It’s the home stretch of the season for No. 8 Syracuse men’s lacrosse (7-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference,) but it certainly won’t be a victory lap to end 2025. SU finishes the year with five big-time matchups, the first of which is down in Charlottesville against Virginia (5-4, 0-0 ACC) on Saturday.
The Orange find themselves in a strong position after taking down then No. 18 Colgate 16-12 last Saturday in a game that certainly posed the opportunity for an upset. SU is winners of four straight games, and that momentum is something that’s extremely important heading into conference play, with matchups against No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 1 Cornell, No. 11 Duke, and No. 5 North Carolina on the horizon.
“Lacrosse is a hard game because you play to develop… and that’s why you see so many upsets,” SU head coach Gary Gait said postgame. “I’m just proud of this team for being consistent and taking care of business when they’re supposed to.”
While picking up a fourth-straight win is important, the main storyline to come from the Colgate win happened on the turf. Early in the contest, SU attackmen Joey Spallina and Owen Hiltz reached 200 career points on the same play, in just 42 and 54 games respectively. But when a team has national championship aspirations like that, personal milestones take more of the backburner.
“The only thing that matters is championships and wins, and I guarantee you that (Spallina and Hiltz) would say the same thing, that it’s really not a big deal,” Gait said last Thursday. “It’s nice to hit it and know people recognize you for it. But they would much rather walk away at the end of the year, not as the leading point-scorer in history or anything like that, but as a national champion.”
As Syracuse continues to strive with its big-time players making big-time plays, Virginia has struggled this season to replace the output of some of its stars from last season. Former NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Connor Shellenberger and the NCAA Division I career goals record holder Payton Cormier both graduated in 2024, leaving some enormous shoes to fill on the attack for the Hoos. In 2025, it’s been a group of guys trying to replicate that success. Junior attacker Truitt Sunderland leads the charge with 41 points in nine games, followed by junior Ryan Colsey and USA Lacrosse Preseason All-American second-teamer McCabe Millon.
“[Our attack is] great,” Sunderland said earlier this season. “I just can't speak enough about how awesome [Millon and Colsey] are to make everyone on the field better. No one cares who's getting the points or the glory. As long as the ball gets in the back of the net, we’ve got six guys on the field that are really happy.”
Saturday also marks the 43rd-ever matchup between the Orange and Cavaliers. The all-time season series is deadlocked at 21 apiece in one of college lacrosse’s biggest feuds. The next chapter of this rivalry gets underway Saturday at 1 p.m., WAER’s coverage starts at 12:30 with McClurg Remodeling Countdown To Faceoff.