No. 11 UVA Meets No. 16 Notre Dame Sunday for ACC Title

April 28, 2018

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.-The Virginia (11-4, 1-3 ACC) men’s lacrosse team, which is the No. 4 seed in the 2018 ACC Championship, will host the No. 3 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-5, 1-3 ACC) in the fina round on Suday at Klöckner Stadium. Faceoff is set for noon.

This week Virginia is ranked No. 11 in the USILA coaches poll and No. 13 in the Inside Lacrosse/Maverik media poll. Notre Dame is ranked No. 16 in the coaches poll and No. 18 in the media poll.

Sunday is an active day on Grounds with the ACC Men’s Lacrosse Championship, baseball and the Casting Crowns concert at John Paul Jones Arena. Please click here to view the parking map for Sunday.

There is a new “Clear Bag” policy in place at Klöckner Stadium. Please click here to view Klöckner Stadium FAQs regarding bag and entry policies.

Sunday’s game is also part of Wahoowa Weekend, which features several home athletics events on Grounds over the weekend.

Live stats of Friday’s game will be available at VirginiaSports.com. The contest will be broadcast live on ESPNU. Anish Shroff will bring the play-by-play, Quint Kessenich will provide the analysis, while Paul Carcaterra will add analysis from the sideline. There will be a live radio broadcast in the Charlottesville area on WINA 1070 AM and 98.9 FM. Luke Neer will bring the play-by-play and Doug Tarring will provide the analysis.

Virginia is 21-19 all-time in the ACC Tournament since the inception of the event in 1989 and 6-9 all-time in the final round. UVA and Notre Dame are meeting in the ACC Tournament for the first time.UVA is playing Sunday for its 18th all-time ACC championship, seventh since going to the tournament format in 1989.

Sunday marks the 13th all-time meeting between the Cavaliers and Fighting Irish, and the first in the ACC Championship after Notre Dame officially joined the conference July 1, 2013. Notre Dame leads the all-time series narrowly, 7-5, but the Cavaliers have dropped the last six meetings. The first six games in the series were played in Charlottesville before the 2012 meeting in Chester, Pa., followed by UVA’s first-ever trip to Notre Dame in 2014. Four of the meetings, including the 2012 contest in Chester, Pa., have been in the NCAA Tournament.

Michael Kraus leads Virginia with 40 goals, 36 assists and 76 points. Dox Aitken is No. 2 on the team with 34 goals and 46 points. Ian Laviano has 32 goals and Mike D’Amario rounds out the top goal scorers with 24 tallies. Justin Schwenk is No. 1 in the ACC and No. 16 in the nation with a 60.2 percent winning percentage at the faceoff X, while also leading the ACC with 88 ground balls. The Cavaliers have been using two goalies this season. Griffin Thompson is saving 47.6 percent of shots and posting a 10.74 goals against average. Alex Rode is saving 51.1 percent of shots and posting an 11.28 goals against average.

Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan, a UVA alum, is in his 30th season with the Fighting Irish after spending two seasons as an assistant coach for the Cavaliers under former head coaching legend Jim Adams. Corrigan has led Notre Dame to 22 NCAA Tournaments while in South Bend and four Championship Weekends. Bryan Costabile leads Notre Dame with 24 goals and is tied for No. 2 on the team with 27 points. Ryder Garnsey is second on the team with 21 goals and leads the team with 31 points. Brendan Gleason has a team-high 12 assists and tied with Costabile with 27 points. Matt Schmidt is saving 47.3 percent of shots he is seeing in the goal, while posting an 8.77 goals against average.

Tickets for the ACC Tournament can be purchased online at VirginiaSports.com, by phone at (800) 542-8821 or in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Single-game reserved seats for the ACC Tournament are on sale for $15. Single-game general admission adult tickets for the ACC Tournament are $10, while youth (18 and under) tickets are $5 each.