The men's lacrosse team beat Cornell Saturday to advance to the program's first NCAA Finals appearance. After Cornell found the net on their first shot, senior goalie Scott Rodgers made save after save to keep the Irish in the game. Rodgers went on to make a career high 16 saves against 7 goals and was the prime reason that Notre Dame was able to pull out the victory. The majority of the offense was supplied by Neal Hicks (4G) and Zac Brenneman (3G) with Sean Rodgers, Grant Krebs, Adam Felicetti, Steve Murphy, and Andrew Irving each contributing goals of their own. Senior Trevor Sipperly was also instrumental in the win, controlling 10 of 21 faceoffs. Notre Dame will play No. 5 Duke in the finals Monday at 3:30.
Drafted only two spots away from the ominous spot of "Mr. Irrelevant," former Irish safety Chinedum Ndukwe figures to keep contributing to the Bengals this season despite Cincinnati's surplus in the defensive backfield.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick recently had an interview Darin Pritchett and Eric Hansen on WSBT during which he discussed the progress of Brian Kelly, the theories behind scheduling, and factors to consider when discussing Notre Dame's independence. NBC Sports has a summary write-up for those of you that don't have the time to listen to the 20 minute interview.
College football analyst Phil Steele recently released his preseason top 25, and Notre Dame was able to crack the list at number 16. Preseason polls are very difficult to take stock in. I personally think that they throw bias into actual rankings once the season starts and that they should be done away with. However, if the Irish can get off to a good start next season, they could potentially be helped by their ranking in some of these early polls.
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