HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Ryan Karr (Fr., Menlo Park, Calif.) scored five times to collect Player of the Game notice and Tomas Watson (Sr., London, England, United Kingdom) put away four attempts to combine for nine goals as New England Division Champion/No. 15-ranked Yale University had their prayers answered in upending Great Lakes Division Champion/No. 16 the University of Notre Dame to claim a spot in the 2026 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship Ninth Place game.
Yale – which returned to Nationals this year for the first time since placing second in 2011 at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia – will have a chance to add another sub-Top 10 finish to its all-time record at the championship following prior Second (2011), Seventh (2009), Fifth (2005), Fourth (2004) and Third (2003) place finishes.
The Bulldogs will return to the water at 2:15 p.m. Central on Sunday, November 8, against the victor of a consolation game matching Florida Division Champion/No. 10 Florida International University and Missouri Valley Division Champion Iowa state University.
Notre Dame – which has claimed 13th (2004), 12th (2025) and 11th (2016, 2019) place finishes in four prior trips to the Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship – can equal the team’s all-time best finish at the event when the Irish meet the loser of the FIU-Iowa State game at 3:30 p.m. Central in the 11th Place game.
Yale trailed once against Notre Dame as Michael Skale (So., St. Louis, Mo.) drew first blood with 6:24 remaining in the first quarter to provide the Irish a 1-0 margin. The remainder of the first quarter belonged to the New England Champions as Watson (5:40, man-up), Teddy Meeks (Jr., Menlo Park, Calif.) (3:41) and Karr (3:11) ticked off a trio of tallies to turn a deficit into a 3-1 Bulldogs’ lead,
Meeks (3:58) and Antonio Giraldez Greco (So., New Haven, Conn.) (3:14, man-up) expanded the margin to 5-1 midway through the second quarter prior to Notre Dame’s Zach Jones (Jr., Bellaire, Texas) terminating the run by pumping in a counterstrike at 2:09 to move the Irish back to within three at 5-2.
Karr (59 seconds) and Watson (16 seconds) capped off the first half scoring by stuffing in last minute markers to pad Yale’s lead to 7-2 through 14 minutes of competition.
Jones (6:37) struck first in the third quarter to close the gap to 7-3 before back-to-back connections by Karr at 6:21 (penalty shot) and 5:20 provided the Bulldogs a sizable six-goal lead at 9-3. Owen Helenski (So., Conshohocken, Pa.) (2:56, man-up) and Jones (59 seconds, man-up) shrank Notre Dame’s deficit down to 9-5 before Watson (39 seconds) and Connor Burke (Jr., Hinsdale, Ill.) (six seconds, man-up) exchanged scoring shots to set the scoreboard at 10-6 in favor of Yale.
The Bulldogs doubled-up Notre Dame within the first four minutes of the fourth quarter as Karr (6:02, man-up) and Giraldez Greco (3:51) lined in shots to expand Yale’s margin to 12-6. Nico Lohmann (Fr., Sao Paulo, Brazil) (2:54) and Watson (2:40) converted on even-strength opportunities to keep the gap at six before Helenski (2:34; 1:41, man-up) and Nate Pennington (Sr, Dayton, Ohio) (10 seconds, man-up) closed out the contest with a 3-0 run to establish the 13-10 final score.
Jones and Helenski were the high-scorers for Notre Dame with hat-tricks (three goals). Burke, Skale, Pennington and Lohmann each deposited solo strikes, while goalkeeper Xavier Williams (So., Houston, Texas) turned aside eight shots in cage.
Yale’s offense came from four athletes as Kerr (five), Watson (four), Meeks (two) and Giraldez Greco (two) handled business in front of the Irish cage. Garrett Curtis (Jr., New Haven, Conn.) made 12 saves to earn the win guarding the Bulldogs’ net.
Yale University’s Garrett Curtis (#1)
University of Notre Dame’s Owen Helenski (#12) lines up a shot as Yale University’s Antonio Giraldez Greco (#15) closes in
Yale University’s Ryan Karr (#21) & University of Notre Dame’s Brody Suba (#20)
