Christmas came early for Syracuse lacrosse fans on Tuesday when Gary Gait and SU announced the release of the Orange’s 2026 men’s lacrosse schedule.
With ‘Cuse coming off an ACC Tournament Championship
and a return to the Final Four for the first time since 2013, Gait has compiled a schedule that will attempt to hold his team’s feet to the fire as they look to bring a 12th NCAA title back to Central New York.
This team has the combination of talent and experience to do exactly that. Nobody knows it better than Gait, and he’s created a schedule to match his team’s high expectations.
The 15-game slate is an absolute gauntlet, featuring nine teams from last year’s NCAA Tournament and 11 teams who finished last year in the RPI Top 20. Speaking to the overall strength of this schedule’s opposition, all 15 schools have made the NCAA Tournament at least once since 2022.
Let’s take a look at the 2026 Syracuse schedule:
- FEBRUARY 1 (SUN): HOME vs. BOSTON UNIVERSITY
- FEBRUARY 7 (SAT): HOME vs. SAINT JOSEPH’S
- FEBRUARY 13 (FRI): HOME vs. MARYLAND
- FEBRUARY 21 (SAT): Away at HARVARD
- FEBRUARY 27 (FRI): Away at PRINCETON
- MARCH 1 (SUN): Away at PENN
- MARCH 7 (SAT): Away at JOHNS HOPKINS — 1 PM
- MARCH 12 (THU): Away at AIR FORCE — 5 PM
- MARCH 16 (MON): Away at DENVER
- MARCH 22 (SUN): HOME vs. GEORGETOWN
- MARCH 28 (SAT): HOME vs. DUKE — ACC
- APRIL 4 (SAT): Away at NORTH CAROLINA — ACC
- APRIL 11 (SAT): HOME vs. VIRGINIA — ACC
- APRIL 18 (SAT): HOME vs. COLGATE
- APRIL 25 (SAT): Away at NOTRE DAME — ACC
- MAY 1 (FRI): ACC SEMIFINALS
- MAY 3 (SUN): ACC CHAMPIONSHIP
The opponents are not the only factor in the Orange’s strength of schedule. There’s also the matter of Gait catching the travel bug, which has ‘Cuse hitting the road for eight games in 2026 while playing only seven in the JMA Wireless Dome.
Not only that, but perhaps the most notable feature of the entire schedule is the fact that SU will play six straight true road games from late February to mid-March in an effort to make things extra difficult on themselves.
With Gait going out of his way to challenge his team, he has created a schedule with some quite unique features.
2026 will mark the first year ‘Cuse has played more true road games than home games since 2010, when they played six at home and seven on the road. It’s also the first time they’ve played as many as eight road games in a single regular season since back in 2002, when they also played eight.
And now, for the real doozy: this is the first time the Orange have played six consecutive road games since 1972, when they began the season with six straight away contests before coming home to CNY. That season, which took place 54 years ago, was just the second under head coach Roy Simmons Jr. and featured games during the opening road stretch against the likes of “Towson State”, Morgan State and Washington College.
The Orange will open up the season with three-game home stand that begins with a pair of first-time opponents in Boston University and St. Joseph’s. Those Dome games will conclude with a massive Friday night showdown against Maryland in a rematch of last season’s Final Four meeting.
The six straight road games kicks off with trips to face Harvard and Princeton, meaning ‘Cuse will play three straight games against the three teams they played in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
The Princeton game is part one of a weekend swing to face the Tigers and Penn in a span of three days, a common practice for coaches looking to give their teams early exposure to the type of challenge they might get on Championship Weekend. The Quakers are the first of two teams SU will be playing for the first time since 2002 this season.
The following weekend, they’ll take the trip down to Baltimore for their annual meeting with Johns Hopkins, their first trip to Homewood Field since 2022.
After that, they’ll close the extended road swing with a trip to the Mountain time zone for the second consecutive season. This time, they’re playing another weekend double feature that starts with Air Force on a Thursday (first meeting since 2002) and ends with Denver on a Monday before heading home (first regular season meeting since 2011).
The following weekend, the Orange will play at home for the first time in over five weeks when they host Georgetown on March 22 for the first regular season meeting between the two since 2013 as Big East opponents.
The home stretch of the season will be dominated by ACC play, with three straight against Duke at home, North Carolina on the road, and Virginia at home before a matchup with Colgate in the Dome and a road trip to Notre Dame to end the regular season.
As has become the custom, the first weekend of May belongs to the ACC Tournament in Charlotte on Friday, May 1 and Sunday, May 3.
The NCAA Tournament will kick off on the weekend on May 9 & 10 and will follow its usual format over the next two weekends. The quarterfinal weekend will take place in either Hempstead, NY or Newark, DE, and this year’s Championship Weekend is being hosted at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, VA. It’s actually Virginia’s football stadium, so the Cavaliers will have a literal home field advantage should they make it to Memorial Day weekend.
That about does it. ’Cuse’s 2026 schedule is now complete, so let the countdown to February 1 begin!
