No. 1 Syracuse men’s lacrosse faces first challenge at maintaining top-rank against No. 14 Harvard

No. 1 Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse (3-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coastal Conference) have shown little holes in its opening three games. On Saturday, the Orange take to Cambridge for a meeting with No. 14 Harvard (2-0, 0-0 Ivy League). With a victory, SU will start the year 4-0 for the first time since 2020.

In Syracuse’s last matchup, a 11-9 win against then top-ranked Maryland, the Orange hadn’t beaten the Terrapins in 17 seasons. But the trend against the Crimson has been quite the opposite.

Syracuse is 19-1 against Harvard and undefeated in Cambridge. Though, the most recent matchups between the Orange and the Crimson come close to comfort. SU played Harvard twice last season, both games were decided by a one goal margin: the most recent matchup in favor of the Orange (14-13) and the one preceding it marked Harvard's first win over SU (15-14).

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The Crimson were able to contend with the Orange last season mainly through defensive pressure. Across both meetings in 2025, Syracuse turned the ball over a combined 35 times. Keeping unforced errors to a minimum this time around is a major key according to Syracuse head coach Gary Gait.

“Throughout this entire year, we've spent more time focusing on clearing the ball and possessing the ball and being smart with it… Give them as few possessions as possible because they're dynamic on offense and they can put the ball in the goal.”

Across the Orange’s opening three games this year, they’ve logged 37 turnovers: just two more than their two game total against Harvard last year. As for Harvard, its offense has spoken for itself. The Crimson notched 14 goals per game last season, the second most in the Ivy League – a conference with many Lacrosse juggernauts like No. 5 Cornell and No. 12 Princeton. However, if anyone can match Harvard’s production, it's SU attackman Joey Spallina.

The captain has ripped through his first three opponents notching hat tricks or better in each game. With a hat trick against Harvard, Spallina can be the first player to log four straight hat tricks since 2022 in midfielder Tucker Dordevic. Productivity has been a staple all throughout Spallina’s time with Syracuse. The attackman has contributed 264 points to the Orange. That’s good for 7th on SU’s all time points leaderboard. He trails John Zulberti with 267 in 6th and Tim Nelson 271 in 5th. With eight or more points against the Crimson, Spallina will be firmly planted in SU’s top five all time point scorers. He’s hit that mark nine times with the Orange.

“I’m not trying to do too much.” Joey said after taking down then No. 1 Maryland. “Whether that's dodging really hard to my spot and then kicking the ball forward so then the guys on the back side can get some space to dodge. Just doing whatever I got to do.”

Syracuse enters Cambridge with a perfect 12-0 road record against Harvard. With a win, both that road record and the ‘Cuse’s season will remain spotless. But this is only the beginning of Syracuse's road journey. Harvard marks the first of six consecutive road matchups, SU’s most in a row since 1972. Gait will certainly be missing the Dome.

There's no other place in the world where you can go to a game in February and have 10,000 people screaming and yelling and cheering,” Gait said. “This is the greatest place to play lacrosse. There's no question about that.”

No. 1 Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse’s road trip kicks off against No. 14 Harvard on Saturday at 1 p.m. Join us for all our coverage with McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Faceoff at 12:30 on WAER.