Notre Dame, Butler match up in heated rivalry
By STEVE KEPPEL
Sports Writer
This Saturday the Notre Dame men's lacrosse team will travel to Indianapolis to play its second-straight Great Western Lacrosse League match as they take on the Butler Bulldogs.
The Irish are fresh off of a solid 13-4 victory over Ohio State and are looking to improve to 5-3 and wrap up the GWLL title.
If the Irish can pull off the win they will have a good chance to be headed to their eighth NCAA tournament appearance in the last nine years under head coach Kevin Corrigan.
Last week the Irish ended their two-game slump with their win over the Buckeyes.
GWLL player of the week Tom Glatzel led the Irish in the win. Glatzel ended the day with five goals and two assists tying his career high for goals and scoring in one game.
Glatzel leads the Irish with 16 goals and five assists; he has 39 career goals and 19 assists in his two plus seasons at Notre Dame.
"Tommy [Glatzel] was crucial to the victory," said head coach Kevin Corrigan. "The way they played us, shutting off Dave Ulrich, it forced the ball to Tommy's hands and forced him to be in the position to get a lot of the good shots. If he doesn't hit them it could have been a long day for us. He really kept the pressure on their goalie and then the other guys were doing a good job and we were selective in the shots we took and I think all of that added up to us having some success against them."
The whole offense in general was playing well. Notre Dame had five different goal scorers and also six others with at least one assist.
The Irish attack hopes to continue their tough play as they go up against Butler.
"They know that this is a big game," Corrigan said. "We have played to one-goal games with these guys the last two years so we are expecting to go down there and have to fight them to the nail."
After losing five of their first six games Butler is hot off a two-game win streak with wins against Colgate and Fairfield.
Butler is lead by senior attackman Mike Regan who has had seven goals in the past two games.
"Butler is a different team than Ohio State," said Corrigan. "Ohio State wanted to slow down and play you six-on-six and Butler is totally the opposite. They like to pay at a fast tempo so we have been concentrating on how to not create the transition play. It is a completely different challenge this week."
To win this game and end the season on a high note the Irish are going to have to repeat their solid performance of last week.
Both the offense and defense will have to continue to play a full 60 minutes.
"Right now we are starting to play good team defense," Corrigan said. "[Goalie] Kirk Howel is playing well and offensively we are starting to get the idea of what we have to do to be successful. We need to control the ball and be selective in our opportunities that we choose to take."
The Irish have won six of the last seven meetings with Butler and hope to take another step towards the tournament with a win in this in-state match up.
All Sports Stories for Friday, April 7, 2000
