Syracuse men’s lacrosse: ACC Tournament Finals vs. Duke preview and game thread

The Orange and Blue Devils tangle for an ACC title and an improved seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Coming off their exciting, Friday night take down of Notre Dame, the 4-seed Syracuse Orange are back to face the 3-seed Duke Blue Devils with an ACC title on the line.

For the second time this season, the Orange played a physical, assertive and fun brand of lacrosse against a top-flight opponent. Now, they need to prove they can do it against someone who’s not the Irish.

The Orange and Blue Devils will face-off at 12 PM on the ACC Network.

• All-time series: 27th meeting; Syracuse leads, 15-11
• Last meeting: Duke W, 11-7, on April 19, 2025
• Syracuse this season: 10-5 overall, 3-2 ACC
• Duke this season: 12-4 overall, 3-2 ACC

Just over two weeks ago, the regular season meeting between these two was a complete disaster for ‘Cuse in an 11-7 loss in Durham. The Orange lacked intensity from the outset, were held scoreless in the both the first and third quarters, and finished with almost as many turnovers (18) as shots on goal (20).

It was arguably the worst performance of the season, so hopefully ‘Cuse has a lot more in store for Duke this time around.

The chief concern coming out of that game is how SU can find success against the stingy Blue Devil defense. Since the calendar flipped to April, Duke has given up an average of 7.6 goals per game over five contests, including just seven to the Orange.

What makes them especially difficult is that they don’t like to slide and are very good at winning their matchups and playing straight-up. That could potentially mean trouble for a ‘Cuse offense that isn’t great at consistently winning their individual matchups off the dodge.

We know the Orange love to try and attack their shortie matchups as much as possible, but the problem there is that Aidan Maguire is one of the best SSDMs in the country and was named ACC Co-Defensive Player of the Year last week. He’s basically another pole out there and his presence alongside the likes of close defender Charlie Johnson and goalie Patrick Jameison adds up to a tall task for the Orange offense.

One thing that would help is maximizing their opportunities, which all starts with Johnny Mullen and the face-off unit. In that first game, SU won the restarts, 12-10, but Mullen struggled against Duke backup FOGO Cal Girard, who went 8-of-14 on the day. It may take a better effort than 12-of-22 to give ‘Cuse as many cracks as possible at Duke.

On Friday against North Carolina, Duke made an important lineup change that paid big dividends in their dominating win over the Tar Heels. They’ve been looking for the right combination of their starting six on offense for much of the season, and on Friday they inserted sophomore Tomas Delgado into their first midfield alongside Max Sloat and Benn Johnston.

The payoff was significant. Delgado came into the game having scored three points on the entire season, and he led the Blue Devils with a hat trick and four points against UNC. The effects were contagious as every member of the starting offense scored multiple points to lead Duke to a 14-goal performance.

Could that lineup change be a light-switch moment for this Duke team? Jimmy McCool and the SU defense will do what they can to prevent that light from staying on. They’ll have to do a better job on leading-scorer Eric Malever, who lit them up for five goals in the first game.

One more thing to keep in mind is that Owen Hiltz played banged up and Finn Thomson was playing for the first time in a month and a half in the first meeting, so hopefully a healthier version of the ‘Cuse offense will be a good starting point for a more productive day.