Feb. 13, 2015
GEORGETOWN (0-0)
vs.
#2 NOTRE DAME (0-0)
Saturday, February 14, 2015 – Noon (ET)
Loftus Sports Center – Notre Dame, Ind.
TV/INTERNET
None
LIVE STATS
SETTING THE STAGE
– No. 2 Notre Dame will open its 2015 campaign Saturday versus Georgetown. Faceoff is slated for noon (ET) inside the Loftus Sports Center on the University of Notre Dame campus.
– Since the game was moved indoors, there will be no video or audio broadcast. Live stats will be available via Gametracker on UND.com.
FIGHTING IRISH SUPER IN SEASON OPENERS
– Notre Dame is 27-7 all-time in season openers, including a 21-5 record in the Kevin Corrigan era.
– The Irish have won a program-record 12 straight season openers.
– Notre Dame opened last season with a 19-7 win at Jacksonville.
– The Irish last dropped a season opener in 2002, a 10-9 overtime setback at home against Penn State.
FANTASTIC FEBRUARYS FOR THE FIGHTING IRISH
– Notre Dame is 18-2 in its last 20 games played in February. Fighting Irish head coach Kevin Corrigan is 23-5 in the month of February during his Notre Dame tenure.
THE GEORGETOWN SERIES
– Saturday will be the 14th meeting all-time between Notre Dame and Georgetown. The Hoyas hold a 7-6 edge in the series, but the Irish have won the last three showdowns.
– The two programs last met in 2013 and the Irish came away with a 10-8 victory at Arlotta Stadium.
– Notre Dame and Georgetown were together in the BIG EAST Conference from 2010-13. The Irish were 3-1 against the Hoyas during their time in the league. Those four meetings were decided by a combined eight goals.
– Notre Dame boasts a 3-1 home record versus Georgetown.
IN THE POLLS
– Notre Dame is No. 2 in the Inside Lacrosse, Lacrosse Magazine and United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) preseason polls.
– The Fighting Irish will face the other four top-five teams from the Inside Lacrosse poll. Denver is No. 1, while ACC foes Duke, Syracuse and North Carolina are ranked third through fifth, respectively. Virginia appears at No. 9.
– Notre Dame is No. 1 in ESPN analyst Quint Kessenich’s ranking.
FIGHTING IRISH HAVE FIVE PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS
– Five Notre Dame players garnered preseason All-America honors from Inside Lacrosse. Junior attackman Matt Kavanagh was selected to the first team, while sophomore midfielder Sergio Perkovic was placed on the second team. Junior defenseman Matt Landis earned a third-team citation and Garrett Epple (So./D) and Jack Near (Sr./M) both were honorable-mention picks.
ACC ACCOLADES
– Reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champion Notre Dame has been selected as the preseason favorite in the 2015 ACC Men’s Lacrosse Preseason Poll.
– The Fighting Irish received 23 points in balloting among the ACC’s five head coaches. Syracuse followed with 22 points and was selected second. North Carolina (13), back-to-back NCAA champion Duke (10) and Virginia (7) were selected fourth and fifth, respectively.
– All five ACC teams are ranked in the top 10 in Inside Lacrosse’s Face-Off Yearbook Top 20 poll. Notre Dame led the way at No. 2 followed by Duke (No. 3), Syracuse (No. 4), North Carolina (No. 6) and Virginia (No. 10).
– Notre Dame junior attackman Matt Kavanagh was selected to the Preseason All-ACC Team. Kavanagh tallied 42 goals and 33 assists last season en route to second-team All-America honors. He also appeared on the All-ACC Team and was named the MVP of the ACC Championship.
IRISH BOAST A LOFTY RECORD IN LOFTUS
– Since the beginning of the 2000 season, Notre Dame is 17-3 in games played inside the Loftus Sports Center. The Fighting Irish have won 12 straight contests played in the facility. Notre Dame topped Virginia, 18-9, in the only game to take place inside the Loftus Sports Center last season.
VETERAN TRIO TO CAPTAIN THE IRISH
– Seniors Jim Marlatt, Conor Doyle and Jack Near have been named team captains for the 2015 campaign. Marlatt, a fifth-year senior, is a two-time team captain, while Doyle and Near are in their first year in the leadership position.
IRISH OFFENSE RETURNS
– Notre Dame returns 76.5 percent of its goal production (163 of 213) from last season’s team that finished 13th nationally in scoring (11.8 goals per game).
– The Fighting Irish bring back 85.3 percent of their assists (93 of 109) and 79.5 percent of their points (256 of 322).
– Notre Dame scored a school-record 213 goals last season.
– Eight of Notre Dame’s top-nine goal scorers from 2014 are back this season.
KAVANAGH A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR
– Junior attackman Matt Kavanagh produced Fighting Irish records for points (75) and assists (33) last season.
– His 42 goals were the most for a Notre Dame player since Randy Colley netted a school-record 49 goals in 1995.
– Kavanagh was the first Notre Dame player to register 30 goals and 30 assists in a season.
– Kavanagh produced 12 multiple-goal games last season (eight hat tricks). He has 23 multiple-goal games during his career (12 hat tricks).
– Kavanagh matched a school record with seven goals in the win at Ohio State on March 25. The seven tallies tied the program standard held by Colley (1993 vs. New Hampshire) and Ryan Hoff (2007 vs. Drexel).
KAVANAGH IS CLUTCH
– Matt Kavanagh has three overtime game-winning goals during his career. He netted the deciding goal in last season’s triumph over Albany in the NCAA quarterfinals. During his freshman campaign, he scored in overtime against Penn State and North Carolina (3ot).
CONSISTENCY FROM Conor Doyle
– Senior attackman Conor Doyle will bring a team-best 21-game point streak into the 2015 campaign. That streak ranks 17th nationally.
– Doyle has produced 56 points (36 g, 20 a) during the streak.
DYNAMIC DUO
– Last season, Matt Kavanagh (42) and Conor Doyle (31) were the first pair of Irish teammates to score 30 goals in a single season since 2001 when Tom Glatzel (40) and John Harvey (30) accomplished that feat.
THREE IRISH PLAYERS PICKED IN MLL DRAFT
– Three Notre Dame seniors – Jack Near (M), Conor Doyle (A) and Nick Ossello (M) – were selected in the 2015 Major League Lacrosse (MLL) Collegiate Draft.
– The Rochester Rattlers picked Near in the first round with the seventh overall selection. Doyle went to the Chesapeake Bayhawks in the sixth round (43rd overall), while the Denver Outlaws picked Ossello in the eighth round (60th overall).
A LOOK AT LAST SEASON
– The Fighting Irish finished the 2014 campaign with a 12-6 record after appearing in the NCAA Championship for the ninth straight season. Notre Dame advanced to Championship Weekend for the third time in the last five seasons and for the fourth time overall in program history. Notre Dame fell to Duke, 11-9, in the national title game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
– Notre Dame won the ACC Championship with wins over Maryland (6-5) and Syracuse (15-14) at PPL Park in Chester, Pa.
POSTSEASON SUCCESS
– Notre Dame and Duke are the only two schools to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship in each of the last five campaigns.
– Notre Dame and Maryland are the only two programs to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship field in each of the last nine seasons.
– The Fighting Irish are 10-5 in the NCAA tournament over the last five seasons.