Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse 2025 Team Preview

The Irish look to go back to back to back and defend their 2023 and 2024 National Championships

“If you wish to be The King of the jungle, it’s not enough to act like a king. You must be The King. And there can be no doubt. Because doubt causes chaos and one’s own demise.” – Michael Pearson, “The Gentlemen”

We’re here folks, let’s get this going…

The start of the 2025 season is upon us and I am excited to be here for my third year at One Foot Down as we preview our 2025 Notre Dame Fighting Irish lacrosse team. Two years covering the Irish and two National Championships. What do you say we make it three in a row?

For those who followed along last year, I will also be doing my “Exit 77” podcasts and will be joined again by David Brogan (the biggest Notre Dame lacrosse fan out there). Our goal will be to have a weekly episode and depending on schedules, we will plan to record at some point after each game and before the next. With the Irish season opening this upcoming Wednesday and then our next game on that Saturday, plan for us to have a podcast that will cover off on those first two games, and from there take on each game individually. David and I have a ton of fun and we go over all aspects of Notre Dame lacrosse while also giving some thoughts on what else is happening in the world of college lacrosse. Our first episode of this year will be coming out on Sunday, February 10th so make sure you follow along where you listen to podcasts to get our take on the upcoming season. We plan to preview the team, cover off on the schedule and give our thoughts on what we expect to see from the Irish this year. The goal will also be to have some special guests join throughout the upcoming months so make sure you are subscribed so you know when the next episode goes live. You can also follow me here on Twitter as I announce our podcasts there too.

With this article, I am going to follow the same format to my 2023 Fighting Irish team preview and my 2024 Fighting Irish team preview, and similar to last year, the Irish will be one of the last teams to get their season underway (outside of the Ivy League who just started practice on February 1st).

Our 2025 Fighting Irish (preseason ranked #1) are currently ranked #1 and in this preview I will look at the coaches and the players who will be taking the field in the Loftus Center on Wednesday night the 12th against Cleveland State (followed by a quick turnaround against Marquette at Loftus on Saturday the 15th).

I do want to share our good friends from 18 Stripes’s early season write up on the ND lacrosse team and be sure to follow along with them this year as well; they do a great job covering our Irish. In that vein, they did an awesome feature on Ben Ramsey, this year’s ND bagpiper. It’s a must read!

Lastly, Chris Kavanagh and Shawn Lyght are teaming up to help CityLax so feel free to donate to help support this amazing cause, led by former ND lacrosse great Eamon McAnaney.

All right, and away we go…

Notre Dame Coaching Staff

Coach Kevin Corrigan enters his 37th season at the helm of Notre Dame lacrosse and this will be his second season as the head coach of the defending national champions. Having done this same job last year, no one is better prepared to get his team ready each and every week for the challenge that will be there for our Irish. Every team in the country will be looking to dethrone Notre Dame, and as he was quoted on the team’s media day, Coach will have this team ready: “This team has only existed since September. We’re proud of what last year’s team did, but that was last year’s team. This team’s done nothing.” Joining the staff again and making this the best staff in all of college lacrosse are Coach Ryan Wellner (sixth season) who leads the defense / faceoffs, Coach Chris Wojcik (sixth season) who directs the offense and PLL star Ryder Garnsey who is back for his fifth season. Along with these four are Director of Operations Rob Simpson, Senior Associate Athletic Trainer/Physical Therapist Mandy Merritt, and finally, Associate Athletics Communications Director Robby Hamman.

Notre Dame Attack

To start, this will be the first time in five years that Pat Kavanagh will not be putting on a uniform for our Irish. The greatest to ever suit up for Notre Dame lacrosse (will include Liam in this as well and we will touch on this later) has moved onto his professional career and life in the PLL. With Pat gone, it is now fully Chris Kavanagh’s attack and he will be the leader of our offense while looking to make it two years in a row for a Kavanagh to take home the Tewaaraton Award. There is not a player in the country that I would want more leading our Irish attack than Chris Kavanagh. He brings a toughness, a grittiness, and an unmatched will to win that cannot be replicated. Then add to that the skill, precision and craftiness that he plays with. Finally, include his experience and results in big games and I think we can all expect for Chris to not only be a vocal leader, but he should improve upon his 44 goals and 37 assists from last year.

Joining Kavanagh will be Jake Taylor, the best finisher in all of college lacrosse. All the Irish have done since he entered into the starting lineup in the middle of the 2022 season is go 36-3 and win two national championships. The dimension that he brings to the Irish offense makes our attack extremely hard to stop as he finds narrow windows to get open and he finishes at an alarmingly high rate. He is one of the best, and might we say most under appreciated players, in all of college lacrosse. Similar to Payton Cormier who finished with the most goals in Division I history, crease attackmen don’t always get the credit they deserve, but when all is said and done, Jake Taylor will go down as one of the all time best from the inside.

Now is where things will get interesting as the Irish look to round out the attack with the third member. If the preseason games are an indication, look for freshman Brady Pokorny to be the starter against Cleveland State on Wednesday. He is a slick lefty who has all the tools to thrive in the Irish offense, and with so much attention on Kavanagh and Taylor, this could be a perfect opportunity for Pokorny to get his feet under him and make his mark.

Rounding out the attack and others to watch out for will be sophomore Brock Behrman, senior Jeffery Ricciardelli and freshman Luke Miller. Jeffery will for sure be a mainstay on our man-up unit and when Taylor needs a break, he can fill in in the crease. Behrman has for sure been challenging for the third attack spot and if the coaches decide to go in another direction from Pokorny, look him to be the starter. Lastly, Luke Miller looked really good in the Detroit Mercy scrimmage and appears to have a bright future ahead of him with the Irish.

I am a big fan of Paul Carcaterra and one of the things he preaches is an attack unit that is not necessarily built of the three best overall players, but built with the three who complement each other best. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out this year and the chemistry that Chris, Jake and Brady form will be one of the early storylines as we get things underway.

Lastly, this is finally Chris Kavanagh’s offense. We will see him up top with the ball, we will see him on the wing, we will see him at X. Look for Coach Wojcik to find different ways to get him the ball in our principles and positionless based offense. It’s Chris’ time and we can count on him to deliver, just as he has done over his first three years.

Notre Dame Midfield

One of the best things about Notre Dame’s dominating run to the national championship in 2024 was watching the Irish go three lines deep across their midfield toward the end of the season, into the ACC tournament and then in the NCAA tournament. Being able to go three lines deep is what separates the best from the rest and look for the Irish to try to replicate that again this year. But similar to last year, don’t look for this to happen right out of the gate as the Irish will look to really develop their top two lines giving them the majority of the run in order to get their legs, develop chemistry and stay warm in the colder games. This was Coach Corrigan’s philosophy last year and I think we can expect him to double down on it again this year.

With that being the case, let’s look at the players who we think will get a chance to be in that top nine across three lines. Here goes my best thoughts:

Matt Jeffery, Fisher Finley, Will Angrick, Jordan Faison, Will Maheras, Max Busenkell, Ben Ramsey, Jalen Seymour, Devon McLane

I am putting Ben Ramsey in here as I think there is a good chance that he gets to show his offensive skillset this year as he plays a two-way role similar to Brian Tevlin in 2023. Additionally, Jordan Faison is not yet practicing with the team as he is coming off an extremely long football season, and I imagine we will not see him in the Irish lineup until sometime in early March. Lastly, #1 ranked recruit Matt Jeffery is now practicing with the team, but he is also coming off a long football season so it will take him a little bit to get up to speed / get his stick going.

If I had to guess at the start, here is how I think things will go and also based on what we have seen during the scrimmages:

1st Line: Angrick, McLane and Busenkell

2nd Line: Finley, Seymour and Maheras with Ramsey rotating in across this line and across SSDM

3rd Line to start the season: Jeffery, Joey Bambrick and Ryan Sforzo

Just like last year and even though we graduated some midfield stalwarts in Reilly Gray and Eric Dobson, it’s an embarrassment of riches that the Irish are bringing across our midfield lines this year. Getting Devon McLane back was HUGE as he will continue to be in the right spot, make the right play / pass and score lots of goals. Will Angrick has continued to develop his all around game (he has a great lefty and righty shot) after coming off an injury in 2023 and Max Busenkell continues to be one of the more underrated passers and finishers from the midfield line in college lacrosse.

Watch for Angrick and Busenkell to beat their man up top and find an Irish attacker (or Devon on the wing) on the backside for some easy early season goals.

Add on to this the size, speed and physical presence that Seymour and Finley bring and they can wreak havoc from up top with the ball. Then Will Maheras’ overall quickness and super quick release will force defenses to play him tight.

Ben Ramsey will again prove his all around game that will make him a consecutive All-American.

Matt Jeffery will get the chance to show why he was the best player in high school last year as his athleticism already jumps off the charts. Bambrick is a big and powerful freshman and Sforzo has continued to rise up the depth chart.

I could probably add a few more names into the mix here at the midfield, but let’s see how the season gets underway and we can go from there.

Notre Dame Close Defense and Goalies

As mentioned above, we lost the other greatest to ever suit up for the Irish in Liam Entenmann. We cannot replace him, there really is no way to do that as he will go down as one of the best to ever play goalie in college lacrosse. Looking to take over for him will be either junior Thomas Ricciardelli (Jeffery’s brother) or senior Alex Zepf. The coaches have been coy with who the starter will be with each of them having the chance to start in the scrimmages, but I trust the coaches will make the right call knowing that they have an extremely capable backup who will be ready to go if need be. Rounding out the goalie room is freshman Will Ohnmacht who was impressive in the fall scrimmage against Harvard.

At close defense, we lose two stalwarts in two-time national champions Marco Napolitano and Chris Conlin. They were awesome the last couple of years and will be tough to replace, but leading the charge to take over for them this year will be sophomore Nate Schwitzenberg and junior Will Gallagher. Both got playing time last year with Gallagher starting at the beginning of the season before Marco came back on as the overall starter by the third game. Nate was one of the first off the bench in our games and he is one of the hardest workers on the team bringing a grittiness to the defensive side of the ball for our Irish.

Last, but in no sense the least, Shawn Lyght will be the leader of our defensive unit. Coming off one of the more impressive freshman seasons that I have seen in a long while, Lyght will be the focal point of our defense and challenge for the Schmeisser Award as the best defender in all of college lacrosse. He is big, he is technical, he is cerebral, he is physical, he is tenacious. He is everything you would want in a defender and I don’t think I could say enough superlatives around how good he was last year and where he can take his game to this year. The Irish are lucky, we have the best defender in all of college lacrosse leading the way for us.

Providing depth and looking to push for playing time will be junior Declan Cooke, freshman George Guyton, junior Jake Sommer and sophomore Karter Williams.

Notre Dame Faceoff (FO)

Our faceoff unit is led by senior Will Lynch who will challenge for 1st-team All-American honors. He continues to prove himself each subsequent season as he gets better every year and he performs when it maters most on the highest of stages. Count me in as someone who thinks Will Lynch will get even better this year as he finishes his career as one of the best to ever do it at Notre Dame.

Behind Lynch will be Colin Hagstrom who has done a great job when his # gets called. He is always ready to go and in games where we need to mix things up, he always performs. Backing up Colin will be senior Pat Eilers and junior Christian Gallaher. They will provide lots of depth for the Irish.

Notre Dame Long Stick Middies (LSM)

I know it sounds repetitive, but once again, the Irish have the best in the country leading their position. Junior Will Donovan is the best LSM in the country and he has a motor that is nonstop. He will be a nightmare for the opposing team’s top middie and we can expect another amazing year from him. Running alongside him and taking over for bagpiper Ross Burgmaster will be Harvard transfer Greg Campisi who is a ground ball machine and brings even more athleticism to the position. I am excited to see what Greg can do as we continue our trend of bringing in strong transfers who make an immediate difference. Rounding out the position is senior Ronan Doherty, freshman Jimmy Kenney and freshman Luke Crowe. Ronan brings a lot of experience while Kenney and Crowe come in with accolades and look to continue the strong LSM tradition at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame Defensive Middies (SSDM)

Ben Ramsey should go back and forth between running offensive middie and leading the SSDM unit. Ben is the best at his position in college lacrosse and I am looking forward to the rest of the country seeing his overall game this year. He has a cannon on the run and he knows how to find the back of the net when he gets the opportunity (see the Cornell game in 2024). Pound for pound, he is one of the best overall players in the college game. Joining Ben on the rope unit will be senior Tyler Buchner (now back off the football season), junior Christian Alacqua, junior Thomas Porell, freshman Chris Reinhardt, freshman Kyle Bergen and senior Logan Gutzwiller. We saw Buchner and Alacqua have extremely strong seasons last year (especially in the tourneys), but replacing Nick Harris and Carter Parlette will be tough. Overall, once again, this unit is incredibly strong and deep and we will see who Coach Wellner runs out there across his top four starting on Wednesday night.

Some Final Thoughts on the 2025 Team

It is not hyperbole to say that this Irish team is the best in the country. They have been there before and they will have the opportunity to do something that has not been done in a very long time in college lacrosse: Three-peat.

People will press for what are the big questions this year for the Irish. If I had to boil it down to three, here is what I would say:

Who is the goalie and how do they follow in Liam’s cleats?

How do the two new close defenders perform, what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses?

How well does the new third attackman fit in with Jake and Chris?

After reading the interviews in the press this week, there is a specific mindset that has enveloped the team…..it is the idea that this is a new team, that they have not accomplished anything and that 2025 is a season unto itself. I love that attitude and it will be captains Chris Kavanagh’s and Ben Ramsey’s job to keep that singular focus throughout the spring, week in and week out.

I have said it before, but the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are 36-3 over our last 39 games. We have lost to two teams in the whole country and every team across college lacrosse is gunning for our spot at the top of the sport. But that is not new as that was the case last year. The new leadership on this team has been down this path before, now it is the whole team’s turn to show up, show out and prove they are the best version of Notre Dame lacrosse.

This is a new season, this is a new team and they are ready to leave their footprint on the world of college lacrosse in 2025.

Next Up

Come on out to the Loftus Center on Notre Dame’s campus over the next week. The Irish take on Cleveland State on Wednesday the 12th and then have a quick turnaround taking on Marquette on Saturday the 15th. Two games in a span of four days is tough for any college roster so look for the Irish to go deep into their bench to make sure legs are fresh over this first initial stretch. It will also be a great opportunity for new players to step up and for the broader team to get continuity across lines, substitutions and the playbook.

See you soon Irish fans, the clock has struck midnight and there is no better time than the start of the college lacrosse season.

Let’s get after it Irish! Time to Be Great!