After winning two national championships in its previous three seasons, the Notre Dame men’s lacrosse has a chance at a third. The team finished the 2026 regular season 10-1 and won the ACC regular season title. They ultimately fell in the first round of the ACC tournament to the Virginia Cavaliers, heading into the NCAA tournament as a 10-2 team and the No. 2 overall seed.
Notre Dame spent most of its season ranked inside the top 5, spending many weeks as the No. 1 team in the country. The Irish did that on the back of an amazing defense, anchored by junior defenseman Shawn Lyght, a Tewaaraton Award finalist, and senior LSM Will Donovan, who led the team in caused turnovers. Both earned first-team All-America honors from USA Lacrosse, and Lyght is the first defenseman to be nominated as a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award since Notre Dame’s own Matt Landis was nominated in 2016. Senior goalkeeper Thomas Ricciardelli also had a stellar season between the pipes with 146 saves and a 56.5% save percentage that leads the ACC. The Connecticut native earned second-team All-America honors.
The Irish returned every starter from a defense that had an impressive 2025 season, and head coach Kevin Corrigan emphasized the importance of that defense for this year’s success. “Everyone is growing their own game, but they’re also growing together, and their communication, everything becomes easier and more nuanced,” he said. The defense operated incredibly well as a unit this season, only allowing 8.8 goals per game heading into the tournament, good for seventh-best in the nation.
The Notre Dame offense has also been solid this season, but in a different way than has been customary for Notre Dame lacrosse. In the past few seasons, Notre Dame has had a clear star, and it has oftentimes been someone with the last name Kavanagh. However, the graduation of Pat Kavanagh, the youngest of those brothers, ended that era for the Irish, sparking questions about how the offense would replace them this season. The dense held up, averaging 13.2 goals per game. The offense was led by sophomore Luke Miller and graduate Josh Yago, the latter an honorable mention All-American. Both of them have more than 20 goals this season. Two offensive midfielders in sophomore Matt Jeffrey and senior Will Maheras were also named honorable mention All-Americans, with Maheras collecting 15 goals and 14 assists and Jeffrey adding 15 goals and 8 assists. Addressing the versatility his offense has, Corrigan said, “That’s become a strength for us, the fact that in any given game, you could pick a handful of guys or more who could be our highest scorer for the day. That comes from a lot of guys playing good lacrosse, not one guy playing great lacrosse.”
The Irish played a tough schedule, especially toward the end of the season, with each of the team’s last six games against programs that qualified for last year’s NCAA tournament. Both losses came at the hands of Virginia, which was ranked No. 5 in the tournament. Despite their Cavalier troublers, the Irish beat five tournament teams this season in Georgetown, Richmond, North Carolina, Duke and Syracuse. The Irish picked up back-to-back wins against Richmond and North Carolina while each was ranked No. 1 in the country. Corrigan addressed this tough schedule and will help the team in the future, adding, “We think that for us to be at our best at the end of the year, we need to challenge ourselves throughout the year.”
Notre Dame started their tournament run on Sunday with a dominant 18-5 victory over Jacksonville at Arlotta Stadium. With Johns Hopkins knocking off defending national champion Cornell, it will be a blue-blood battle next week in Hempstead, N.Y., with a Final Four trip at stake. According to Corrigan, the key for success in the tournament is to “be smart and fundamentally sound and play with great energy and a kind of relentless competitiveness.“ The Irish have shown their ability to seriously contend for a national championship, and they will only need three more wins to bring the trophy back to campus.
