UNC vs. Notre Dame MLAX

As the season is coming to a close, conference matchups and top 10 matchups are starting to mean more. No. 9 Notre Dame looks to go to Chapel Hill and knock off No. 5 North Carolina just a week before the end of the season.

The 6-3 back-to-back national champion Fighting Irish are looking for a right to defend their crown this offseason led by Chris Kavanagh. Kavanagh leads the way with 43 points and tied for the team lead with goals with Jake Taylor at 24.

Their offense ranks sixth in the nation with 14.44 goals per game. They get scoring from all over the place with nine players logging double digit points so far this season.

The question will be if their 11th ranked defense will be able to hold back the high powered UNC offense. Their defense suffers in man-down situations giving up nine goals giving up a 37.5% completion rate to opposing offenses.

Meanwhile, UNC is an all around powerhouse with the seventh ranked offense in the nation and the fourth ranked defense in the nation.

Their offense is run through fifth top goal-scorer in the nation Dominic Pietramala with 36 goals and 38 points on the season. Between him and Duffy Owen, who is UNC’s top scorer with 49 points, Notre Dame has their hands full.

This game is going to come down to who can get the most possessions and who can make that one team make a mistake. Both teams are in the lower half of the nation in caused turnovers.

If one of these teams can possess the other team's defense and make them tired, it could get ugly quick. Both teams are top 15 in faceoff percentage, which will play a huge factor into who can control the game.

UNC gets the nod in faceoff percentage by .1 percentage point and that small of a margin could make all the difference in a game where neither defense can really cause offenses to turn the ball over.

However, both teams need to keep the ball off the turf. UNC ranks fourth in ground balls per game with 35.91 and Notre Dame is a little further back at 16 at 33.33.

Both teams are perennial contenders for the national championship coming out of the stacked ACC. Four of the five teams in the conference are ranked and all of them are in the top 10.

Notre Dame has lost some talent to the PLL over the last couple of years, but is still a highly respected program and only climbing more with the national championships they bring home.

UNC is a historic program that has always had their hand in the cookie jar of lacrosse talent and you can never count them out.

This is shaping up to be a high stakes and competitive matchup coming up on Saturday, April 19th at noon.

Tristan Kunec is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email tqk5432@psu.edu.