Season Rewind: Count Duke, Stanford Among 2025's Best Surprises

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2026, our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking one last look at 2025.

After all, you have to look at the most recent results before making projections for what’s to come. To do that, we’re taking a journey through the top 30 teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse — what went right, what went wrong and what we should all think of that team’s season.

Was it a success? A failure? A mixture of both? You’ll find out our thoughts over the next week.

STANFORD

USA Lacrosse preseason/postseason ranking: Unranked/No. 10
2025 record: 15-6 (7-2 ACC)

What went right: Stanford was a perennial favorite in the Pac-12, but its move to the ACC promised significant challenges in 2025. The Cardinal made it clear early they were ready for the task, beating a Virginia team coming off a step forward 2024. The Cardinals’ lone regular-season conference losses came in overtime at Syracuse and to Boston College. Perhaps it’s nitpicky, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that Stanford didn’t have to play North Carolina, the conference and national champion, that was literally unbeatable.

Still, don’t let that be an excuse to rain on Stanford’s 2025 parade. The Cardinal were solid, particularly on defense, closing the year eighth nationally (9.19).

Stanford avenged its regular-season loss to Syracuse in statement-making fashion, securing a 15-10 win in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. After bowing out to Boston College in the semis, Stanford headed to Gainesville as an unseeded at-large NCAA tournament team. The aforementioned Cardinal defense blanked Denver in the second half and used a three-goal evening from attacker Aliya Polisky to win 10-4. The win was Stanford’s first over Denver (previously 0-7) and in the NCAA tournament under Danielle Spencer (previously 0-3).

What went wrong: Stanford was a contender for a national seed in the NCAA tournament, but a loss to Army on March 26 likely didn’t help its case. After the history-making win in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the Cardinal squared off with Florida. Stanford rallied from a 12-9 fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime, but Kaitlyn Davies ended the Cardinal’s season on her fifth goal of the day.                                                                       

Season highlight: You could see the mix of joy and relief on Spencer’s face as Stanford pieced together a masterful second-half defensive effort against Denver in the NCAA tournament, and it was all elation at the buzzer.

Final verdict: Stanford took a significant step forward in 2025, proving it could run with the ACC and win in the NCAA tournament. It went from unranked to start the season to the top 10 when it mattered most. Consider the Cardinal one of the pleasant surprises this year.

VIRGINIA

USA Lacrosse preseason/postseason ranking: No. 5/No. 11
2025 record: 12-7 (5-3 ACC)

What went right: Despite losing three of its top four goal scorers from last year’s 15-win team, Virginia didn’t see much of a drop off in offensive output (13.70 goals per game in 2024 vs. 13.79 goals per game in 2025). Sophomore Jenna Dinardo emerged as a formidable and long-term offensive threat, matching last year’s leading scorer Katia Carnevale’s 53 goals. Madison Alaimo also shined, dishing a team-high 58 assists.

Virginia also significantly improved on the draw, going from 100th nationally in draw wins in 2024 (44%) to 17th in 2025 (55%). Sophomore Kate Galica was a star in the circle, corralling 179 draws (and adding 47 goals).

Virginia beat Maryland for the first time since 2008, snapping a 15-game losing streak against the Terps, and ultimately earned the No. 5 seed and hosting rights for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. The Cavs cruised by LIU 20-6 in round one.

What went wrong: We focus a lot on May around here, but games in February count, especially when your conference slate starts that month. It did for UVA, and it lost to Stanford on Feb. 22. A one-goal loss to a down-trodden Syracuse on March 29 also didn’t help Virginia’s bid to crack the upper echelon of the ACC (and get a conference tournament seed to match). Ultimately, UVA earned the eighth seed for the ACC tournament. It pitted the Cavs against Boston College in the quarterfinals, and the Eagles won 17-7.

Still, UVA’s strong schedule and signature wins, including over Maryland and James Madison, positioned it well to make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. But Duke — a team the Cavs beat 16-11 on March 8 — scored an upset win, 17-9, ending UVA’s season prematurely.

Season highlight: More than 1,000 fans witnessed UVA’s drought-ending win over Maryland. It also happened at Notre Dame Preparatory School on One Love Night. Former UVA student-athlete Yeardley Love attended Notre Dame Prep, and the field is named in her honor, as is the foundation, One Love, bearing her last name, to which proceeds from the game went toward. Love passed away in 2010, and the foundation seeks to end relationship violence.

Final verdict: Virginia is a tricky case. Its NCAA seed was deserved and matched our preseason prediction, but an untimely loss to Duke ultimately lowered the Cavs’ stock. Unlike last year, UVA will enter 2026 with much of its roster intact and an eye on finally returning to the upper tier of the ACC.

JOHNS HOPKINS

USA Lacrosse preseason/postseason ranking: No. 7/No. 12
2025 record: 13-7 (5-3 Big Ten)

What went right: Watching Johns Hopkins wasn’t for the faint of heart — and that’s a compliment. The Blue Jays often thrived under pressure and could pull out a close one like nobody’s business. JHU beat Duke, Penn and Syracuse in overtime, with the win over the Orange coming at the Dome. Hopkins finished with a 5-2 mark in one-goal games.

Ashley Mackin scored the winner in all three of those overtimes and spent much of the season in the top five in Division I in goals per game before an injury sidelined her for six games in April, including the Big Ten tournament. Reagan O’Brien finished with 103 caused turnovers, smashing the NCAA single-season mark of 83 set by Manhattan College’s Moira Muthig in 2000.

Despite not having Mackin, the Blue Jays beat Penn State 13-8 in the Big Ten quarterfinals to move on to the semifinals. After losing to Northwestern, they earned the No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament and downed Liberty 21-11 in the first round.

What went wrong: Northwestern joined Florida as the second team to top Hopkins by one goal in the Big Ten semifinals. The Wildcats won 16-15 and ultimately claimed the conference crown. One can only wonder what would’ve happened if Mackin were healthy.

Johns Hopkins saw its season come to a close at home in an 18-12 loss to Princeton. Perhaps ironically, the Blue Jays likely snagged the eighth seed courtesy of the Tigers’ Ivy League championship-game loss to Yale the week prior.

Season highlight: Mackin proved she had the clutch gene with three overtime winners. The third one was a true charm. It came on a nationally televised ESPNU game at the Dome.

Final verdict: The loss to Princeton will sting and kept the Blue Jays from finishing in the top 10 as initially predicted. Still, it was a fun season in Baltimore thanks to Mackin’s heroics and O’Brien’s next-level defense. Mackin will graduate, but leading scorer Ava Angello (65G, 25A) has a year left, as does O’Brien and starting goalie Morgan Giardina. What’s next? We’re excited to see.

PENN

USA Lacrosse preseason/postseason ranking: No. 12/No. 7
2025 record: 12-7 (5-2 Ivy)

What went right: Penn beat Maryland in the regular season for the second-straight spring (13-12) behind a four-goal day from Anna Brandt on March 31. The Quakers also beat rival and eventual Ivy League regular-season champion Princeton 15-12. Despite bowing out to Yale in the Ivy League semifinals, the Quakers did enough to earn the No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament and hosted the first two rounds. Penn topped Army 16-6. Two days later, the Quakers one-upped Maryland for the second time, securing a 13-12 double-overtime win on a Catherine Berkery goal and advancing to the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.

Anna Brandt (68G, 3A, 50DC, 60GB, 28CT) was named IWLCA Midfielder of the Year. Freshman netminder Orly Sedransk (.490SV%, 9.99GAA) enjoyed a breakout season, earning Ivy League Goalkeeper and Rookie of the Year honors.

What went wrong: A regular-season loss to Harvard (10-8) and Yale (10-9 in four overtimes) put Penn in the three spot for the Ivy League tournament despite its success over top-seeded Princeton. Once again, Penn ran into Yale in the semifinals, and once again, the Quakers lost by one goal (11-10). The Quakers led with less than a minute to play, but Jenna Collignon found the back of the cage with 56 seconds left and assisted Taylor Lane’s game-winner 43 ticks later. It was the wrong kind of déjà vu for Penn — Lane scored the winning goal in the conference championship game last year.

Speaking of which, a loss to Northwestern in the NCAA quarterfinals marked the second-straight season the Wildcats ended Penn’s season.

Season highlight: Easy — rallying to beat Maryland in the NCAA tournament. The Quakers were in a 10-8 hole after Kori Edmonson scored with about five minutes left in regulation. But Brandt moved the deficit to one at 3:04, and Erika Chung scored with two seconds on the clock to force overtime. In the second overtime, Chung found Berkery for a goal that catapulted Penn into the quarterfinals.

Final verdict: Penn had a successful season that was a bit better than expected. The Ivy League was its own kind of gauntlet in 2025, with three teams advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals (Princeton and Yale were the others). While the Quakers didn’t win the conference, they still made noise on the national scene, saw a player with a major postseason award (Branddt) and have a true talent in the cage for the next three years (Sedransk).

DUKE

USA Lacrosse preseason/postseason ranking: Unranked/No. 8
2025 record: 14-6 (5-3 ACC)

What went right: Ironically, a regular-season loss to Virginia and a quarterfinal ACC tournament run were two setbacks that actually fueled Duke’s deeper-than-expected run into the NCAA tournament. After beating fifth-seeded Virginia to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals, head coach Kerstin Kimel said that “losing in the ACC tournament was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to us.” The players watched film, took accountability and practiced hard to change the outcome. They did, beating James Madison 17-10 in the first round before upsetting Virginia 17-9 in the second.

The Virginia win was also a shift from a 16-11 regular-season loss to the Cavs, in which Kimel said the Blue Devils struggled to adjust to an early goalie change. When UVA switched goalies in the NCAA, Duke adjusted more quickly and won.

Fifth-year grad transfer Callie Hem delivered in those first two rounds, scoring 15 goals. She finished seventh in Division I in shooting percentage (.588) and led the team in goals (63).

What went wrong: The Blue Devils were able to use the setbacks against Virginia and Clemson as fuel in 2025, but their season-ending loss to Florida in the NCAA quarterfinals will have to serve as motivation for 2026. Duke tried to get off the mat against Florida. Trailing 11-2 in the third quarter, the Blue Devils scored the final seven goals. But the math didn’t work in their favor, and Florida won 11-9.

Season highlight: Beating Virginia in the second round of the NCAA tournament gave the Blue Devils a win over a conference rival and pushed them to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2021.

Final verdict: A successful season that defied expectations. Duke pivoted more quickly and learned from its early (and later) losses better than in previous years, once again positioning itself as a formidable threat in the ACC and nationally.

MARYLAND

USA Lacrosse preseason/postseason ranking: No. 10/No. 9
2025 record: 15-6 (7-1 Big Ten)

What went right: Long-time followers of the game might have found it jarring to see Maryland, the sport’s winningest program, in the bottom half of the top 10 entering 2025. But the Terps lost significant pieces, even in a year when many other programs were saying the same. The heart of the draw unit (Shayalan Ahearn, Meghan Ball, Shannon Smith and Libby May) was gone, as was its starting goalie. The Terps looked in disarray in a season-opening home loss to Syracuse.

But the Terps went on a six-game winning streak after that, beating Denver, James Madison, Penn State and Michigan. Ultimately, the Terps finished 7-1 in the conference — the lone loss coming to Northwestern — and beat Rutgers and Michigan in the Big Ten tournament to advance to the title game after a one-year absence. The Terps lost but earned an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament and beat Fairfield in the first round as an unseeded team.

Sophomore JJ Suriano had a solid debut as a starter, producing a .490 save percentage, and junior Kori Edmonson stepped into more of a leadership role, leading the Terps in points (73) and goals (59) and finishing second in draws (70). She earned Big Ten Midfielder of the Year honors and was a first-team All-American.

What went wrong: Maryland lost to Penn twice. The first loss in the regular season likely hurt its case for a national seed, while the second ended the 2025 campaign. The Northwestern also beat Maryland twice, with the second victory coming in the Big Ten final, which proved to be the most heartbreaking. Suriano delivered a 17-save performance and Maryland led 6-2 midway through the fourth quarter, but Northwestern closed the game on a 6-1 run, closing the door on an Aditi Forster goal with 15 ticks left in regulation.

Season highlight: Beating Michigan got the Terps back into the Big Ten championship game after missing it in 2024. Suriano’s Big Ten title game performance was spectacular and offered a glimpse into Maryland’s brighter future.

Final verdict: Maryland finished about where it was expected. While “disappointing” by Terps’ historical standards, 2025 was a retooling year. Their performance after a dud of a season opener showed promise, and 2026 will see more key pieces return than this year.