SOUTH BEND — Three decades at one coaching stop can sometimes feel like a lifetime. And in 34 years at Notre Dame, turning the Irish into a perennial lacrosse power, head coach Kevin Corrigan has seen a lot.
Experienced a lot.
But it’s been a while since Corrigan, and Notre Dame lacrosse, have been in this position.
Worrying about its postseason status. Sweating it out on Selection Sunday.
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The Irish have qualified for 15 consecutive NCAA tournaments. A month ago, even as early as halftime of Saturday afternoon’s must-win home game against Duke, a 16th seemed more unlikely than a given.
But something at halftime flipped. The Irish turned an 11-7 deficit into a 16-14 win. And possibly saved its season.
“I’ve never been more proud of a team,” Corrigan said. “Not only did we play a terrible second quarter and go down by four, but we come out in the second half and give up a goal that wasn’t even intended to be a shot. A lot of teams would have felt that was it.
“We just bore down from that point on and made plays for the rest of the game.”
It was Notre Dame’s sixth consecutive win to close the regular season. A season turned around.
The reality of no postseason ticket had been building since mid-March when it stared with its worst season-start (2-4) since beginning 2-3 in 2019-20.
Those Irish never had a chance to turn their season around due to COVID-19. These Irish did, and found some late-season magic.
“At 2-4, they were not going to let it end that way,” Corrigan said of his players. “They were not going limp off after that and they didn’t allow anybody to put their head down.”
Saturday’s win over Duke (11-6, 3-3 ACC) still may not be enough to get Notre Dame (8-4, 5-1 ACC) into the tournament, but since the beginning of April, the Irish did everything possible to be in position.
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“We told our guys then …….
