Men's Lacrosse

Syracuse finishes season ranked No. 1 in Inside Lacrosse poll

Will Fudge | Staff Photographer

Syracuse beat two ranked opponents before the remainder of its season was canceled due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Six days after its season was canceled amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Syracuse finished No. 1 in the final men’s Inside Lacrosse Maverik Media Poll released Monday morning. The Orange’s last game was March 7, a 15-9 win over Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland.

It’s the third-straight poll the Orange (5-0) were ranked No. 1 after opening fifth in the preseason and slowly rising as Penn State and Yale both fell out of the top spot. During that time, Syracuse’s offense became the sixth-highest scoring offense in the country behind 18 goals from Chase Scanlan and 17 from Jamie Trimboli that keyed an undefeated start through five games, the longest win streak for SU to open a season since 2016.

Stephen Rehfuss also tallied two seven-assist games and Drake Porter notched a career-high 18 saves against Army, both of which led to individual weekly awards from the conference.

Blowout wins against Colgate and Binghamton were followed by ranked victories against Army and Hobart — the latter of which finished the season as the country’s highest-scoring offense. With Atlantic Coast Conference play slated to start on March 22 with Duke, the Orange had one more nonconference opponent in Rutgers. Future opponents included No. 2 Cornell, No. 4 North Carolina, the No. 8 Blue Devils and No. 9 Virginia.

But first, the Scarlet Knights announced that the game would be played without fans. Then came the ACC’s ruling that spring sports would be suspended and the NCAA’s that all spring championships were canceled. Immediately, Syracuse, looking for its first national championship since 2009, had its season go stagnant.



Support independent local journalism. Support our nonprofit newsroom.





Top Stories