© 2026 USA Lacrosse. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome to this week's edition of Unsettled, a weekly look at big stories, random observations and the numbers from the NCAA men's lacrosse scene.
Playing the sport you love while representing the United States in a foreign country is the experience of a lifetime. It’s also an experience that’s paying dividends on the lacrosse field in the early stages of the 2026 college lacrosse season.
Several members of the 2025 U.S. Men’s U20 team that competed in Korea last summer have gotten off to hot starts this year:
You can catch a behind-the-scenes look at that U20 team with a new docuseries, Behind the Shield, that drops its first episode on Monday on the USA Lacrosse YouTube channel. A total of seven episodes are included in the series, with new editions dropping each Monday and Thursday over the next month.
Is there a tougher out than Villanova … ever? The Wildcats added another upset to a long list of impressive wins over the years with a 14-13 come-from-behind victory over No. 9 Penn State in the biggest surprise of the weekend. Dan Martin, a graduate student limited to seven games last season because of injuries, scored the game-winner. Villanova had leads throughout the game, but Penn State had seemingly pulled away with a 12-9 lead with a little over six minutes to play. Villanova then flipped the table with four goals in a little over three minutes before getting the OT win.
Army wants no part of waiting for the committee to determine its fate after getting snubbed the last two seasons, but Saturday’s 11-9 win at Rutgers was a key nonconference win should the Patriot League not go its way. The game was tight throughout, but Army took advantage of some late mistakes by Rutgers. Tyler Clark gave Army a 10-9 lead after a miscommunication on a pass by Rutgers. Rutgers won the ensuing faceoff, but an outside shot was gobbled up by Sean Byrne, leading to a fast break that Gunnar Fellows converted for his fourth goal of the game. Rutgers had to press offensively the rest of the way, and that's not a good recipe for success against a goalie like Byrne.
John Danowski isn’t one to throw around praise lightly, especially for freshmen. But he didn’t hesitate when brining up Michael Ortlieb’s name ahead of this season. Ortlieb has settled in right away for Duke, running the offense from X and if you had to describe him in one word, it would be poised. Ortlieb had two goals and two assists in a 14-7 win over Utah on Friday, following up on his hat trick in his debut performance against Bellarmine last week.
Fairfield should just play all its games in the snow. The Stags had not one, but two epic snowbank celebrations last year. Friday night was almost a nightmare as Lehigh roared back from a 12-6 deficit, scoring seven straight goals in the fourth quarter to take a 13-12 lead over the Stags.
Fairfield tied the game on a near midfield shot by Devon Lampron against Lehigh’s 10-man ride with just 1:14 to play. In overtime, Lampron, who scored the OT game-winner against Manhattan last season, played the hero once again with the game-winner setting off another wild snow celebration – this time with the Fairfield players sliding across the snow covered turf in Bethlehem, Pa.
Nobody uses snow to celebrate wins better (and maybe more often?) than Fairfield ❄️@StagsMensLax survived a WILD one in 2OT to take down Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa. pic.twitter.com/w0lK3cNW9d
— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALMag) February 7, 2026
For the second week in a row, Jacksonville suffered heartbreak against a Top 20 opponent. Last week, the Dolphins fell 11-10 to Rutgers in overtime in Naples, Fla. On Saturday, Jacksonville stormed back from a four-goal deficit to North Carolina, tying the game 10-10 with 3:31 to play. UNC sophomore Mason Szewczyk then made a nifty dodge to score the game-winner with 2:26 left. The game wasn’t pretty, but for UNC to get a win in a game when Owen Duffy and Dom Pietramala combined for zero goals is one they’ll take.
30 • Number of 2026 Winter Olympic athletes that competed in a different NCAA sport – including USA bobsledder Josh Williamson. Williamson played lacrosse at Seminole HS in Florida and at Mercer for one season. He’s competing in his second Olympic games.
13 • Saves for Drexel goalie Brendan Donnelly in an 11-1 victory over Delaware on Friday afternoon. Delaware’s goal by John McCurry with 6:48 to play allowed the Blue Hens to avoid their first shutout since 1964 (Washington College).
7 • School-record goals scored by Monmouth’s Ty Caffarelli in the Hawks 15-9 win over Manhattan. Caffarelli has now scored multiple goals in seven of his last nine games dating to 2025.
14 • Saves for Denver’s Grayson Manning in a 10-2 stifling of Air Force. U.S. U20 players aren’t the only ones that got a boost from last summer’s world championship. Manning led Canada to its first ever championship in the event last year, making a last-second save in the gold medal game. He’s off to a sizzling start this season with a 91.3 save percentage in two games for the Pioneers.
Career points for Syracuse's Joey Spallina after an eight-point outing in a 20-2 win over Saint Joseph's. Spallina passed his college coach, Gary Gait, and Tom Marechek — both National Lacrosse Hall of Famers — to move up to No. 7 on Syracuse's all-time scoring list. He's 48 points away from tying Michael Powell's school record of 307 points.
9 • Combined goals from Yale graduate transfers Leo Johnson (5) and Chris Lyons (4) in No. 1 Maryland’s season-opening 19-10 victory over Loyola.
81.0 • Ohio State’s Jack Oldman’s faceoff winning percentage this season (30 of 37). He won 18 of 23 to help the Buckeyes pull away in the second half for a 17-7 victory over Cleveland State.
5 • Career-high tying goals for Michigan attackman Nick Roode in a 14-7 victory at Marquette. Roode has nine goals on just 15 shots this season.
13 • Saves for Mercer freshman goalie Jacob Neuman in the Bears 13-9 win over Marist. Mercer is off to a 2-0 start this season, equaling last season’s total wins.
55 • Shots for Virginia in its 19-14 win over Colgate on Sunday. The Cavaliers won just 15 of 35 faceoffs and former Air Force goalie Jake Marek made just nine saves in his first UVA performance, but the offense carried the load. Truitt Sunderland had six goals against Colgate for the second consecutive season, McCabe Millon had a career-high nine points (4g, 5a) and Ryan Colsey added four goals.
Brian Logue has worked at USA Lacrosse since 2000 and is currently the senior director of communications. He saw his first lacrosse game in 1987 - Virginia at Delaware - and fell in love with the sport while working at Washington and Lee University.
