just their second defeat of the season.
The Irish were led offensively by Jake Taylor, who scored two goals. Pat Kavanagh added a goal and two assists. Kavanagh became the third player in program history to reach the 200-point milestone and also tied his own program record for assists in a season with 39. The senior now has 202 career points.
Senior Liam Entenmann made 12 saves in goal, marking his ninth straight double-digit save performance. The Irish defense caused nine turnovers on the afternoon, led by Chris Fake, who caused two turnovers.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The two goalies dominated the opening 15 minutes of play, each making five saves while allowing just one goal. The Cavaliers scored on their opening possession to go up 1-0 and the Irish leveled it in the final minute of the first frame off a goal from Brian Tevlin to make it 1-1 after the first quarter.
The two teams traded goals in the second quarter, moving the score to 4-4 heading into the halftime break. Taylor scored twice and Jack Simmons found the back of the net for the Irish in the second stanza.
Notre Dame scored two of the first three goals of the third quarter, going up 5-4 and then 6-5 off goals from Ben Ramsey and Pat Kavanagh, respectively. However, the Cavaliers answered with a 4-0 run to go on top 9-6 at the end of the third.
The Irish immediately trimmed the lead to two at the beginning of the fourth quarter, as Colin Hagstrom won the faceoff and went down and scored to make the score 9-7. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, that is as close as it would get. The hosts scored three of the final four goals to come away with a 12-8 win.
UP NEXT
The Irish wrap up the regular season with an ACC clash in Chapel Hill against the Tar Heels at noon ET on Saturday, May 6. The game will air on ACCN.
— ND —