John Danowski isn’t taking the last meeting between Duke and Notre Dame on April 6 as an indication of how Saturday’s ACC semifinal might go.

The Blue Devils won that game 14-8. Danowski isn’t so sure there will be a repeat.

“Reality is, they beat Carolina. We didn’t,” he said. “They beat Marquette by seven. We beat Marquette by one. Right now, they’re playing better lacrosse than we are. And right now, coming into this game, you could say they’re the better team.”

Perhaps Danowski is hoping to temper expectations for his Blue Devils team ranked No. 4 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Men’s Division I Top 20. Given that this contest will occur exactly three weeks since the teams’ first meeting, it’s fair to say that things have changed.

He doesn’t want his guys feeling overzealous.

“We’re really just focusing on ourselves, and not really so much on our opponent,” Danowski said. “This is the fifth year in a row that we’ve played Notre Dame twice, once in the regular season and then once in the ACC tournament.”

NO. 4 DUKE VS. NO. 11 NOTRE DAME
WHEN: Saturday, April 27, 4:30 p.m. 
WATCH: ESPNU

In the last matchup, Duke outshot Notre Dame 36-28 despite the Irish’s Charles Leonard helping the team win 15 of 26 faceoffs. Danowski was blunt in saying how Duke underperformed at the X in that game, emphasizing the importance of Brian Smyth and the wing players this time around.

“It’s something that each week we strive to be better at,” he said. “We strive to be better [at the X] and then on the wing play. We look at the faceoff game as 10 different ways to gain possession of the ball.”

Without a true superstar, Duke relies on the sum of its parts more so than other top teams. The Blue Devils struggled to score in a 10-9 overtime win against Marquette, and Danowski admitted that having a go-to star would make things easier. Instead, he relies on “six guys playing together.”

“This is an interesting team,” he said. “We have no stars. We have no key players. Everybody needs to be the guy. Everybody needs to make the play in front of them, whether it’s a ground ball or a slide. Everybody needs to do their job.”

It’s not easy to beat an ACC opponent twice, especially one of Notre Dame’s caliber. The Irish have some star power in Bryan Costabile, but that wasn’t enough to down Duke’s depth last time around.

Then again, Danowski was adamant that last time doesn’t matter. It’s all about Saturday.

OTHERS TO WATCH

No. 20 Johns Hopkins at No. 3 Maryland
Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Big Ten Network

A state rivalry game with major implications for Johns Hopkins, while Maryland would likely lock up a first-round home game with a win. Hopkins’ strength of schedule is impressive, but a loss to Maryland would mean that it needs to win the Big Ten tournament to earn an NCAA bid, and the difficulty of that speaks for itself. Maryland is 3-0 since it’s loss to No. 1 Penn State on March 31, including a key 10-9 win in overtime against Ohio State. The Terps lock up the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament with a win, assuming Penn State handles Rutgers. Johns Hopkins has more to lose here than Maryland has to gain, but both teams stand to benefit from a win this late in the season.

Delaware at No. 13 UMass
Friday, 5 p.m., Lax Sports Network

The top seed in the CAA tournament is on the line. Delaware, Towson and UMass are 3-1 in conference play, putting the pressure on in what appears to be a one-bid conference. Towson plays Drexel on Saturday at noon in another game to monitor, but Delaware-UMass is the CAA game of the week. Delaware’s 14-12 loss to Towson pushed the Blue Hens out of the Top 20 but didn’t totally jeopardize their bid to host the tournament. They’ll need to beat UMass and hope Towson loses. UMass, meanwhile, has beaten Towson and Fairfield after a heartbreaking overtime loss to Hofstra. That could come back to bite UMass, but beating Delaware would ease any worry.

ON THE RADAR

All times Eastern. For a full list of broadcast games, please visit our US Lacrosse TV/Streaming page.

FRIDAY, APRIL 26

4 p.m.

Marist vs. Canisius (ESPNU)
No. 16 Boston University at Navy (Patriot League Network)

6 p.m.

No. 10 Ohio State at Michigan (ESPNU)

7 p.m.

Colgate at Bucknell (CBS Sports Network)
Albany at Stony Brook (AmericaEast.tv)

9 p.m.

No. 12 Denver at Marquette (Fox Sports 1)

SATURDAY, APRIL 27

Noon

Princeton at No. 9 Cornell (ESPN+)
Richmond at No. 15 High Point (ESPN+)
No. 14 Towson at Drexel (Dragons TV)

1 p.m.

No. 17 Villanova at Providence (Big East Digital Network)

2 p.m.

No. 7 Virginia vs. No. 8 Syracuse (4 seed)/North Carolina (5 seed) (ESPNU)

2:30 p.m.

Rutgers at No. 1 Penn State (Big Ten Network)