Syracuse lacrosse: NCAA Tournament vs. Yale and Harvard previews and game thread

The Orange are looking for revenge to keep their seasons going on the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Let the May Madness commence!

We’ve got ourselves quite a day to wrap up the opening weekend of NCAA Tournament play with a double dip of Syracuse Orange lacrosse.

The women are up first as they face 7th-seeded Yale on the road for the second time this season at 2 PM on ESPN+. The men follow closely behind as they host Harvard, also for the second time, at 5 PM on ESPN U.

Both Orange teams will have revenge on their minds as they look to extend their seasons. The women fell to Yale, 13-10, in early April, the game that started their late season swoon. The men, meanwhile, were upset by Harvard, 15-14, in late February. Both games are taking place on the same field as the regular season meeting.

Women vs. Yale — 2 PM on ESPN+

• All-time series:6th meeting; Yale leads, 3-2
• Last meeting: Yale W, 13-10, on April 2, 2025
• Syracuse this season: 10-8 overall, 5-4 ACC
• Yale this season: 15-3 overall, 5-2 Ivy

In the first meeting this season, ‘Cuse scored four goals in the first quarter and the game was tied 4-4 after 15 minutes. In between quarters, Yale made a goalie change and the Orange spent the rest of the game stuck in the mud, scoring only six goals the rest of the way.

‘Cuse got smoked on draw controls in that game, 19-7, and spent the vast majority of the game on defense. As a result, they only took 20 total shots, making it kind of amazing that they were able to get to 10 goals thanks to an efficient shooting night.

Emma Ward had three assists, but she was held without a shot by the Yale defense as they doubled her every time she touched the ball.

On the other end, the SU defense tried a variety of strategies that more or less failed across the board. Yale’s stars shone brightly, with their four leading scorers combining for 15 points.

Leading-scorer Fallon Vaughn (44G, 27A) had five goals, leading goal-scorer Jenna Collignon (62G, 4A) had a hat trick and eight draw controls, and third-leading scorer Taylor Lane (35G, 23A) had five points and seven draws. Sky Carrasquillo (49G, 7A) was held to a mere two goals.

On the season, Yale is a team that exhibits a dangerous combination of winning draw controls (58.9 percent, 11th nationally), taking care of the ball (10.5 turnovers per game, 2nd nationally) and clamping down on defense (8.33 goals-against per game, 4th nationally).

What can ‘Cuse do to win more than 27 percent of the draws? To take more than 20 shots? To take pressure off Emma Ward? To slow down Yale’s stars?

On Friday, the Orange looked like the March version of themselves, but now they’re going back to the team that started their slide in the same place that it started. They’ve been a young team all season long, and now’s their chance to prove they’ve grown.

Men vs. Harvard — 5 PM on ESPN U

• All-time series: 20th meeting; Syracuse leads, 18-1
• Last meeting: Harvard W, 15-14, on February 22, 2025
• Syracuse this season: 11-5 overall, 2-2 ACC
• Harvard this season: 10-4 overall, 4-2 Ivy

We all know the deal, right? The Orange won 28-of-32 face-offs in the regular season meeting but somehow lost the game.

They did so mostly by being careless with the ball and making some questionable shot selections. On top of that, it was also Jimmy McCool’s worst game of the year as he made five saves against 10 goals-against before being benched early in the third quarter.

As we already know, Harvard is a bad face-off team. They rank 72nd out of 74 teams with their 39.3 win percentage. Only Iona and Hampton are worse.

But they make up for it with their tenacity. Their ride is outstanding; Crimson opponents clear at only a 74.4 percent rate.

They lead the country with 11.79 caused turnovers per game, and they’re third in the country picking up 36.14 ground balls per game despite their terrible face-off percentage.

They’re very much a fast-and-furious, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type team. They’re fifth in the country in scoring offense (14.00), but also 54th in the country in scoring defense (11.93). And they’ve got the horses to do it with the likes of Tewaaraton finalist Sam King (35G, 29A), Jack Speidell (43G, 13A), Teddy Malone (29G, 17A) and Logan Ip (21G, 15A), among others.

So, we should be in for something of a track meet in this one.