Syracuse Continues Ascent Back to College Lacrosse's Summit

It’s easy to forget the last time Syracuse reached the No. 1 ranking.

Not because it was eons ago. Rather, because of precisely when it happened.

The Orange’s 11-9 victory over Maryland on Friday vaulted Gary Gait’s team to the top spot for the first time since March 9, 2020. And, of course, the sports world (and society in general) skidded to a halt thanks to a pandemic.

Syracuse wouldn’t play another game until Feb. 21, 2021, when it opened the year at No. 4 and promptly lost to Army. That commenced a 7-6 season that ended coach John Desko’s tenure. Gait took over, Syracuse plummeted to 4-10 in 2022 and then gradually moved its way back toward the top of the spot.

Along the way, it spawned the never-ending question of, “IS SYRACUSE BACK?!?!” Among the milestones that failed to quash this trend: A NCAA tournament berth (2024) and a trip to the semifinals (2025). 

Now, there’s a No. 1 ranking few are likely to remember if there isn’t an Orange restoration this May.

Yet perhaps it’s worth taking a moment or two to acknowledge what was once commonplace for the team with a home Dome advantage is now worth a mention. In a 20-season span from 1983 to 2002, Syracuse won twice as many national titles (eight) as it had seasons when it did not play a game as the top-ranked team in Division I (four: 1987, 1996, 1997 and 1999).

Sure, there was a five-year run from 2003-07 when Syracuse didn’t make it back to No. 1 in the polls, but it still added national championship hardware during that stretch (2004).

Of course, the Orange followed that by getting to the top of the rankings in each of the next four seasons, winning titles in 2008 and 2009 while in 2011 fielding arguably the best team since the NCAA adopted the championship weekend format in 1986 to not to reach the semifinals.

That Syracuse team lost 6-5 in the NCAA quarterfinals to Maryland, the first of eight consecutive stumbles against the Terrapins prior to Friday. The Orange would have a few trips to No. 1 over the next decade and a half — three games to start 2014 (ended by a home loss to Maryland), seven contests in 2015 (including two postseason games, though Syracuse was actually the No. 2 seed that year) and four games in April 2017 — before beating Johns Hopkins in March 2020 before the season was halted.

If there’s a little solace in the recent history, it comes from how few teams were able to take advantage of Syracuse’s absence from the top spot. In the nearly six years between the Orange’s most recent No. 1 rankings, only eight programs spent even a week at the peak of the poll.

WEEKS AT NO. 1 BETWEEN
SYRACUSE’S LAST TWO APPEARANCES

And now Syracuse is back at the top — of the rankings. Until at least Memorial Day weekend, it will have to suffice as the latest notable first-in-a-long-while achievements in Syracuse’s ascent back to college lacrosse’s summit.