NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team earned the No. 6 national seed and will travel to Denver to take on Drexel in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship on Saturday, May 15.
The game is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium and it will air on ESPNU.
Notre Dame (7-3) wrapped up its regular season on May 1 with an emphatic 22-8 win over No. 9/8 Syracuse at Arlotta Stadium. The Irish finished 3-3 in the ACC, recording two wins over Syracuse and a win over then No. 1 Duke. Drexel enters the tourney with a 10-2 record in the regular season and won the CAA Championship with a 15-11 win over Hofstra.
The Irish and Dragons have played five times in program history, all coming in the regular season. Notre Dame won the last matchup, defeating Drexel in a 6-5 decision in Philadelphia in 2012.
The winner of Notre Dame’s first-round contest against Drexel will take on the winner of the first-round tilt between No. 3 seed Maryland and Vermont in the quarterfinals. Notre Dame is one of two host sites for the quarterfinal round. Two quarterfinal matchups will be played at Arlotta Stadium on Sunday, May 23.
NOTRE DAME IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Notre Dame owns a 20-24 record in 24 previous trips to the NCAA Championship.
- The 2021 season marks Notre Dame’s 15th straight appearance in the NCAA Championship.
- Notre Dame and Maryland are the only two programs to earn an NCAA berth each of the last 15 seasons.
- Notre Dame is 15-10 over the last 10 NCAA Championships, including national semifinal appearances in 2012 and 2015 and title game appearances in 2010 and 2014.
- The Irish have advanced to at least the NCAA Championship quarterfinals in nine of the last 10 seasons.
- This is the 13th time overall–and 12th time in the last 13 seasons–the Irish have earned one of the eight national seeds for the NCAA Championship.
- The Irish also were seeded for the 2001 (5th), 2008 (6th), 2009 (7th), 2011 (4th), 2012 (4th), 2013 (2nd), 2014 (6th), 2015 (1st), 2016 (3rd), 2017 (4th), 2018 (7th) and 2019 (7th) tournaments.
- Notre Dame advanced to the NCAA championship weekend in 2001, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015 and played in the title game in 2010 and 2014.
The 16-team NCAA Championship field consists of eight automatic-qualifying teams and eight at-large squads. The top eight teams in the bracket are seeded. All five ACC programs made the field and four are seeded (No. 1 UNC, No. 2 Duke, No. 4 Virginia and No. 6 Notre Dame).
The tournament’s semifinals and finals will be held May 29 and 31 at Rentschler Field in Hartford, Connecticut. For more information on the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship, including a complete bracket, log onto ncaa.com.