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Following its 11-7 road loss to Maryland Saturday, Syracuse men’s lacrosse dropped to No. 6 in the latest Inside Lacrosse Top-20 Poll, which was released Monday. The Orange fell four spots after previously being ranked No. 2 in the nation.
SU’s record against UMD under head coach Gary Gait dipped to 0-4 after Saturday’s result. After scrapping for a 5-4 halftime lead, bolstered by a personal two-goal run by star attack Joey Spallina, the Terrapins silenced the Orange in the second half. A 4-1 third-quarter deficit for Syracuse led to its doom, as its offense was shut down by a tenacious Maryland defense.
The Orange’s first true test of the 2025 campaign ended in their lowest-scoring game since Feb. 4, 2023. Their high-flying offense, led by Spallina, Owen Hiltz, Luke Rhoa and Finn Thomson couldn’t find a rhythm against the Terrapins’ physical long poles and speedy short sticks.
Gait said postgame that SU was forced into a slow style of play, which Maryland head coach John Tillman makes a living off of, and struggled to adjust.
“They executed a slow-down game. They used the shot clock almost every single possession,” Gait said of the Terrapins. “It wasn’t an up-and-down game … they were able to play their game and it worked out for them.”
The outcome rang similar to the Orange’s NCAA Quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Denver last May, when Syracuse failed to control the game’s pace en route to a 10-8 season-ending loss.
SU is now 1-1 facing ranked opponents this season, its win coming in blowout fashion over then-No. 16 Towson on Feb. 10. Gait’s squad is set to battle two ranked teams in their next three games, with matchups versus No. 17 Harvard this Saturday and No. 4 Johns Hopkins on March 9.
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