Welcome to Orange Lax Fest 2026, where the Syracuse Orange lacrosse teams are playing host to both No. 1 teams in the country on an unprecedented day of ‘Cuse lax in the JMA Dome.
It’s hard to imagine a bigger day of regular season lacrosse, and it all starts with the No. 14 women’s team against the top-ranked and defending, undefeated national champion North Carolina Tar Heels for a 2:30 PM opening draw on ACC Network.
And for the nightcap, it’s the top-ranked battle between the No. 1 Maryland Terrapins
and the No. 2 SU men’s team, with face-off set for 6 PM on ACC Network.
There’s kind of no sugar coating that the women have a monumental task ahead of them as they face down a North Carolina team that has won 23 games in a row dating back to the beginning of last season. They went 22-0 on their way to a national title last year and are 1-0 this year after a 19-11 win over James Madison last weekend.
Last year’s Tar Heels led the country in both scoring offense (17.45) and scoring defense (6.86), and incredibly return a lot of their major contributors from that amazing squad. Not only that, reigning Tewaaraton winner Chloe Humphrey leads a team that is remarkably young given the level of their talent, especially on an offense that has seemingly unending depth to it.
Perhaps SU’s biggest challenge will be facing this team in just their second game of the season. Understandably, the Orange looked to be very unsure of themselves, especially in possession, in their first game of their new era. Trying to figure it all out this quickly against the best team in the country is an unfortunate draw of the schedule, so we’ll see what they’re made of in this one.
The men are once again coming up against their ultimate nemesis in the Maryland Terrapins, who have beaten them eight times in a row across the last 15 years. Finally ending that streak will be no easy task against a No. 1 ranked Maryland team that doesn’t appear to have any weaknesses.
The biggest bugaboo versus the John Tillman Terps has been the offense’s struggles against the always physical, well-disciplined UMD defense.
In the Final Four, star defender Will Schaller shut down Joey Spallina by bodying him up and playing with confidence, leading to turnovers and a lack of ball movement that once again limited SU’s success on that end. That matchup will likely be one of the major storylines of this game, and the Orange need to make sure they have a better plan for how to deploy Joey and the entire offense against their toughest test.
Adding to the test is possibly the most dangerous and star studded offense the Terps have had in quite some time, as they’ve brought in Leo Johnson and Chris Lyons from Yale to join Braden Erksa, Eric Spanos and redshirt freshman stud Spencer Ford. The ‘Cuse defense and Jimmy McCool are off to an incredible start, but this is a huge jump up in competition tonight.
Vermont transfer Henry Dodge versus Johnny Mullen should prove to be quite the key matchup in a battle of two of the best FOGOs in the country.
