When Syracuse and Virginia meet on Sunday, it marks not just the beginning of ACC play this season, but also the next installment of one of the best match ups in college lacrosse. The two undefeated teams have taken slightly different paths to reach this point, but as always, it will prove to be a great game. Syracuse head coach John Desko says year after year that this is a game where players just play while the coaches watch. Based on his preview interview through the school’s media department, this year is no different.
Virginia is sitting on three wins with zero losses. They started the season with a tight win over Loyola and followed that up with victories over Drexel and Rutgers. This resume has been good enough to vault Virginia up to fifth in the national media poll. The Orange are going to be a great test for this Virginia team who is fighting for relevancy in the extremely difficult ACC. Last year, despite beating the Orange by five in their game, the Cavaliers sat outside of the ACC tournament and lost their NCAA opener to Johns Hopkins. Virginia’s key to victory will be sitting with their defense. The most inexperienced and variable part of their roster, the defense will be tasked with containing one of the most explosive offenses in college lacrosse. It is not a good match up for them, but if they can’t contain the Orange attack, this will be a long day. The Cavaliers have plenty of weapons on offense, so getting on the scoreboard won’t be the problem unless they get behind and are playing catchup for the entire game.
For the Orange, they look to knock off their third straight ranked opponent after routing Cornell and playing a tough game with Army. Their defense withstood the Army offense which had up to that point been one of the highest scoring units in the country. They also were able to put up 12 points on one of the best scoring defenses last year. It was a great game, but Syracuse was the winner, giving them a firm hold on one of the top spots in the polls right now. Virginia will be their highest ranked opponent so far this season, so there is no chance that Syracuse will be looking past this game. Expect them to come out ready to play in all phases of the game.
While these teams are not fighting each other in the final four every year anymore, they are both top squads in the country. This is one of the few top five match ups all year, so it is definitely worth watching. In this game, both teams like to run and play fast. Don’t be surprised if a few middies wind up taking double or triple shifts as the speed of transition goes faster than the speed of substitutions. Both teams are undefeated entering the game, meaning the ACC as a whole will leave this game with just their second loss all year, the other being Duke’s loss to Denver. Not many non-conference losses will occur before May, so teams will fight for every minute of these games as being one of the top four teams and making the conference tournament is becoming increasingly important.
