There was nothing good going for number three Syracuse men’s lacrosse’s (9-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) 14-9 loss to number two North Carolina (10-1, 1-0 ACC). The offense? Stagnant. The defense? Not enough. Faceoffs? Dominated. The Orange struggled in all facets of the game.
First, the offense. SU had its fewest number of shots and shots on goal in almost a month. The ‘Cuse had just 24 of their 36 sent on net.
“I don’t think we shot particularly well,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “I think if we shot a little bit better, we’d be ok, and [UNC’s defense] made some really good plays. We were forcing it into the middle, we weren’t seeing the open guys, and when we’d throw it, a lot of times they were covered. They forced a lot of turnovers early on that started their run.”
The Orange had 15 turnovers, 10 came in the first half in which the Tar Heels won 8-5. Syracuse didn’t find much help from its captain, Joey Spallina, either. The senior had just three shots and was held pointless for just the second time this season.
“When he did get the ball a few times, they slid to double really quick,” Gait said. “There wasn’t much he could do; they made it really tough on him so that he couldn’t be a feeder.”
So that’s the offense, but what about the defense? Well, SU allowed just 25 shots on net, but they weren’t stopping many. Syracuse goalie Jimmy McCool allowed 12 goals with just seven saves. Coach Gait decided to pull the netminder for backup Michael Ippoliti early in the third quarter.
“We needed to change something up,” Gait said. “They had quite a lead, so we needed to do something to try and change the momentum… Jimmy is our starter, just today, they hit their shots.”
Ippoliti had four saves on six shots in his 20 minutes of action, but it was too little too late. SU got torched by UNC attackman Dominic Pietramala. The Tewaaraton watch list redshirt junior had five goals.
The @UNCMensLacrosse offense picked up right where it left off.@DanPapillo detailed the strike from Tar Heels redshirt junior Dominic Pietramala.
— WAER Sports (@WAERSports) April 4, 2026
📻@waer883, https://t.co/BG0Q3sGq3P pic.twitter.com/jk1zKdpu3h
Finally, the Orange got dominated at the X, winning just ten of 27 faceoffs.
“We have to make some adjustments and get better,” Gait said. “It was a tough game. North Carolina took advantage of all of our mistakes.”
Syracuse has a chance to make those adjustments against No. 14 Virginia in the Dome Saturday at 4 p.m.. Tune into WAER’s McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Faceoff at 5:30.
