Lacrosse: Irish Fall, 13-9, To North Carolina In NCAA Tournament

The consensus preseason No. 1 team nationally, Notre Dame failed to reach its third straight Final Four on Sunday.

The Irish trailed 6-2 at halftime and 11-3 at the end of the third quarter before an eventual 13-9 loss to North Carolina, who ended a program streak of eight straight quarterfinal losses with the win over third-seeded Notre Dame.

The Tar Heels first separated themselves in the second quarter. Notre Dame shot 0-for-8 in the period to finish the 15 minutes scoreless, enabling UNC to turn a 3-2 first quarter lead into a 6-2 halftime lead.

Notre Dame struggled with faceoffs in the first period, losing those battles 5-1 to UNC after winning just the game's opener. The Irish subbed in John Travisano in the second quarter for faceoffs, which seemed to tilt that battle back closer for Notre Dame prior to the half.

By halftime, the faceoffs were a much narrower 6-4 in favor of UNC. Still, the Irish trailed four goals after shooting just 2-for-17 in the first half.

Head coach Kevin Corrigan's squad won the opening faceoff of the second half, and Sergio Perkovic had a great look in front of the net for a goal. However, UNC's Brian Balkam came up with a huge save, and the Tar Heels responded with a score to go ahead 7-2 with 13:09 left in the third period.

North Carolina then ripped off another two goals after winning consecutive faceoffs to lead 9-2 at the 11:13 mark of the third quarter. They punctuated their domination with their 11th goal with 1:10 remaining in the period, when Notre Dame decided to go empty net.

Notre Dame reeled off six goals in the fourth quarter, but by that stage a comeback was all but insurmountable.

Sophomore attack Mikey Wynne led the Irish with four goals, and senior attack Matt Kavanagh added another two. Notre Dame finished the day just 9-of-43 shooting.

The Irish finished their season with an 11-4 overall record.