Just one matchup into its six-game road trip, No. 6 Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse (3-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) has already lost the No. 1 ranking and took its first defeat of the season. SU fell to then-No. 14 Harvard 13-12 last Saturday.
A main reason for the Crimson’s victory was the second quarter, where they outscored the Orange 5-0. Syracuse head coach Gary Gait felt his team fell out of sync during the second frame. “We weren’t in the flow,” Gait said. “[Harvard] played some great defense, they competed on the faceoffs. They didn’t let us get into a rhythm.
The Orange now visit No. 7 Princeton (1-1, 0-0 Ivy League). The Tigers are fresh off of an upset win at then-No. 2 Maryland 13-12 on Saturday.
The last time Syracuse and Princeton met was in the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinal in Hempstead, N.Y. The Orange and Tigers combined for 11 goals in the first quarter, and SU ultimately won the high-scoring affair 19-18. Eight players finished with at least three points in the contest, but then-junior Joey Spallina led the way for Syracuse with eight points.
Just five minutes into the contest, the Tigers led 4-2. But the second quarter was Spallina’s time to shine. The attackman went on a 3-0 run by himself, giving SU the lead 9-7. Fast-forward to the fourth quarter, the teams were knotted up at 18. Already with four goals on the afternoon, Spallina notched his fourth assist on a feed to attackman Owen Hiltz for the game-winner with under four minutes to play.
In the final stretch of the game, @CuseMLAX attackman Owen Hiltz was ready to deliver.@GriffinMarcy1 narrated the attackman's clutch tally.
— WAER Sports (@WAERSports) May 17, 2025
📻@waer883, https://t.co/BG0Q3sGq3P pic.twitter.com/OoOtEAprsE
Ahead of a rematch with the Tigers, Gait touched on the competitiveness he sees out of Ivy league schools. “I just think they are very good teams,” Gait said. “We’ve got two really high-level teams that are playing each other and it creates such close, high-scoring games.”
When it comes to scoring, nobody does it better for the Orange than Spallina. Four games into his senior season, the Tewaaraton favorite has racked up 21 points, eight more than any other SU player.
Princeton, meanwhile, has its own point-scoring threat. Senior Chad Palumbo tallied four points in the Tigers victory at Maryland. But Syracuse is already plenty familiar with the senior midfielder, who matched Spallina with eight points in the Quarterfinal matchup a season ago.
“The offensive sides of Princeton-Syracuse are just two teams that are coached very well.” Gait said. “They move the ball very well and they can score a lot of goals, so it’s a challenge to both defenses to try and limit that. The results have been high-scoring, one-goal games so far.”
Gait, Spallina and the sixth-ranked Orange don’t just have an NCAA Quarterfinal victory to defend. Princeton is aiming for revenge after losing the last six matchups between the schools. In fact, the last time the Tigers took down the Orange was in April of 2009, the second and final loss of SU’s national-championship winning 2009 campaign.
No. 6 Syracuse’s six-game road trip continues with a visit to No. 7 Princeton on Friday at 4 p.m. Tune in to WAER for this top-ten matchup, our coverage begins with McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Faceoff at 3:30.
