College Crosse Roundup: Notre Dame, Loyola take home conference titles

We’ve crowned our first two conference champions. Both of them will more than likely make the NCAA Tournament, but one is officially in, thanks to having at least six teams.

Game Recaps

Notre Dame 17, Virginia 7: It seems like the ACC never has its top two seeds advance to the ACC Tournament/blatant RPI booster. And here we were again, with the third and fourth seeds battling out for the conference title.

Both teams played with a ton of emotion Friday night, and after the UVA win, I talked about the title game with ESPN’s Anish Shroff and he said it might come down to experience. And it certainly did.

Although Virginia got on the board first, Notre Dame had another big day on offense, scoring a season-high 17 goals, eight of them coming in the first half. After Mike D’Amario made it a 5-3 game in the second quarter, the Irish scored six straight goals and held the Cavaliers scoreless for over 15 minutes, getting goals from Mikey Wynne, Bryan Costabile, Ryder Garnsey, Pierre Byrne, and Timmy Phillips for the first time this season.

While the offense was rolling, so was the defense. All starting defensemen (Arden Cohen, Hugh Crance, and Jack Kielty), along with LSM John Sexton, each had two caused turnovers for eight altogether out of a team-total of 11. Matt Schmidt made eight saves.

D’Amario and Michael Kraus each had three goals, while Mikey Herring scored the other. Matt Moore contributed with three assists, and Kraus and Ian Laviano had a helper as well. Kraus and Dox Aitken were involved in a scary collision late in the third quarter. I don’t think either player came back in, as they both had cuts on their face:

Loyola 15, Lehigh 8: Loyola had another competitive first half for the second time in three days. Except at the end of 30 minutes, Loyola was tied with Lehigh instead of down one.

But like Friday’s win over BU, the Greyhounds dominated in the second half, outscoring the Mountain Hawks 10-3 in the second half, which included a 6-0 run to start the third en route to a 15-8 win to take home their fourth Patriot League title in five years and third straight league crown.

Jay Drapeau scored Loyola’s first three goals in the first half to keep the Hounds up to pace with the Mountain Hawks. Pat Spencer only had one assist in the first two quarters. But the Greyhounds caught fire on two separate occasions in the third quarter. They scored three goals in a span of 1:25 before scoring three more goals in a span of 1:26.

Drapeau added another goal in the second half to finish with four goals on the afternoon, while John Duffy finished with three goals and two assists. After recording one assist in the first half, Spencer added a goal and three more helpers in the second half, and Kevin Lindley scored three times as well. Jacob Stover made 12 stops in cage.

Lehigh was led by Andrew Pettit, who recorded four goals in their loss. Lehigh’s other attackmen were covered very well thanks in part to Loyola’s Foster Huggins.

All-Tournament Teams

Here’s the ACC All-Tournament team, not on the Notes app:

Bryan Costabile, M, Notre Dame (MVP)
Ryder Garnsey, A, Notre Dame
John Sexton, LSM, Notre Dame
Matt Schmidt, G, Notre Dame
Michael Kraus, A, Virginia
Matt Moore, M, Virginia
Justin Schwenk, FOGO, Virginia
Mike D’Amario, A, Virginia
Reilly Walsh, M, Duke
Brad Smith, M, Duke
Stephen Rehfuss, A, Syracuse

The ACC: Where defense is optional. Only one defensive player is on this list in John Sexton, an LSM. H/t to Frank Crance with the notice. His name sounds familiar because one of his sons, Hugh, did this today:

Here’s the Patriot League All-Tournament team:

Pat Spencer, A, Loyola Maryland - MVP
Jacob Stover, G, Loyola Maryland
Kevin Lindley, A, Loyola Maryland
John Duffy, M, Loyola Maryland
Andrew Pettit, A, Lehigh
Craig Chick, D, Lehigh
Lucas Spence, G, Lehigh
Jack Ray, A, Navy
DJ Plumer, SSDM, Navy
Chris Gray, A, Boston University
James Burr, A, Boston University

Good news, we have a close defenseman! There should be more however!

If you have an all-tournament team with six attackmen, one offensive midfielder, one d-middie, one close defenseman, and two goalies, first off that’s not a legal team as there’s 11 guys. Also, that would be a ridiculous team to win a game with because it lacks defense.

Every all-tournament team should have three attackmen, three offensive midfielders, three close defensemen, a FOGO, SSDM, and an LSM, and a goalie. We’re done here.

Three Stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️: Bryan Costabile, M, Notre Dame - Another big day for the midfielder, who recorded three goals and an assist in the win. He was also named the ACC Tournament MVP with his three and one in Friday’s win over Duke.

⭐️⭐️: Pat Spencer, A, Loyola - The Greyhounds didn’t really have an alpha on offense in their win, as Spencer and others shared similar duties. But Spencer did start Loyola’s big second half with an assist and a goal in the team’s first 3-0 burst. He had another assist in the second 3-0 burst and was also named Patriot League Tournament MVP.

⭐: Ryder Garnsey, A, Notre Dame - The junior is officially back. He helped the Irish with a huge weekend on offense, setting the season-highs for goals at 14 on Friday before breaking that mark this afternoon with 17 goals. He had three goals and two assists today.