SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 9 Fighting Irish bounced back in emphatic fashion on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in front of a capacity crowd of 5,000 fans at Arlotta Stadium, defeating Virginia by a score of 12-7 to improve to 6-3 on the season and 2-1 in ACC play.
Notre Dame used a 7-0 run that stretched from the end of the third quarter through the majority of the routh to blow the game wide open.
Six different players recorded multi-point games, led by Chris Kavanagh’s three-point effort off two goals and an assist. Jake Taylor, Matthew Jeffery and Jalen Seymour each posted two-goal outings in the win.
The Irish defense was masterful, causing 10 turnovers on the day. Goalie Thomas Ricciardelli had a strong showing between the pipes, making 13 saves while allowing just seven shots past him.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish came out of the gates firing, scoring twice in the first three minutes of game action to jump out to an early 2-0 advantage. The Irish goals came from Jake Taylor and Jalen Seymour.
The Cavaliers clawed their way back into the game, scoring the final two goals of the quarter to level the score at 2-2 after the opening 15 minutes of play.
Virginia took its first lead of the game a little over a minute into the second quarter at 3-2. The Cavaliers advantage didn’t last long, as Kavanagh scored on the man-up opportunity less than two minutes later to even the scoreline at 3-3, which ended up being the score at the halftime break.
Jeffery put the Irish back on top within the first four minutes of the start of the third quarter with his first of the day before Virginia scored a man-up goal with 5:21 left in the third to knot the game up at 4-4.
The momentum of the game swung on a sequence with under four minutes left in the third frame. Thomas Ricciardelli made a clean save on the defensive end and sprung an Irish fastbreak with a perfect outlet pass to Ramsey, who flew down the field and buried his first goal of the season to give the Irish a 5-4 lead.
The goal got the capacity crowd riled up and then Kavanagh and Taylor scored back-to-back highlight worthy goals in the span of two minutes to give Notre Dame a 7-4 cushion.
Seymour then put an exclamation mark on the quarter, running by his defender before rifling his second goal of the afternoon with just 10 seconds left in the period to put the Irish up 8-4 heading into the final frame.
THe Irish carried its momentum into the fourth, adding goals from Jeffery, Christian Alacqua and Devon McLane to extend the lead to seven at 11-4 with 3:27 left in regulation.
Virginia scored three goals in the final three minutes before Jeffery Ricciardelli scored his first of the afternoon with 30 seconds left to deliver the Irish the 12-7 victory.
STAT OF THE GAME
The Irish defense held Virginia to just seven goals, matching its lowest scoring output against Notre Dame in the series history.
NOTRE DAME NOTES
- The Irish improved to 12-11 against Virginia in the all-time series, posting wins in each of the last four matchups.
- Taylor’s two goals give him 123 in his career, moving up to fifth in the ND all-time record books for career goals. Taylor passed former Irish great Matt Kavanagh (122).
- With two goals in the win, Kavanagh now has 136 career goals, which breaks a tie with Ryan Hoff (134) and moves him into second place alone in program history.
- With three points, Kavanagh now has 219 in his career, which ranks fourth in program history.
- Thomas Ricciardelli has recorded double-digit saves in six of his last seven games and has finished with a .500 save percentage or better in seven of nine contests.
- The goal from Alacqua was the first of his career.
- With Ramsey and Alacqua each scoring their first goals of the season, the Irish now have 22 different players with a goal during the 2025 campaign.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame heads to Tobacco Road for another ranked ACC matchup, as it takes on No. 7 North Carolina at Dorrance Field at noon ET on Saturday, April 19 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The game will air on ESPNU.
— ND —