Unsettled: Richmond Isn’t the Scrappy Underdog Anymore
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© 2026 USA Lacrosse. All Rights Reserved.
© 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. Check back each Sunday for the latest.
Remember when Richmond was the scrappy underdog that always seemed to punch above its weight class? Yeah, those days are toast.
Richmond’s 18-12 win over Virginia on Saturday was confirmation that one of the nation’s most respected programs has moved to another level.
This is a program that has played in its conference championship every year since its inception in 2014. Think about that – it’s absurd.
Last year the Spiders broke through with their first NCAA tournament win after near misses in 2019 and 2022. Richmond’s 13-10 win over North Carolina sent them to the quarterfinals where they lost by just a goal, for the second time during the season, to eventual national champion Cornell.
Which takes us to the 2026 season. Could the Spiders keep the momentum going? Sure, they had a ton of firepower back, but they were also breaking in a new goalie, senior Connor Knight, who had one career start entering the season. Richmond is also relying on a new faceoff specialist, true freshman Vincent Gaylord.
It didn’t matter on Saturday. Richmond beat its in-state rival for the third time since 2022 and it did it by standing right in the center of the ring and trading blows. Aidan O’Neil, the senior attacker and reigning A-10 Offensive Player of the Year, stepped up with five goals. Joe Sheridan, a senior All-American midfielder, added four. Knight, the goalie making just his third start, was ready for the big stage, making 18 saves.
In short, the team that played Cornell as tough as anyone last year, isn’t sneaking up on anyone this year. And they’re just fine with that. They’re ready to march in the front door and make their presence known.
What a night in the JMA Wireless Dome on Friday. No. 1 Maryland vs. No. 2 Syracuse lived up to the hype with the Orange taking an 11-9 victory before 10,159 fans. One of the most impressive parts of Syracuse’s win was the performance of Joey Spallina with a game-high four goals. The senior who has taken plenty of criticism in his career, including after being held without a goal by Maryland in last year’s NCAA semifinal, let the game come to him. He scored the four goals on just nine shots and did the little things, collecting five ground balls.
If you look up grit in the lacrosse dictionary, you’re likely to see Lehigh’s logo. The Mountain Hawks could have been deflated after its season opener, but they’ve quickly turned things around. Lehigh scored seven straight fourth-quarter goals in its opener against Fairfield to take a 13-12 lead, only to suffer a heartbreaking 14-13 double overtime loss. They bounced back with a win over Iona and then gutted out a 14-13 win at Michigan on Saturday.
Lehigh jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first quarter, but Michigan came all the way back, taking a lead late in the third quarter. Nick Roode’s goal with 6:30 left gave the Wolverines their final lead at 13-12, but Lehigh answered with goals by Jack Archer and Peter Theodoropoulos over the next two minutes for the win.
If you’re Virginia, a good sign from Saturday’s loss to Richmond was that the Cavaliers offense looks much improved from a year ago. UVa had 17 assists on 19 goals in its season-opening win over Colgate and followed that up with a 12-goal effort against an always-tough Richmond defense where leader McCabe Millon looked excellent. Millon put the offense on his back with three straight goals in a span of 65 seconds in the second quarter after Richmond had taken a 7-4 lead. Millon has 16 points on eight goals and eight assists in just two games and is shooting 47 percent.
Really cool to see the lacrosse community continue to show support for the Siena lacrosse program and the family of Liam Gleason, Siena’s former coach who died last year after an accident at home. The Saints received their MAAC championship rings on Friday night, beat Hofstra on Saturday for former assistant Tim Cox’s first win and the IMCLA distributed more than 1,000 pins to coaches who wore them this weekend in support of Siena.
38 • Combined points for the Shannehan brothers this season. Boston University sophomore Timothy Shannehan had two goals and four assists in BU’s 13-5 win over Dartmouth on Sunday to give him 19 points (9g, 10a) in just three games. His younger brother, Michigan freshman Luke Shannehan, has 19 points (14g, 5a) in four games for the Wolverines.
4 • Goals scored by Robert Morris in span of just 21 seconds in the first quarter of a 16-12 win over Bucknell. RMU faceoff specialist won three straight draws and had a goal and assist during the run. Nate Fechter made 20 saves for the Colonials.
7 • Goals for Georgetown’s Rory Connor in his debut with the Hoyas. After two straight postponements, the wait was worth it as the Colgate transfer led Georgetown to a 12-7 win over Penn. Connor scored Georgetown’s first three goals, five of its first six and seven of its first nine.
10 • Consecutive goals by Army to close the game in a 12-6 come-from-behind win over Yale. Evan Plunkett started the run with his second goal of the game and added four assists during the game-closing streak.
20 • Saves for Denver’s Grayson Manning in the Pioneers 8-7 win over Utah, the last coming with one second left to seal the win. Manning has a sizzling 82.0 save percentage (41 saves, nine goals allowed) after three games.
11 • Saves for Penn State freshman goalie Preston Hawkins in the Nittany Lions 13-7 upset win at No. 3 Princeton, by far his best outing of the season.
12 • Caused turnovers for Harvard in a 10-4 win over Providence. Defender Joost de Koning and LSM Wyatt Wiggins each had three.
8 • Points for UMass-Lowell’s James Donnelly in the Riverhawks 14-13 overtime win against Mercyhurst. Donnelly had five goals and three assists to set the school’s single-game points record in the Division I era.
17 • Ground balls for Brady Wambach in North Carolina’s 23-7 win over Iona on Sunday, setting a new school single-game record. Wambach won 18 of 20 faceoffs.
3 • Wins for Mercer to open the season, passing last year’s win total. Mercer ripped off 10 straight goals in a 16-12 win over VMI on Saturday to give the Bears (3-0) the best start in school history.
8 • Career-high goals for Lafayette’s Benjamin DiBattista in the Leopards 19-9 win over NJIT.
1 • Wins for new Saint Joseph head coach Scott Meehan and St. Bonaventure head coach Brendan Storrier. Meehan and the Hawks picked up a big win over Philly rival Villanova, 11-9, while Storrier, the former Limestone and Mars Hill head coach, led the Bonnies to a 10-9 win over Binghamton.
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.
