Notre Dame opens NCAA Tournament play with a familiar formula: elite defense, balanced scoring and a history of handling postseason pressure. The No. 2-seed Fighting Irish will host Jacksonville at Arlotta Stadium at noon ET on Sunday, with the first-round matchup set for ESPNU and live stats available through FightingIrish.com.
The Irish enter the tournament with strong momentum and a résumé built against top opponents. They have won two of the last three NCAA championships, captured titles in 2023 and 2024, and have reached the quarterfinals in 13 of the last 15 NCAA Tournaments.
Postseason pedigree and home-field edge
Notre Dame’s track record in the NCAA Championship remains one of the strongest in the sport. The program owns a 30-26 record in 28 tournament trips and has gone 17-11 in first-round games, including 13 wins in its last 14 openers.
The Irish have also turned Arlotta Stadium into a reliable postseason venue. Notre Dame is 11-3 in NCAA Championship games played at home, and Sunday adds another chance to extend that success in South Bend.
The program’s recent postseason run has been especially steady. Notre Dame has made the NCAA field in 19 of the last 20 tournaments and has earned a national seed 16 times overall, including 15 times in the last 18 seasons.
A rare matchup with Jacksonville
Sunday’s game carries added novelty because Notre Dame and Jacksonville have met only once before. That earlier meeting ended in a 19-7 Irish win to open the 2014 season in Jacksonville.
This will also be their first postseason clash, which gives the Dolphins a fresh look at a Notre Dame team that has spent much of the season testing itself against ranked competition. The Irish are 30-9 against ranked opponents since the start of the 2023 season and 22-6 against teams ranked in the USILA top 10 at the time of the matchup.
Defense has set the tone
Notre Dame’s postseason profile starts with a defense that has been hard to move. The Irish are allowing 8.83 goals per game, which ranks seventh nationally, and have repeatedly shut down strong offenses during the season.
Georgetown, Michigan, Richmond, North Carolina and Duke all posted season-low goal totals against Notre Dame. The standout performance came in the 10-5 win over UNC, when the Irish limited the Tar Heels to a season-low five goals and allowed only two of those in settled six-on-six play.
The Irish also held Maryland to eight goals in College Park, matching the Terps’ lowest home output since the shot clock arrived in 2019. In another key game, Notre Dame forced a season-high 19 caused turnovers against Georgetown while keeping the Hoyas to nine goals.
Shawn Lyght anchors the back line
Shawn Lyght has emerged as one of the country’s premier defenders. He is a Tewaaraton Award finalist and the first defenseman to reach that stage since 2016, when Notre Dame’s Matt Landis was also a finalist.
Lyght is also a two-time ACC Co-Defensive Player of the Year and one of only three players in league history to win the honor multiple times. His recognition reflects how often he draws the opposing top attack option and how consistently he impacts the game without needing the ball in his stick.
The junior has delivered again in high-level matchups, including strong work against UNC attackman Owen Duffy, whom he helped hold to a limited scoring line in recent meetings. Notre Dame has leaned on that reliability throughout the season.
Ricciardelli has stabilized the crease
Thomas Ricciardelli has matched the defense’s consistency in goal. The senior was named ACC Goalie of the Year after leading Notre Dame to the ACC regular-season title, and he enters the tournament at 10-2 with 130 saves and an 8.66 goals-against average.
Ricciardelli has posted a save rate of .500 or better in nine of 12 games and has delivered several of his best outings against elite opponents. He made 17 saves in a win at Duke, 16 in the victory over UNC and 14 in the win over top-ranked Richmond.
His postseason experience also matters. In his first NCAA Tournament appearance, he stopped 15 shots and allowed only six goals in a win over No. 2 Ohio State, a performance that underlined his ability to perform on a bigger stage.
Balanced offense gives Notre Dame multiple paths
Notre Dame does not depend on one scorer. The Irish have four attackmen with at least 20 points, and the midfield has added another layer of production behind them.
Josh Yago leads the team with 38 points on 24 goals and 14 assists, while Luke Miller has added 24 goals and nine assists. Brock Behrman has supplied 27 points, and Teddy Lally has given the offense a useful spark off the bench with 20 points.
The midfield has also contributed heavily. Will Maheras has 27 points, Matt Jeffery has 18, Will Angrick has 15 and Jalen Seymour has 13. In total, 20 different Irish players have scored this season, and 26 have registered at least one point.
That spread has helped Notre Dame adjust in different game states, whether the Irish need quick scoring runs or long possessions that wear down opponents. It also fits the team’s deeper rotation and the versatility of several newcomers.
Faceoff play and new faces have added value
Tyler Spano has given Notre Dame an important edge at the dot. He enters the game with a .593 faceoff winning percentage, second-best in the ACC, and has shown he can hold up against elite specialists.
Against UNC’s Brady Wambach, who came in with the nation’s best faceoff rate, Spano won 10 of 17 draws and collected six ground balls. A week earlier, he beat Richmond’s Vincent Gaylord 16 of 22 times while adding nine ground balls and an assist.
Several newcomers have also made quick impacts. Josh Yago produced multiple three-point games and had two five-point performances in wins over Georgetown and Richmond, while Teddy Lally posted his first career hat trick against UNC. Aidan Diaz-Matos, Miguel Iglesias and Christopher Iuliano have also filled important roles across the lineup.
Notre Dame’s depth has been strengthened further by two dual-sport athletes on the roster. Matt Jeffery has produced 18 points, including a hat trick against Duke, while Dylan Faison has scored six goals and added an assist in limited games since joining the rotation.
Sunday’s first-round game offers Notre Dame a chance to continue a postseason run built on experience, depth and defensive control. Jacksonville arrives as a fresh opponent, but the Irish again enter the tournament with the profile of a team that expects to play deep into May.