Irish to make second quarterfinal appearance
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Sports Writer
The Irish have been here before but this time everything is different.
The Notre Dame men's lacrosse team makes its second straight quarterfinals appearance Sunday when it takes on John Hopkins in College Park, Md. The game will be a rematch of last year's quarterfinals which the Blue Jays won 15-11, but there are few similarities between the 2001 and 2000 versions of each team.
To start with, the Irish aren't just happy to be in the quarterfinals this year. They expected to win their first round game against Bucknell. Last year the 12th-seeded Irish shocked the fifth-seeded Loyola Greyhounds in the first round.
The joyous celebrations that followed the win against Loyola were noticeably absent after Notre Dame's 12-7 win again Bucknell.
"After the game one of the fathers came up to me and said "Last year we celebrated like we had won the lottery,'" head coach Kevin Corrigan said. "`This year it was all business.' We aren't surprised to be here. We expect to be here and we want to win this next game to get to the Final Four."
While the Irish made a Cinderella-run in 2000, they have been solid all year in 2001. They ascended as high as No. 2 in the national rankings and never trailed at the end of regulation. Their lone blemish on their 13-1 record was an overtime loss to fellow quarterfinalist Hofstra Pride.
While its record and ranking are better in 2001, Notre Dame returns eight starters — including all-time Irish assist leader David Ulrich — from the team that lost to Hopkins in last year's quarterfinals. Hopkins, however, is a much different team.
The Blue Jays lost their goalkeeper, best midfielder and best attack from last year's semifinal team.
"They are still an extremely talented team but they don't have two guys who were two of the very best players in the country and made them very, very tough to play against," Corrigan said. "It was very difficult to concentrate on both those guys on the offensive end."
Those two guys — first team All-Americans Dan Denihan and A.J. Hogan — dominated in the last meeting. Denihan accounted for eight points while Hogan controlled the midfield. This time around, the Blue Jays won't have the benefit of either player but they are still a talented bunch.
Freshman Conor Ford has led the Blue Jay attack in the last three games with 13 goals in those contests. In the midfield, Hopkins features one of the toughest players in the country. Eric Wedin averages nearly 10 ground balls per game and wins 56.8 percent of his face-offs. Irish face-off specialist Chad DeBolt must force a draw with Wedin for the Irish to be successful, according to Corrigan.
"He's got to beat him," Corrigan said. "What we really hope for is for us to get a draw. If we can't beat him outright, he want to tie him up and see if we can turn it into a 3-on-3 ground ball and make some plays."
All Sports Stories for Friday, May 18, 2001
