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Notre Dame lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan isn’t one to put his team’s third Final Four appearance in four seasons into any broader context than Saturday’s semifinal game against Denver, one more step in the quest for an elusive national championship.
But were he to do so, the role of a pair of Maryland products — fifth-year senior midfielder Jim Marlatt (River Hill) and senior attackman Conor Doyle (Gilman) — would feature heavily in explaining the Fighting Irish’s success. They’ve gone from simply making the NCAA tournament every year to being regular Final Four participants who are coming closer and closer to a national championship.
“Coach doesn’t like looking back on the season or even our careers or anything like that, because our goal’s not over,” Marlatt said. “Our mission’s not over. We don’t do any Senior Day stuff — we have graduation, but that’s not even a big thing, either, because we’re still working towards our mission.
“But if I can reflect a little bit, I think it has been a great run and I think there’s a strong core of Baltimore guys that are all pretty close.”
Marlatt, who is in his second year as captain of the Irish, acknowledges that there are Baltimore players on every roster around the country. Notre Dame has been a national recruiting program during his time there, though.
When asked about the four teams vying for the title — traditional powers Maryland and Johns Hopkins are in the other semifinal — Corrigan said the makeup of the Final Four reveals a lot about the current game.
“I think you’re missing something if you don’t see the story of where this sport is, when not only us and Denver are here, but nobody’s surprised that we’re here,” Corrigan said.
Still, Corrigan leans heavily on Maryland players, including Marlatt and Doyle, plus freshman attackman Mikey Wynne (St. Paul’s) as they seek to make a second straight NCAA title game and win a first national championship.
Marlatt, who was allowed a fifth season after losing his freshman year to injury, was a starting midfielder for three seasons and returned for a second season as captain in 2015. He’s seen a slightly reduced role for this year’s team, but enters the semifinal Saturday ranked sixth on the team with 19 points.
Doyle has started all but two of his 63 games in South Bend, compiling 50 points in his first two seasons then doubling his career total by the end of his junior year. This season, he’s second on the team and one point behind junior attackman Matt Kavanagh with 50 points.
Wynne, the third attackman with Kavanagh and Doyle, has a team-leading 33 goals. He leads a massive group of underclassmen from the Baltimore area, including sophomore starting defenseman Garrett Epple (Calvert Hall) and several high school All-Americans waiting their turn, like sophomore Ben Pridemore (Boys’ Latin), and freshmen Brendan Collins (Georgetown Prep), Alex Hurdle (McDonogh) and John Travisano, Jr. (Howard) .
Wynne said that in addition to being team leaders who steadfastly keep the team working hard on the field and focused on the future, not the past, Marlatt and Doyle have been off-field resources for young players adjusting to life far from home.
“It’s definitely reassuring to all the underclassmen,” Wynne said. “We’re looking to see what it was like before, if things are different now, and the older guys are telling you that you’d get through everything academically, socially, and on the field. Knowing they’ve been through it before was a big help.”
Doyle is Wynne’s lockermate, the freshman watching how the senior who also started in his first year carries himself around the team. He grew up around Marlatt, who played for Wynne’s father, Brian, and alongside Wynne’s brother, Zach, on Howard County Cobras teams.
Wynne said Marlatt is like a big brother to him; Marlatt said Wynne’s presence in South Bend allows him the rare opportunity to reflect on his playing career and time at Notre Dame.
“It’s special for me to have Mikey Wynne this year,” Marlatt said. “He was always the little kid on the sidelines, and I was able to do the fifth year and come back and he’s a freshman this year having a great season. That’s been really special. It kind of helped me reflect, seeing him so excited to get here.”
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