PHILADELPHIA — The two times Notre Dame men’s lacrosse earned a shot at its first national championship, the program was denied twice by Duke.
So the third time’s got to be the charm, right?
The No. 3 seed Fighting Irish will get the opportunity to find out after graduate student midfielder Brian Tevlin scored the game-winning goal with 3:31 left in overtime to power them to a 13-12 upset of No. 2 seed Virginia on Saturday afternoon in an NCAA Division I Tournament semifinal before an announced 32,107 at Lincoln Financial Field.
Tevlin, a Yale transfer, dodged down the right alley against Cavaliers graduate student short-stick defensive midfielder Grayson Sallade and bounced his shot past sophomore goalkeeper Matthew Nunes to set off a wild celebration for Notre Dame.
Tevlin noted he was supposed to give the ball to junior midfielder Eric Dobson, who had paced the offense with game highs in goals (four) and points (five). But he adjusted when he saw a Cavaliers defender shutting off Dobson.
“Did a little hesitation and I saw an open lane down to the goal,” said Tevlin, who had not scored a goal since May 6 in an 18-9 romp at North Carolina. “Took it and felt him around my neck. Thought I was going to have at least a flag at the end there and figured no better time than to shoot it. If it goes in, then it goes in, and if not, then the man-up [offense] is on the field, and we trust those guys a lot.”
The victory was the Fighting Irish’s first in the last seven meetings with the Cavaliers and first in the semifinal round since May 24, 2014, when that squad — a No. 6 seed at the time — beat No. 7 seed Maryland, 11-6. It propelled them to Monday’s title game at 1 p.m. against No. 1 seed Duke.
The Blue Devils (16-2) advanced to their seventh NCAA final thanks to a goal by graduate student midfielder Garrett Leadmon just 65 seconds into overtime to help them outlast No. 5 seed Penn State (11-5), 16-15, in an earlier semifinal. They will take aim at their fourth national championship and first since 2014.
Monday’s title game will mark the first pitting teams from the same conference since 2017 when No. 1 seed Maryland defeated Big Ten foe and No. 3 seed Ohio State, 9-6. It will be the first pairing from the Atlantic Coast Conference since 2014 when No. 1 seed Duke defeated No. 6 seed Notre Dame, 11-9.
While the Fighting Irish avoided the rare three-game sweep in a single season to Virginia, they have fared better against Duke. They have won the last three games and four of the last five against the Blue Devils.
Notre Dame (13-2) scored the game’s first two goals and owned leads of 4-3 with 1.8 seconds left in the first quarter and 7-6 with 13:18 left in the third, but trailed or was tied for the remainder of the game. In fact, the team was forced to score three of the game’s last four goals in the final 2:38 just to send the game to overtime.
Asked to explain his team’s ability to rally in the latter stages of the game, Dobson said he was still trying to get his bearings after the thrilling ending.
“It’s kind of a dream still,” he said. “I think I’m going to watch it and figure out a lot of things that I didn’t know actually happened. In all honesty, we were just clicking. That happens in sports, all in a flow state, and I think that’s just what we were.”
After sophomore faceoff specialist Will Lynch won the opening faceoff of the extra session, Fighting Irish coach Kevin Corrigan called a timeout with 3:40 remaining — a wise move considering their previous success with timeouts.
In the fourth quarter, sophomore attackman Chris Kavanagh scored 14 seconds after a timeout to cut a two-goal deficit to 11-10 with 2:38 left, and senior attackman Jake Taylor scored 10 seconds after a timeout to tie the score at 12 with 32.2 seconds remaining.
The tactic worked again in overtime as Tevlin scored nine seconds later. Corrigan said the coaches and players kept it simple during the breaks.
“We weren’t talking about big schemes and goal differentials or anything else,” he said. “We were talking about making the next play. So the message was, ‘We’re going to run this action, and if we don’t get anything out of it, we’re going to go flow into this offense, and if we don’t get anything out of that, we 10-man ride and try to get the ball back.’ We were completely focused on the moment and the game and what came next.”
Cavaliers junior attackman Connor Shellenberger amassed game highs in both assists (three) and points (six), and Nunes made a game-best 17 saves. But Virginia (13-4) fell short in its bid to send out a group of fifth-year seniors and graduate students with their third NCAA title in the past five years.
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“I think every guy on this roster was sort of flooded and almost shocked when we realized it was over and everybody was finally done,” said attackman Xander Dickson, who scored once. “We thought it might be done last year, but we kept it going, and everyone wanted to come back. There was no question that everyone wanted to come back to Virginia. The place is special, and the program is special. … I think all the fifth years are just grateful for the opportunity to return and give it our best shot one more time. We’re going to miss it a lot for sure.”
The attendance was the 12th largest in the semifinal round. With five of the biggest semifinals (2005, 2006, 2016, 2019 and 2023), Philadelphia matched Baltimore (2003, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2011) for the most among the Top 12 with Foxborough, Massachusetts’ two (2008 and 2009) rounding out the list.
NCAA Tournament final
Duke vs. Notre Dame
At Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field
Monday, 1 p.m.
TV: ESPN
