With football and basketball in the thick of their offseasons, there’s another sport on the Hill that has turned heads all season long. That would be number 12 Syracuse men’s lacrosse, which entered 2025 with larger-than-life expectations. After a rollercoaster of a regular season, the Orange sat at 9-5 and in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament outright for the first time in a while. But down in Charlotte this weekend, SU put themselves back on the map, taking home its first ACC Championship since 2016.
Friday saw four-seeded Syracuse match up in the semifinals with top-seeded Notre Dame, the reigning back-to-back national champions. SU took down ND back in April, but the stakes were even higher in the second matchup. Behind a five-goal performance from attackman Owen Hiltz and a jaw-dropping 20 saves from redshirt junior netminder Jimmy McCool, the Orange took down the Irish 14-12 to advance to the championship game on Sunday. The win almost solidified Gary Gait’s squad into the NCAA Tournament, but there was still a bigger prize on the table…
The coveted ACC Championship has plagued Syracuse since 2016. All SU had to do to put their names back on top of the conference was defeat third-seeded Duke, who eliminated the ‘Cuse in 2024 and got the better of them a few weeks back. SU, which prided itself on its lockdown defense earlier in the season, put that to full use and held on in a 9-8 defensive slugfest. The Orange dominated the ground ball battle 37-20, and another lockdown performance from McCool earned him ACC Tournament MVP honors.
Syracuse men’s lacrosse continues its championship quest next weekend when the NCAA Tournament kicks off, and there’s a pretty good chance the Orange are hosting the first-round matchup at the JMA Wireless Dome. If you haven’t given the sport a shot, you’re missing out. An elite program in an elite atmosphere deserves all the support it can get, as SU searches for its first national championship since 2009.
