One week ago, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team (5-6, 2-1 Big East) was fresh off a devastating collapse at MultiSport Facility that saw a 4-0 fourth-quarter Villanova run allow the visitors to escape with an 8-6 victory. It was just the latest let-down in a trying first campaign for Head Coach KevinWarne, who has also seen his team let a fourth-quarter lead slip away at home to Lafayette and fail to stay competitive in a 14-6 blowout at the hands of Mount St. Mary’s.

Last Saturday against St. John’s, however, senior midfielder Dan McKinney’s overtime goal gave theHoyas a crucial Big East win and newfound life. At 2-1 in the conference, Georgetown is tied for second with both Syracuse and this weekend’s opponent, No. 5 Notre Dame.

“They are the No. 5 team in the country for a reason. They’re very good defensively and very sound offensively. They don’t have a so-called ‘superstar,’ but they have a lot of very good players,” Warnesaid. “We’re going to have to stick to our fundamentals and the cornerstone of our defense to limit their opportunities, but we’ll see what happens on Sunday at 11 a.m.”

One of the major reasons behind Georgetown’s early-season slide was an injury to senior attack and captain Brian Casey, who was leading the team in points when he went down against Providence on March 16.

“Losing Brian has definitely been tough, but we’ve really come together as a team; everybody is contributing and our offense has improved,” sophomore attack Reilly O’Connor said.

O’Connor has been certainly seen his own share of improvement, as his 34 points — split evenly between goals and assists — put the Canadian atop the Hoyas’ scoring leaderboard by a full 10 points.

“Reilly has been our best offensive player. He’s been improving every game to not just be a so-called Canadian finisher, and he’s been getting points in all kinds of ways,” Warne said. “I’m very excited about his development over the past couple months.”

O’Connor is only one of the many talented sophomores that Warne has at his disposal this season. Sophomore midfielder Charles McCormick is third in scoring for the Blue and Gray with 12 goals and six assists, while redshirt sophomore goalie Jake Haley made five crucial saves in the fourth quarter of last weekend’s win. The strength of the class is only made more impressive by the fact that three members of the sophomore class jumped ship once Warne replaced former Head Coach Dave Urick.

“It’s hard work, the early mornings during the offseason and everything,” O’Connor said. “[Defender] Joe Bucci, [defender] Billy Flatley, [midfielder] Bryson Greene, our whole class, we’re a really tight group. We’re sticking together and staying for the future.”

O’Connor may be carrying the Georgetown offense in Casey’s absence, but the team’s MVP has undoubtedly been long-stick faceoff man and redshirt junior defender Tyler Knarr, who is seventh in the nation with 7.64 ground balls per game.

“One of the most important things about facing off is being confident — you have to be confident that your move is going to work,” Knarr — who ranks in the top five in the country in faceoff win percentage — said. “I do get nervous for the opening faceoff of games during the national anthem, but once the whistle blows, that’s totally gone.”

The trip to South Bend, Ind., is going to be Georgetown’s toughest test of the season. A 13-8 loss to Loyola at home and a 19-7 thrashing in Durham, N.C., at the hands of the Blue Devils mean that theHoyas have yet to keep it close against a true national title contender this season.

Notre Dame’s defense, which is seventh in the country at just 7.8 goals allowed per game, is led by a 2012 first team All-American between the pipes in senior goalie John Kemp. Kemp, a high school teammate of Brian Casey’s, is in his third year as the Irish’s starting goalie, but his .537 save percentage is down from his .637 a year ago and .602 as a sophomore.

“Put the ball on the cage — that will be the easiest way to beat him,” Warne said about facing Kemp. “It’s going to be a big challenge for our offense, but I think we’re up for it.

The opening faceoff is set for 11 a.m. on Sunday, and the game will be televised on ESPNU and WatchESPN.com.