May 26, 2001
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PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) – Michael Springer scored a career-high six goals and defending champion Syracuse advanced to the title game of the NCAA lacrosse tournament on Saturday by defeating Notre Dame 12-5.
Brian Solliday added two goals for top-seeded Orangemen (13-2), who will face the winner of the Princeton-Towson semifinal on Monday at Rutgers. The championship game will be the third straight for Syracuse. The Orangemen will be attempting to tie Johns Hopkins’ Division I record by winning their seventh title.
Making their 19th consecutive trip to the Final Four, the Orangemen used a big second quarter to put away fifth-seeded Notre Dame (14-2). The Irish, playing in their first NCAA semifinal game, got on the board first with an unassisted goal by Chris Young at 12:07.
However, Solliday and Springer scored in an 11-second span less than three minutes later, giving Syracuse a lead it would never relinquish.
Syracuse extended the lead to 4-1 with two more goals within a 52-second span three minutes later.
John Harvey of Notre Dame converted a pass from David Ulrich with 5:23 left in the quarter to cut the lead to 4-2, but then Syracuse’s defense took over, holding the Irish without a goal for 18:38.
The Orangemen scored five times in that span to take command. Springer capped the run by intercepting a clearing pass from the goaltender and scoring into an empty net.