Notre Dame's Path Back to Final Four Clearer Than a Year Ago

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Kevin Corrigan’s final comments Monday were in response to a query about the contrast of coaching in an on-campus final four.

For the Notre Dame coach, his team’s 16-9 loss to Princeton in the NCAA tournament final would have understandably made for a miserable afternoon no matter where it was played.

“This was a lousy experience compared to two years ago,” said Corrigan, whose team won back-to-back titles in Philadelphia in 2023 and 2024. “How's that?”

Fair, actually. Memories of streaming into the field after claiming the program’s first two national championships are always more pleasant than watching someone else do it. Yet Monday aside, this was a season for the Fighting Irish (13-3) to savor.

Notre Dame had to replace its entire starting attack unit, including Tewaaraton Award finalist Chris Kavanagh, needed to retool its faceoff unit and also saw vaunted short stick Ben Ramsey graduate.

This year was always going to be different as the Irish sorted things out. It just didn’t take long to do so.

The defense, highlighted by shutdown defenseman Shawn Lyght and long pole Will Donovan and backstopped by goalie Thomas Ricciardelli, didn’t allow more than 11 goals in a game until May.

Meanwhile, an offense that didn’t have the star power of a Kavanagh but more depth than most teams adopted a remarkably appealing playing style.

Josh Yago, a graduate transfer from Air Force, thrived at a more prominent program, tying for the Irish’s lead in goals (34) and pacing the team in assists (23). His 19-point postseason was tied for the most of any player in this year’s NCAA tournament.

While Yago was a steady presence, the next generation of Notre Dame offensive stalwarts established themselves. Sophomores Luke Miller (34 goals, 12 assists) and Matt Jeffery (19 goals, 11 assists) and junior Brock Behrman (21 goals, 16 assists) had combined for 19 career points prior to 2026.

Notre Dame won its first six games, reached No. 1 in the country and won the ACC regular season title by a game, eventually landing the No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and blitzing through Jacksonville, Johns Hopkins and Syracuse by an average of 8.7 goals.

“Coming into the season people probably counted us out, just after last year and the guys we lost,” Ricciardelli said. “But we had faith in ourselves and belief in the locker room and just built a brotherhood with a foundation of just love and trust, and I'm just grateful for that experience.”

In the opening minutes Monday, the Irish appeared the more comfortable team. Notre Dame scored the first three goals, fittingly as five players accounted for points in the initial burst.

But Princeton switched to a zone and flummoxed the Irish, who wouldn’t score again until the second half. By then, the Tigers had ripped off 11 consecutive goals and dominated the ground ball play when the game was in the balance.

Down eight at the break, Notre Dame got within 12-7 and 13-8 but couldn’t push closer.

“I think we definitely did our best to try to minimize that lead that they had, but at the end of the day, it was just too big for us,” Yago said.

For all the pressure Princeton applied, it might have made Monday more lopsided were it not for Ricciardelli. The two-year starter made 19 saves, one shy of a career high and the most for any goalie in a national title game since 2008.

The fourth-year player redshirted as a freshman, and he’ll be back in South Bend next year. Defenseman Will Gallagher also redshirted as a freshman, and he and fellow incumbent starters Nate Schwitzenberg and Lyght in tandem with Ricciardelli could form the backbone of what could be the sport’s top defense in 2027.

“We knew when we recruited [Ricciardelli] how good we thought he could be,” Corrigan said. “And he had the patience and the character to sit behind Liam Entenmann and watch and learn and continue to work to get better. And so we knew at that point we thought we had a guy who was going to be pretty special, and we still feel that way.”

There is a strong base elsewhere on the roster, too. Notre Dame appears set to bring back five of its top six in points, as well as its two primary faceoff men in Tyler Spano (55.9 percent) and Aidan Diaz-Matos (54.2 percent).

Yago, Donovan (a four-year mainstay at long stick midfielder) and midfielders Will Angrick (16 goals, seven assists), Jalen Seymour (12 goals, seven assists) and Max Busenkell (five goals, eight assists) are among the program’s notable graduation losses.

While there’s more than a year until the next Memorial Day — the holiday goes from its earliest possible date (May 25) in 2026 to its latest (May 31) in 2027 — the Irish have a serious opportunity to get back to the same stage next year in Philadelphia.

“We're going to be accountable for all the good things that happened to us this year, which was a lot,” Corrigan said. “And then we're going to be accountable to each other for the things that didn't go well, like today, and learn from that and get better from it. We're not going to point fingers. We're not going to talk about would'ves, should'ves and could'ves. We're going to take it like men and handle ourselves with class and get back to work, because that's the only thing you can do.”