ANNAPOLIS, MD – Third-ranked and third-seeded Notre Dame used a 7-2 mid-game run to turn a 4-4 tie into an 11-6 advantage and the Fighting Irish held off a late-game rally by fifth-ranked and sixth-seeded Johns Hopkins to advance to the NCAA Semifinals with a 12-9 victory Sunday afternoon.  The Blue Jay cap the season at 12-6, while Notre Dame moves to 12-2 and will face Virginia in the NCAA Semifinals next Saturday.
 
The teams battled evenly through 20 minutes with ties at each turn through 4-4.  Hopkins grabbed an early 1-0 lead on a Nick Kaufman strike in transition off a feed from Jakson Raposo just 3:32 into the game; as it turned out, that would be the only lead of the day for the Blue Jays. 
 
Notre Dame answered the Kaufman goal with two straight and grabbed one-goal leads at 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3, only to have those margins trimmed on Blue Jay goals from Garrett Degnon, Johnathan Peshko and Russell Melendez.
 
The Irish grabbed the lead for good with a three-goal spurt to close the second quarter as the Irish defense held Hopkins scoreless for the final 14 minutes after Melendez forced the fourth and final tie of the first half at 4-4.  Chris Kavanaugh ignited the half-ending run with his second of the game at the 9:12 mark and Eric Dobson made it a two-goal game for the first time with an unassisted goal midway through the period.  The 6-4 lead held until just under two minutes remained in the half when Pat Kavanagh slipped a quick feed to the slot and Jack Simmons quick-sticked it home.
 
The Blue Jays trimmed the margin to 7-6 with the first two goals of the third quarter.  Melendez came from behind the goal and beat Notre Dame goalie Liam Entenmann from in tight to make it 7-5 and Matt Collison got top side and stuck one in inside the far post with exactly eight minutes on the third quarter clock.
 
The Irish needed less than three minutes to push the lead to back to three at 9-6.  Jake Taylor went low and snuck one inside the far post just 33 seconds after Collison's goal and Simmons came from behind the goal 90 seconds later and beat Blue Jay goalie Tim Marcille from in tight.
 
The three-goal margin was at a game-high five after Taylor and Jalen Seymour scored late in the third and early in the fourth, respectively, before the Blue Jays made things interesting with back-to-back goals from Collison and Degnon in a 55-second span midway through the final period.
 
The Blue Jays had a pair of chances to trim the deficit to two down the stretch, but Entenmann made four of his 10 saves on the day in the final period to keep the margin at three.  A Chris Kavanagh empty net goal with 2:16 on the clock was answered by Peshko's second of the game 16 seconds later, but a late Blue Jay penalty helped the Irish kill off most of the final 90 seconds to seal the victory.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Degnon, Melendez, Collison and Peshko call scored two goals for the Blue Jays, who also got two assists from Jacob Angelus.
• Senior Matt Narewski won 14-of-20 faceoffs and had four ground balls as the Blue Jays held a 16-8 advantage at the X.
• Junior Scott Smith drew the assignment of marking Tewaaraton Finalist Pat Kavanagh and limited him to just one assist.  Kavanagh had scored at least three points in all 13 of Notre Dame's games this season.
• Degnon's two goals extended his goal-scoring streak to 30 games.  He also ends the season with 41 goals to become the first JHU player with back-to-back 40-goal seasons since Ryan Brown did it in 2014 and 2015.  He is just the fifth player in school history to score 40 or more goals in two different seasons.
• With two assists, Angelus ends the season with 44, which is tied for the fourth-best total in school history.
 
Inside the Box Score – Notre Dame
• Chris Kavanagh and Simmons paced the Irish with three goals and one assist each while Taylor added three goals.
• Notre Dame held a 43-31 advantage in shots, while the Blue Jays won the ground ball battle, 27-25.