Ahead of Notre Dame’s national semifinal against Syracuse at 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, graduate attacker Josh Yago enters Memorial Day Weekend as both the Fighting Irish’s leading scorer and a second lieutenant in the U.S. Space Force—juggling military leave,
When Memorial Day Weekend arrived, Josh Yago was already carrying two seasons at once—one on the field at Notre Dame, and another far from it in the U.S. Space Force.
The graduate student attacker has been the engine behind the Fighting Irish’s run to the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship. Notre Dame. one of four teams still standing on the holiday weekend for the third time in the last four years. opens Saturday’s national semifinal against No. 6 seed Syracuse at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Yago comes into the semifinal leading Notre Dame with 47 points and ranking second in goals with 29. It’s the kind of production that makes Saturday feel like a turning point—especially for someone who may be playing what could be his final collegiate game. the same way every Notre Dame postseason game has mattered.
On the other side of that question is the bigger reality: Yago is leaving after this season. He was taken in the 2026 Premier Lacrosse League Draft by the Philadelphia Waterdogs, and after the season ends he is set to return to Colorado Springs to resume his training.
But first comes Syracuse.
For Yago, the Air Force and the Space Force aren’t background details. They determine what’s possible on game days.
He is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Space Force, a branch organized under the Department of the Air Force, according to the Space Force’s own description. That status affects eligibility in a practical way—road games.
After Notre Dame’s 15-9 quarterfinal win over Johns Hopkins, Yago confirmed he has enough remaining military leave to keep traveling with the team through the championship stretch.
“I can confirm. I have enough. I’ll be playing championship weekend and then hopefully, on Monday (in the national championship game),” Yago said on ESPN with a smile.
That answer matters because Notre Dame’s postseason is not just another run. The Fighting Irish are reaching the NCAA title event after back-to-back national championship titles in 2023 and 2024—an achievement that has already shaped expectations. And yet, for Yago, there’s no pretending the timing isn’t heavy.
He is also one year removed from missing out on championship weekend.
Who is Josh Yago?
Josh Yago is a graduate student attacker at Notre Dame. He transferred to the Fighting Irish this past offseason from the United States Air Force Academy.
In his final season at Air Force. he graduated as an All-ASUN First Team selection and one of the top players in the country. He helped lead the Falcons to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017 last season. He did that while in the NCAA Transfer Portal and using a redshirt season to compete this year.
His request to transfer and play at Notre Dame came with restrictions. Yago’s move had to be played outside of the Military Service Academy—along the same lines that the Ivy League does not allow graduate students. That request was eventually granted at Notre Dame.
Amid all the lacrosse focus, the eligibility path is tightly tied to academics and military rules.
Yago is not allowed to receive any athletic money or NIL compensation at Notre Dame. What he needed in order to attend—and eventually play—was academic funding from Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business for Air Force. The funding benchmark was met during last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Yago described the scramble and uncertainty in plain terms.
“I had to apply to the school on my own. I got in on my own, and I got the money on my own. And it was kind of just like a blessing, in a sense, where everything worked. A lot of pieces had to line up for this to work. And it was kind of nuts looking back. I’m still shocked that it worked because it was definitely a shot in the dark,” Yago told Inside Lacrosse.
Then came the next obstacle: clearance from the Air Force to play lacrosse in South Bend.
That clearance did not come immediately. It arrived two weeks after he met with Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan in August of last year, a meeting in which Yago told Corrigan he didn’t think he would be able to play for the Fighting Irish.
At Notre Dame, lacrosse is considered his “free time” from his Air Force assignment and duty. The structure is clear: he needs to use military leave for road games.
Yago said he trained throughout the summer just in case.
“I was shocked. I was training throughout the summer just in case. because. like. I always kind of knew — it’s got to work out. it has to. I had that belief where I was like, it just has to work out. I was going to find a way. And when I got that phone call, I was jumping up and down, ‘Oh my God. It’s gonna happen,’” he continued to Inside Lacrosse.
All of that background lands in the present tense on a field where he’s already become one of Notre Dame’s most reliable threats.
How Yago landed at Notre Dame was multi-layered—built from redshirt eligibility. academic funding. and the Air Force clearance process that turned out to be the final piece. The result is a player who enters the semifinal with 47 points and 29 goals on the season. including a run that has made Notre Dame’s postseason run feel inevitable.
His path has also reached beyond college.
Josh Yago Premier Lacrosse League
The future is already signed, even if the focus stays on Syracuse. Yago was selected with the No. 6 overall pick by the Philadelphia Waterdogs in the Premier Lacrosse League draft.
He was one of two Notre Dame players taken in this year’s draft. The other was Will Donovan, selected by the Boston Cannons.
Josh Yago stats
At the Air Force Academy and Notre Dame, Yago’s scoring tells a steady climb toward this postseason moment:
2022: Did Not Play (Injured)
2023: 30 points (18 goals and 12 assists) with 16 ground balls
2024: 54 points (24 goals and 30 assists) with 35 ground balls
2025: 72 points (37 goals and 35 assists) with 27 ground balls
2026: 47 points (29 goals and 18 assists) with 31 ground balls
There’s a kind of arithmetic running through all of it—military leave, academic benchmarks, clearance timelines, and draft picks. But on Saturday, the numbers that matter most are the ones on the scoreboard and the ones on his stat line.
When Notre Dame faces Syracuse at 2:30 p.m. ET, Yago will do what his path has forced him to learn: be ready for the next constraint, and keep playing anyway.
Josh Yago Notre Dame lacrosse Syracuse NCAA men's lacrosse championship U.S. Space Force Air Force Academy transfer Philadelphia Waterdogs Premier Lacrosse League draft Kevin Corrigan Memorial Day Weekend