2025 College Lacrosse Season Preview: Notre Dame

This week’s season preview is the back-to-back champions: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame is the favorite to start the season to, once again, win the National Championship in 2025 and for good reason.

Why the fighting irish could three-peat in 2025

Complete team efforts like last season.

In 2024, Notre Dame absolutely dismantled teams in the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament, essentially cruising to another title. Looking at their 2025 roster and the freshmen class they bring in, there’s a world where they don’t miss a beat after graduating a program-changing class.

The graduations of Pat Kavanagh, Liam Entenmann, Eric Dobson, Chris Conlin, Marco Napolitano, and Reilly Gray will hit the Fighting Irish the hardest. However, they just got a massive boost with the announcement of Devon McLane’s return, one of the most impactful transfers in recent memory with his goal-scoring ability and IQ.

a look at the returners

Chris Kavanagh assumes the keys to the offense after tallying 81 points (44G, 37A) in 2024.

The best off-ball attackman in the nation Jake Taylor returns for yet another year. While you could make a case for Devon McLane to start at attack (where he played at Brown), I personally would start EMO specialist Jeff Ricciardelli or freshmen Brady Pokorny or Luke Miller on the left to have that field balance.

If that’s the case, McLane will be a top midfielder along with sophomore Jordan Faison who absolutely burst onto the scene in 2024. Options to fill Eric Dobson’s spot on the first line include bumping up one of Max Busenkell or Will Angrick up from the second line, bumping up Jalen Seymour or Fisher Finley from the third line, or just adding a freshman like Matt Jeffrey or Pokorny to the first line (if Pokorny doesn’t start at attack).

Regardless, look for the Fighting Irish to play three midfield lines and multiple attackmen throughout the season. And it’s not just to keep the top guys fresh; 8 of the 9 midfielders that played in the National Championship game scored a goal, one of the more impressive things I’ve seen from a team in a while.

Defensively, Will Donovan is one of the best LSM’s in the country and Harvard graduate transfer Greg Campisi should be a great second option.

The SSDM unit of Ben Ramsey, Christian Alacqua, and Tyler Buchner is pretty solid, but look for a few freshmen to be added to that unit, like Matt Jeffrey, Chris Reinhardt, or Ben Burmeister.

Close defense is a little murky. Shawn Lyght will lead that unit after being the top cover guy as a freshman.

Inside Lacrosse reported that Campisi and junior Will Gallagher started next to him in their fall ball scrimmage against Harvard.

I would imagine Campisi would bump back to LSM at some point and a guy like Nate Schwitzenberg could maybe start the season at close.

The goalie position is a battle between Alex Zepf and Thomas Ricciardelli. While neither one of them is Liam Entenmann, I think the Fighting Irish feel pretty confident with either of them between the pipes.

And then at faceoff, you have battle-tested Will Lynch who should have another solid season flanked by graduate student Colin Hagstrom.

Biggest Question Marks

can chris kavanagh run the offense?

It sounds crazy to question last season's tournament's most outstanding player that registered 44 goals and 37 assists if he’s capable of running the offense. But it's definitely a question mark, and here's why.

With brother Pat at X, Chris was able to be the secondary option as excellent shooter and dodger on that right wing. It’s clear he’s a gifted feeder as well with 37 assists. But now the top guy on that attack line, it’s fair to question whether he can be ‘the guy’ at X now that the Fighting Irish lose a plethora of offensive talent, and he will be the main focus for defenses.

And Kavanagh he racked up a ton of points last season, did that have anything to do with him playing in an historic offense for the past few seasons? There's do doubt we've seen flashes from Chris at X, and there's no denying he's one of the best players in the nation. But can he sustain that reliable presence at X across a whole season with the top defender covering him? If the answer is yes, there’s a really good chance Notre Dame is holding the trophy once again in May.

how much will graduations hurt?

Offensively, I think Notre Dame will still be able to score goals, but I’m a little worried about the defensive side of the ball. Marco Napolitano and Chris Conlin anchored the back line for two years, but now they’re gone, leaving Shawn Lyght as the leader of that unit as a sophomore. He will be flanked by new faces that have limited experience. That could be an issue.

While Notre Dame always seems to reload at SSDM, Nick Harris and Carter Parlette were two of the top guys last season. That could be a loss that hurts Notre Dame more than people think.

In net, obviously you’re never going to be able to replace Liam Entenmann, but he literally stole games for the Fighting Irish with his elite and consistent play. This area is bound to take a hit, even if Zepf or Ricciardelli play at a solid level.

Final Thoughts

This Notre Dame team has an unbelievably high floor. The question is, will their ceiling be as high as last season? I think a lot of it rests on the shoulders of Kavanagh’s performance, Zepf or Ricciardelli’s performance, and which freshmen can make an impact immediately like Faison and Lyght last season.

If this team could three-peat, it would be one of the most impressive feats in college lacrosse of all time. And it's definitely possible.

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