Notre Dame defeats Maryland to claim second straight men's lacrosse championship

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Chris Kavanagh scored five goals, his brother Pat had six assists and top-seeded Notre Dame captured its second straight NCAA men's lacrosse championship, defeating Maryland 15-5 on Monday.

Notre Dame (16-1), which won its second title in program history, became the first program to win back-to-back championships in consecutive seasons since Duke repeated in 2014. Only nine teams in history have accomplished the feat. Virginia won in 2019 and again in 2021 after the 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maryland (11-6) was playing in the championship game for the 17th time in program history, trailing only Johns Hopkins with 18.

It was the Terrapins' 21st-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Maryland finished undefeated in 2022 and beat Cornell, 9-7, in the championship game.

Maryland scored the opening two goals before the Irish answered with five of the last six of the first quarter. The five Irish goals came from five different players — with two assists from Pat Kavanagh.

The Irish scored the first five goals of the second quarter to go up 10-3 before Maryland scored an extra-man goal to make it 10-4 at the half. Chris Kavanagh, who was named the most outstanding player, scored three straight in the second quarter for a hat trick in a span of six minutes.

Notre Dame had six goals from midfielders in the first half — to help reach double-digit scoring in every game this season.

The Irish continued their dominance in the second half, scoring the first four goals to push it to 14-4 when Fisher Finley became the 10th different Notre Dame goal scorer.

Grad student Liam Entenmann finished with 16 saves, his 11th double-digit save count of the season.

The five goals allowed tied a program record for fewest in an NCAA Tournament game, while the 10-goal margin ranks second for Notre Dame.