The first four years and three games of the Gary Gait coaching era have been defined by the concept of the Orange climbing back up to the top of the Division I college lacrosse landscape.
And while that obviously remains the mission as ‘Cuse is only three games into Gait’s fifth season at the helm, something changed this week that puts them in a different position than we’ve seen under this regime.
That thing was the release of this week’s national polls, which saw the Orange return to the No. 1 national ranking
across the board in the Inside Lacrosse media poll, the USA Lacrosse media poll and the USILA coaches poll.
This marks SU’s long-awaited return to the top of the rankings, a spot they had not occupied since the second week of March 2020, shortly before the season shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, while the Orange remain on their quest to reach the top in the larger sense, their efforts have brought them to the top of the current national conversation after nearly six years away from it. And that ascension brings with it a new challenge for ‘Cuse to take on as they continue their pursuit of the big one: they’ve gone from being the hunter to the hunted.
It’s an inevitability when you reach No. 1 status. You are in the spot that everyone wants. Therefore, everyone is coming for you, and you’ll get everyone’s best shot as they do. It simply comes with the territory, and it’s a position that they’ve earned over the last four-plus years.
Getting back to the No. 1 ranking hasn’t just been about winning games and advancing deeper season over season, it’s been about taking back control for the program by exercising the demons of their greatest rivals.
Last year, they ended a seven-game losing streak to a Notre Dame team that had owned them in recent years, beating them twice in games that they dictated. In 2024, they ended a three-game losing streak to Virginia. The year before that, they beat North Carolina at a neutral site after losing to them four straight previously.
Last Friday, they finally figured out how to beat Maryland after being lost for eight-straight games dating back a decade and a half. And now that they’ve slayed the dragon that is Testudo, they’ll find themselves still in pursuit of their ultimate goal while simultaneously fighting off new challenges from everyone.
In one sense they always deal with this kind of thing. That’s the bargain you make when you put on a Syracuse lacrosse uniform. But there’s a difference between ‘Cuse and No. 1 ‘Cuse, and they’ll find out how this weekend when they begin their six-game road swing up Cambridge way against Harvard.
Whatever the number in front of their name, they have to just keep pushing the same way they have the past four years, because their trajectory has consistently been trending upward. But you can’t be ignorant to the realities presented by your new-found success. It has to be a factor in the equation now.
Thankfully, it seems like it was from the moment the game against Maryland ended and confirmed their new, No. 1 status, at least according to Michael Leo. Postgame, the senior acknowledged they’d already talked about it and recognize what it means for them:
“Coach Gait was saying in the locker room, now we were always chasing to be number one for three years, I think now? So now we’re actually being chased, so we got a lot more to do. A lot more pressure on us. We’re just gonna take it. We all love each other, so I think we’re gonna handle it the right way and just move forward as a team. Eventually, it’ll take us in the right direction.”
That sounds great. Looking forward to seeing the start of that direction come Saturday.
