No. 14 Men's Lacrosse Hits The Road For Another Important Contest

April 7, 2000

NOTRE DAME, IND. — The 15th-ranked Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team (4-3, 3-0) faces an important Great Western Lacrosse League test on Saturday, April 8 when the Irish travel to Butler for a 2:00 p.m. contest.

The Irish moved over the .500 mark and snapped a two-game losing streak last Saturday (April 1) when they defeated Ohio State 13-4. The Bulldogs enter the game with an overall record of 3-5 and 1-0 mark in the GWLL.

Notre Dame owns a 6-1 advantage in the seven previous meetings. The lone Butler victory in the series was two years ago in Indianapolis, Ind., as the Bulldogs earned a 6-5 victory.

Notre Dame is ranked 13th in the STX/United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) poll and 14th in the Inside Lacrosse rankings. The Bulldogs are unranked in both polls.

RECAP OF OHIO STATE GAME – Junior Tom Glatzel (Ellicott City, Md.) scored five goals and dished off two assists, tying his career-highs for goals and points in a game, in leading the Irish to an impressive 13-4 victory over Ohio State. The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Irish.

Notre Dame had five different goal scorers in the matchup to lead the balanced attack, while six players had one or more assists in the contest. Senior Stedman Oakey (Charlottesville, Va.) had a season-high three assists in the game.

The Irish, who avenged last season’s 5-4 loss to the Buckeyes, jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the contest before Ohio State got on the scoreboard late in the second quarter. Notre Dame held a 7-1 advantage at intermission and pushed the lead to 8-1 early in the third quarter before the Buckeyes scored three unanswered goals and pulled to within 8-4 with 5:41 remaining in the quarter. The Irish responded with a five-goal run of their own to close out the game.

Notre Dame had four multiple-goal scorers in the game Steve Bishko (West Islip, N.Y.) tallied three goals in the contest, while Chris Young (Camillus, N.Y.) and Jon Harvey (Winchester, Mass.) each netted two goals, while David Ulrich (Baltimore, Md.) added a goal and two assists.

Kirk Howell (Nashville, Tenn.) picked up his fourth win of the season as he made seven saves in his sixth complete game.

HEAD COACH KEVIN CORRIGAN – Kevin Corrigan is in his 12th season at Notre Dame and 14th in the collegiate ranks. The three-time Great Western Lacrosse League coach of the year earned his 100th career win during the ’99 season in Notre Dame’s 10-8 victory over Hobart on March 27. He owns a 108-73 (.597) overall ledger and an 98-58 (.628) mark with the Irish. Corrigan has guided Notre Dame to eight NCAA tournament appearances and eight (either outright or shared) conference titles. Prior to 1998, he had led the Irish to six straight tournament berths from 1992-97. Under Corrigan in 1995, Notre Dame won its first-ever NCAA tournament game with a 12-10 victory over Duke which propelled the Irish into the quarterfinals for the first time in school history. Previous to his tenure at Notre Dame, he served as head coach at Randolph-Macon during the 1985 and 1986 campaign where his teams compiled a 10-15 mark.

SERIES RECORD VS. BUTLER – Saturday’s meeting will be the eighth between the two teams with Notre Dame leading the series 6-1. The Irish are a perfect 4-0 at home against the Bulldogs and 2-1 in games played in Indianapolis, Ind. The lone Butler win in the series was in 1998 as the Bulldogs earned a 6-5 victory.

CORRIGAN CLOSING IN ON 100 WINS WITH IRISH – Irish head coach Kevin Corrigan needs just two wins to earn his 100th win at Notre Dame. Corrigan, who is in his 12th season at Notre Dame owns 98-58 (.628) mark as head coach. He is only the second coach in the program’s history. Rich O’Leary was head coach for eight season (1981-88) and produced a 64-42 mark for a 60.4 winning percentage.

GLATZEL HAS SECOND FIVE-GOAL GAME – Tom Glatzel’s five-goal performance against Ohio State marked his second of the season and the third of his career. He previously scored five goals earlier in the campaign against Air Force in a 10-6 Irish win. The first five-goal performance of his career was against Denver in 1999.

GLATZEL FINDING THE RANGE – Junior Tom Glatzel leads the team in scoring with a team-high 16 goals and five assists (21 points). In ’99, Glatzel finished the campaign with 16 goals and eight assists after recording only two goals and dishing off one assist for three points. Since that rookie campaign he has 42 goals and 20 assists in 19 games for an average of 3.26 points per game. Glatzel also leads the team in ground balls this season with 33.

DISHING IT OUT – For the third straight campaign, junior David Ulrich leads the team in assists. He has 10 on the season and 59 for his career which ties him for sixth with Bob Trocchi (1983-85) on the all-time list.

IRISH FAVOR SECOND HALF – Notre Dame’s offensive production has been greater in the the second half this season than it has been during the first 30 minutes of the contest. Irish opponents have outscored Notre Dame 32-27 in the first two periods and 24-12 in the second quarter. That trend is reversed in the second half with Notre Dame outscoring opponents 34-20. The Irish have proved most dominant in the third quarter as they have outscored their six foes 17-9.

GROUND HOG – Kevin Higgins (Wilton, Conn.) became just the fifth player in Notre Dame history to collect 200 ground balls career ground balls this season. The senior midfielder reached that mark against Loyola. He stands fourth on the all-time career list with 208 and needs just nine to move into third place ahead of Will Sutton who finished with 216 while playing for the Irish from 1991-95. Higgins is the second on the team in ground balls this season with 29. He has been the team’s ground ball leader each of the past two season. Higgins had 83 in 1999 and 79 in 1998.

IRISH LOOK TO THE ULRICHS FOR ASSISTANCE – Twin brothers David and Todd Ulrich top the Irish in the assist column as they have combined for 15 of the team’s 30 assists. David leads the squad with 10, while Todd has five.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN – Notre Dame will be on the road the next two weekends with games at Butler (April 8) and Army (April 15). The Irish play three of their remaining five games on the road. Notre Dame returns home for games against Villanova (April 19) and Fairfield (April 22). Coach Kevin Corrigan’s squad closes out the season on the road at Harvard (April 30).

BACK-TO-BACK HOME LOSSES A RARITY – Notre Dame’s back-to-back home losses to Loyola and Hofstra earlier this season marked the first time since the 1996 campaign that an Irish team has lost two consecutive games at Moose Krause Stadium. During the 1996 campaign, Notre Dame dropped an 11-10 decision to North Carolina and then suffered an 8-5 setback to Massachusetts.

A ROOKIE CONTRIBUTION – Freshman John Souch (Watertown, N.Y.) has been the only first-year player to see action in all seven games this season. He has seen considerable minutes on Notre Dame’s defensive unit and has one assist and nine ground balls. He recorded his first career point against Ohio State last Saturday when he assisted on David Ulrich’s fourth-quarter goal in the 13-4 victory. Only two other rookies, Joe Nejman (Meadowbrook, Pa.) and Travis Wells (Severna Park, Md.), have seen action in more than one game (each has played two games).

IRISH STRONG AT HOME – In three (1994, 1995 and 1997) of the last seven years, Notre Dame finished the home portion of its season undefeated. The Irish posted 5-0 marks in both ’94 and ’95 and were 6-0 in ’97. Corrigan’s squad was 6-1 at home in ’99. Since 1984, Notre Dame has an 82-27 (.752) record at home and is 43-10 (.811) over the last eight-plus seasons in games played at Moose Krause Stadium and Loftus Sports Center (its indoor facility).

A FAMILIAR DEFENSE – While there has been a juggling of starting lineups in both the attack and midfield, the Irish defense has had a familiar starting three. Senior Steve Fiamingo (Cincinnati, Ohio), junior Mike Adams (Wilton, Conn.) and sophomore A.J. Wright (Timonium, Md.) have started all seven games, while goalie Kirk Howell has been in the starting lineup in all seven of those contests as well.

IRISH IN THE NATIONAL STATISTICS – The men’s lacrosse statistics through games of April 2 were released on April 4. Sophomore Chad DeBolt (Waterloo, N.Y.) is 19th in face-off winning percentage, while Kirk Howell is sixth in goals against average. As a team, Notre Dame is tied for sixth in scoring defense and is 19th in face-off winning percentage.

STX/UNITED STATES
INTERCOLLEGIATE LACROSSE
ASSOCIATION POLL
(Week of Apr. 3)

INSIDE LACROSSE MEDIA POLL
(Week of Apr. 3)