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Notre Dame's Lacrosse Programs Rank Among Nation's Best

Barbara Sullivan is one of only nine three-time captains across all sports in Notre Dame history.
Barbara Sullivan is one of only nine three-time captains across all sports in Notre Dame history.
Notre Dame Media Relations

Notre Dame, Syracuse and Maryland.

Those were the only three schools in the country to feature teams ranked in the Inside Lacrosse top 10 for both men’s and women’s programs, as of the April 18 release of the polls.

The men held down the top spot in their poll boasting a 9-1 overall record, with their only blemish a 9-8 overtime defeat to then-No. 2 Denver.

And the women rose as high as No. 4 a couple weeks this year, holding an 11-4 record with five victories over then-top 20 teams. Christine Halfpenny’s squad was ranked No. 10 nationally in the April 18 poll.

Both team’s success obviously starts at the top, with Halfpenny and men’s head coach Kevin Corrigan at their respective helms. Those efforts, though, are helped tremendously by their “coaches” on the field – men’s senior attack Matt Kavanagh and women’s graduate student defender Barbara Sullivan.

A Garden City, N.Y., native, Sullivan is one of only nine three-time captains spanning all sports in Notre Dame history, joining a list that dates back to football’s Jack Mullen from 1897-1899.

“For me, she’s been synonymous with Notre Dame lacrosse,” Halfpenny said. “Other coaches around here have said when women’s lacrosse isn’t playing, let us know if Barbara Sullivan can play for us, because she competes so hard.

“She’ll go down in our sport as one of the best all-time defenders. It’s been just a blessed opportunity for me to coach someone like her.”

That’s a pretty strong statement for Sullivan, and it’s one that’s echoed by more than those within the Notre Dame program.

“Barbara Sullivan is one of the best defenders I have ever watched play in person, of either gender,” Patrick McEwen wrote for Inside Lacrosse after Notre Dame’s 16-11 triumph over No. 7 Princeton March 13. “Though she certainly took some risks en route to tying her career-high and the school-record for caused turnovers, for the most part her positioning and footwork was about as good as it gets.”

In the other locker room, Kavanagh has left is own massive imprint on the men’s program. A first team All-American and Tewaaraton Award finalist in 2015, the Rockville Center, N.Y., native ranked fifth on Notre Dame’s list of all-time point earners (175) entering his senior campaign, and has contributed a team-high 32 points this season, placing his career total at 207 as of April 18.

"We all have great confidence and faith in Matt Kavanagh," Corrigan told UND.com, after the senior attack scored the game-winning goal to beat Marquette 9-8 on April 13, his fourth extra time winner in his career. "Nobody has made more big plays in his college career than he has.

“There's nobody in our huddle that doesn't expect that he's going to make plays like that. So I'm not surprised. I'm thrilled for him, but I'm more grateful that we've had him for four years, and I get to watch him make one more play like that at the end of a game."

As with any sport, recruiting talent – prospects like Kavanagh and Sullivan – has been another key to success for both programs.

Corrigan’s staff has assembled a top 10 class every year since 2013, highlighted by Inside Lacrosse’s No. 2 haul in 2014. And Halfpenny’s program has matched that effort by at least one publication, including Inside Lacrosse’s third-ranked class nationally in 2015.

“The reality is, it’s Notre Dame,” Halfpenny said. “When you call people and it’s Notre Dame at the other end, they answer.

“We’re going out and identifying players that fit this brand - this fast, relentless pursuit of the ball on offense and defense. The beautiful combination is Notre Dame and the ACC. They’re synonymous with athletic and academic excellence, and that’s been a wonderful package to sell.

“You absolutely can come here. We’ve got an indoor facility and outdoor facility; weather doesn’t matter here. We’re a spring sport. We practiced in sunny and 70 degree weather today.”

For both programs, the next rung ahead is achieving postseason goals.

The men’s squad has knocked on the door of a national championship for a few seasons now, and this could be the year that opening finally gets blown down. They advanced to the NCAA’s Final Four in 2012, 2014 and 2015, but only advanced to the championship game among those three tries in 2014, and ended that season with an 11-9 loss to Duke in the title game.

Halfpenny’s team qualified for the NCAA tournament in each of her first four seasons in South Bend – the first such occurrence in school history – and aims to advance at least to the quarterfinals this year, after falling in the second round two straight seasons.

“It’s all about taking the next step now,” Halfpenny said. “We’re in the toughest conference in the country, and we’ve done an outstanding job of growing every year.

“It’s all part of the building process. I’m really proud of the brand that we’re putting out there. We’ve been known as a defensive prowess for years, but our goal in August was to become more of an aggressive offense, so we take our brand and put it at the offensive end.

“While we’ve continued to learn and grow with our personnel, I think we’re finally getting to that stage of an aggressive and passionate prowess.

“April is a big month for us to put the exclamation mark on it all.”

Looking ahead for both Irish squads, more than one exclamation mark might be necessary.

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