The UNC men’s lacrosse team began building momentum for its Cinderella run to the NCAA Championship last season with a crucial victory over the highly-touted Notre Dame Fighting Irish–a tightly contested win in the regular season finale.

Faced with a similar opportunity this year, the 16th-ranked Tar Heels came up just short–as No. 6 Notre Dame received a goal from Bryan Costabile with under three minutes remaining on the way to a 14-13 victory.

UNC (6-7, 1-3 ACC) will now head into the ACC Tournament with a record below .500 after entering the season with hopes of a national championship repeat.

The Tar Heels held a 12-10 lead in the fourth quarter on Saturday, but the Fighting Irish closed the game by scoring four of the final five goals.

Dominance in faceoffs and groundballs–which played a large part in UNC’s two wins over Notre Dame last season–again took center stage in this game.

The Fighting Irish held a 19-11 advantage in faceoff opportunities while picking up 39 groundballs compared to UNC’s 30.

Nine different players scored for the Tar Heels, led by four goals from junior attacker Chris Cloutier.

Notre Dame (7-3, 2-2 ACC) received five goals from Mikey Wynne, while also getting three goals and two assists from 6-foot-4 midfielder Sergio Perkovic.

Up Next:

ACC Tournament play will begin with the Semifinals next Friday in Durham.

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