No. 1 Notre Dame hosts No. 5 Syracuse at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday at Arlotta Stadium in South Bend, Indiana, in a top-five ACC matchup that closes the regular season at home for the Fighting Irish. Admission is free, and the game will be streamed on ACCNX.
The game is the 24th meeting all-time between the programs, and Syracuse still leads the series 12-11. The Orange won both meetings last season, but Notre Dame has taken 10 of the last 14 and seven of the last nine. The teams have met eight times over the previous five seasons, and Notre Dame has scored at least 18 goals in five of those eight games.
Notre Dame arrives with the better recent profile against elite teams. Since the beginning of the 2023 season, the Irish are 29-8 against ranked opponents and 21-5 against teams ranked in the top 10 of the USILA poll at the time of the matchup. They are 6-0 against ranked opposition this season and 4-0 against top-10 teams, while allowing 8.0 goals per game, third in the country and first in the ACC.
That defense has been the separator in a season full of results that travel. Notre Dame has held Georgetown to nine goals, Michigan to four, Richmond to eight, UNC to five and Duke to six. In the 10-5 win over North Carolina, only two of UNC's five goals came in settled six-on-six possessions. The Irish also held Maryland to eight goals in College Park, matching the Terps' lowest home scoring output since the shot clock arrived in 2019, and limited Georgetown to nine while posting a season-high 19 caused turnovers.
Schwitzenberg earned ACC Defensive Player of the Week honors twice this season after wins over Maryland and UNC, a sign of how often Notre Dame's strongest performances have come when the game tightened. Syracuse lacrosse enters a series that has swung back and forth by the smallest of margins, but Notre Dame's record against top teams and its ability to keep opponents out of rhythm make this one feel like more than a regular-season finish. It looks like the kind of game that can shape how both teams are viewed once the ACC tournament arrives.
