As is their annual spring tradition, the Syracuse Orange are leading the country in attendance this year. In fact, ‘Cuse is currently responsible for the four largest crowds of the season and is averaging over 7,300 fans per home game.
They’re poised to build on those numbers when they host the Virginia Cavaliers this weekend as part of a huge day of festivities inside the JMA Dome.
It all begins on Saturday with the women’s team taking on Notre Dame at noon on their Senior Day, followed by the men playing
UVA at 4 before the football spring game at 7:30 to close out a full blown extravaganza of SU sports. On top of that, the men have the halftime celebration and ceremony of John Desko’s Ring of Honor induction, as well as the return of a lot of former players for Alumni Day.
It all adds up to one heck of a day watching and celebrating ‘Cuse sports, and in that spirit, Virginia might just be the perfect men’s lacrosse opponent for this occasion.
It’s all subjective, of course, but there may be no more exciting rivalry in all of Syracuse lacrosse. It is tough to argue with the numbers, after all.
The programs have met 43 times in their shared history, including every year since 1994 (excluding the COVID shortened 2020 season). Syracuse has won 22. Virginia’s won 21. The Orange have score 567 goals. The Cavaliers have scored 574 goals. One can never seem to elude the other for too long. Even their color schemes know that to be true.
The 2020s have actually seen a few blowouts in the series, but late in the Desko era, the two played five consecutive one-goal games that they naturally divided up, 3-2, with SU grabbing the extra one. The last time they met in the Dome, they returned to form with a vintage, instant-classic ‘Cuse/UVA battle that the Orange took, 18-17, in a game that went right down to the final horn.
That game was a reminder that there are few rivalries that are more energetic, potent or breathless in the sport than Syracuse v. Virginia.
And while, symbolically, it seems like good timing for their annual meeting, in the context of the season, the timing may be bad news for SU.
They are meeting a Virginia team that’s easily playing their best lacrosse of the season, having won four games in a row after starting the year 3-4. Their last two wins have come over previously-unbeaten, No. 1 Notre Dame and a Duke team that had beaten them 20 straight times in the regular season.
The biggest difference has been on the defensive end, where the Cavs have really started to figure things out during their winning streak. In their first seven games of the season, they were giving up an average of 12.3 goals per game. In the last four games, they’ve reduced that all the way down to 9.3 goals-against per game.
Goalie Jake Marek has been the catalyst. During their start to the season, he was only making saves at a .457 clip. But in the winning streak, he’s pushed that all the way up to .586 percent, a difference-making kind of a number for a team looking to make a push towards May.
Their offense has remained dangerous all season long, led by one of the most lethal attacks in the country that’s headed up by the Millon brothers. Junior McCabe Millon and freshman Brendan Millon have both accumulated 54 points this season, an average of 4.9 per game. As a duo, they’ve accounted for 27 percent of the team goals, 61 percent of the team assists and 41 percent of the team points.
Their passing acumen, combined with their partnership with leading goal-scorer Truitt Sunderland and his 32 goals, 42 points and 42.7 shooting percentage is a big concern for the ‘Cuse defense coming off a weekend in which they were rattled by another high-scoring offense down in Chapel Hill.
With the amount of talent set to be on the field on Saturday afternoon, we should have quite the showdown on our hands. But if the Orange are going to bounce back against a Virginia team playing their best as we build into April, they’re going to need to feed off an energetic crowd and a celebratory atmosphere on a big weekend in the Dome.
