#7/#10 Notre Dame Lacrosse takes on Marquette this afternoon at 4:00 pm at Arlotta Stadium, ESPN3.

We identified this game as the classic trap game in our preseason article.  The Irish don’t play many midweek games, and it is always a struggled to prepare on such a short turnaround. Marquette (6-3) has been hovering around the top-20 all season and sits at #22 in the RPI.  Gone from the 2016 version that took the Irish to OT are star defensemen Liam Byrnes and B.J. Grill.  However, they return excellent scorers in Ryan McNamara, Tanner Thomson and Andy DeMichiei, a very good faceoff man in Zach Mellilo (.571), and a good goalie, Cole Blazer (7.61 gaa .586%).  It is a team that gave the Irish fits last year.

We will label this a must-win for the Irish.  If they lose, they are at serious risk for not being eligible for the NCAA tournament.  The Irish have already qualified for the ACC tournament, but need this win to guarantee eligibility for the NCAA, as  the remainder of the scheduled is UNC, the ACC tournament, and top-5 Army, none of which being clear wins.  Even with the loss to Duke, the Irish are #2 in the RPI and only a few thousandths from #1, oddly enough, and still #1 in total efficiency.  Taking it to the Golden Eagles should get them a seat at the #BigBBQ regardless of what happens the remainder of the year.

It’s a short week for us, too, so we’ll just have two pregame questions:

  1. Extra-man defense must improve:   Man-down defense has been hot garbage, worst in the NCAA, only mitigated by the fact that the Irish are very disciplined and commit very few penalties.  Progress in this department is critical.
  2. Extra-man offense must improve:   EMO is only slightly better than man-down, and this unit was plain bad against Duke.  The Irish don’t need to be great, but they absolutely need to be pretty decent.  They have become a team that is less efficient at man-up than they are even-strength.  This is crazy.  As a team that is challenged gaining possessions, they cannot afford to squander prime goal-scoring opportunities.  This is especially true as Garnsey and Wynne draw so many penalties with most defensive strategies involving beating down these to prolific goal scorers.

This is a critical time for the Irish, very similar to 2016.  In 2016, the team started hot, stagnated at this same point in the season, and then struggled to consistently keep their mojo.  This squad must not fall into the same pattern.

The Golden Eagles are very good, but not as good as they were last year.  The Irish on paper are clearly the better team and must find a way to dominate Marquette to get back in a groove.

A final note regarding the feeling of panic.  We think it is important to consider that this game is a must-win not because they team is underachieving or because they are flawed, but rather because the short schedule created this pressure.  The Irish remain a hair from #1 in the RPI and remain #1 in the metrics.  There is a reason for this.  A lot of time is spent grieving over this team’s flaws, and there is a reason to grumble.  However, in 2017 EVERY team has glaring deficiencies.  Notre Dame, fortunately, has fewer than anyone else.  There are no dominant teams and there is a lot of parity at the top.  A group of 3-4 top teams has grown to about 7-8 top teams, but none has become so dominant that any loss comes as a surprise.  No #1 team has survived a whole week at the top.  That should illustrate how this season is going.

Go Irish!