Welcome to the Gameday Guide.

Every weekend during the college lacrosse season, US Lacrosse Magazine staff will riff here on the juiciest matchups, trendiest topics, biggest storylines and hottest takes.

Two top-10 showdowns — No. 2 Penn State at No. 9 Penn and No. 3 Notre Dame at No. 8 Maryland — highlight the slate.

Are the Ivy League teams, who were all the rage last week, in trouble? Let’s dig in.

TEN TO WATCH
All times Eastern

GAME OF THE WEEK
No. 3 Notre Dame at No. 8 Maryland

The postponement of the Terps’ game against Navy due to a Norovirus outbreak among the Midshipmen may have been a blessing for Maryland. They’ve now had 11 days to recover from a 13-12 loss to Villanova in which their trend of falling behind against reputedly inferior opponents came back to bite them.

The Fighting Irish, by contrast, have looked incredibly sharp — especially in a 13-5 blowout win over a Richmond team that gave Maryland fits. If freshmen Liam Entenmann (69.6 save percentage) and Pat Kavanagh (seven goals, five assists) keep playing this well and Bryan Costabile rediscovers his shooting stroke (0-for-6 against Richmond), Notre Dame could have the Terps on the ropes once more.

UPSET WATCH
Johns Hopkins at No. 5 Princeton

Whenever you think the sky is falling on Homewood Field, it seems, the Blue Jays respond with a table-turning triumph. This feels like one of the those games.

Hopkins was in this exact same position two years ago, right down to the opponents. In 2018, the Blue Jays opened the season with a win over Towson, followed by consecutive setbacks against Loyola and North Carolina. Then they beat Princeton to start a seven-game winning streak that also included victories over Syracuse, Virginia, Rutgers and Ohio State.

This is a different Princeton team, of course, one riding the high of Michael Sowers’ early season scoring explosion and a win over defending NCAA champion Virginia. Still, dismiss Hopkins at your own risk.

Come to think of it, should the whole Ivy League be on alert? Penn State is favored over Penn, Cornell hasn’t faced a test like Ohio State and UMass’ early-season yo-yo act could catch Yale on the upswing.

BEST GAME NO ONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Holy Cross at No. 15 Army – Saturday 12 p.m. (PLN)

Let the Patriot League Hunger Games commence.

Conference play opens this weekend and, after Navy-Lehigh, this might be the next-most intriguing matchup. Holy Cross (4-1) is off to its best start since 1981 after defeating Harvard by one goal for the third straight season, and Army (3-2) has cooled down significantly since its scorching start with consecutive losses to Marist and Syracuse.

Army has dominated the series, its lone loss in 31 meetings coming in 2015. The Black Knights narrowly edged the Crusaders in the regular season last year but defeated them rather handily in the Patriot League tournament.

UNDER-THE-RADAR STARS

George Prince, Dartmouth: The IMG Academy product has shown signs of a breakthrough season, amassing 13 points (eight goals on 8-of-13 shooting, five assists) as the Big Green are 2-0 for the first time since 2012.

Charles Leonard, Notre Dame: The one-time long pole has won 28 of 35 faceoffs to help propel the Fighting Irish to a 2-0 start. At 80 percent, he’s currently atop Division I leaders.

Nicky Solomon, North Carolina: Chris Gray’s exploits have garnered most of the attention, and rightfully so. But Solomon has been almost as impressive, pacing the Tar Heels with 14 assists during their 4-0 start.

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