Despite win over Virginia, Syracuse’s faceoff unit gets held at bay
Syracuse's John Mullen finished just 9-of-22 at the faceoff X Sunday at Virginia, despite entering with the most faceoff wins in the country. Jacob Halsema | Staff Photographer
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — John Mullen is arguably the country’s best faceoff specialist. The sophomore entered Saturday with 136 faceoff wins, the most in Division I, and a scintillating .667 winning percentage at the X, a rate that only trailed three other players.
Mullen never finished below .500 on faceoffs across Syracuse’s first nine contests in 2025. His worst performance came on Feb. 7, a .500 clip against Vermont’s Henry Dodge, who tallied a .702 winning rate at the stripe through the Catamounts’ first seven games.
It appeared as though Mullen was untouchable. Then he stepped onto the grass at Klöckner Stadium.
Despite No. 8 Syracuse’s (8-2, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) crucial 12-10 victory over Virginia (5-5, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) Saturday to open ACC play, Mullen posted his lowest faceoff winning percentage of the year at .409. Primarily facing UVA’s Andrew Greenspan, who went 13-of-18 at the X, Mullen struggled to find the same consistency he normally displays. Mullen closed the day 9-of-22 on faceoffs, marking the second-fewest he’s won in a single game this season.
Virginia head coach Lars Tiffany may come across as a happy-go-lucky guy, but he ushered a distinctive level of praise toward Mullen postgame. He knew the immense weight it’d take to come close to stopping Mullen. Even in a losing effort, Tiffany beamed about his faceoff group, which won 16 total faceoffs compared to Syracuse’s nine.
“Andrew Greenspan and Henry Metz came in and battled Mullen, who’s one of the best out there,” Tiffany said. “That was not something that I may have thought could happen, that we could be 66%, two-thirds (on faceoffs) against them.”
There’s a trade-off when dissecting how Mullen’s tough outing impacts the Orange. On one hand, it shows they can get wins when a key part of their game, dominating faceoffs, falters. On the flip side, it proves Mullen likely can’t coast through SU’s April slate with the same ease he exerted in his first nine contests.
Mullen’s importance can’t be understated. For Syracuse’s offense to work at maximum capacity, relentless retention of possessions is pivotal. SU head coach Gary Gait hasn’t shied away from Mullen’s value to the Orange and how he increases their national trajectory.
“He’s our guy,” Gait said of Mullen during a press conference on March 20. “So, if you wanna say we’re gonna ride him, we’re gonna ride him. Because he’s our best faceoff guy, and we’re looking for him to keep getting us the ball.”
Nothing’s ever going to be perfect, Gait added, especially at the faceoff X. Some days might be 50-50 for Mullen. Others might yield awe-inducing statlines — like his almost unheard of 28-of-31 showing in Syracuse’s late February loss to Harvard.
In any outcome, the Orange maintain supreme confidence in Mullen’s future and his ability to hang with the nation’s top faceoff men. But Saturday, the first leg of SU’s five-game gauntlet to close the regular season, Mullen’s performance noticeably declined.
He went toe-to-toe with Virginia’s three-man rotation at the faceoff X of Greenspan, Metz and typical starter Anthony Ghobriel, who’d missed UVA’s previous two games with an injury. Ghobriel finished just 2-of-5, though Tiffany revealed postgame he’d gotten re-injured during the game and had to exit. Metz went 1-of-2. Greenspan, however, was the ringleader.
After a close first-half battle at the X, Greenspan spurred the Cavaliers to a 7-2 faceoff margin over the Orange in the third quarter. Though Syracuse mounted a 4-0 run early in the period, Mullen’s lack of faceoff control prevented it from pulling away earlier than it did.
For as quick as Mullen is on the initial clamp, Greenspan was quicker. The sophomore Notre Dame transfer credited his preparation with Virginia assistant coach Kip Turner en route to registering a season-high 13 faceoff wins.
“We kind of knew what to expect,” Greenspan said of SU’s faceoff unit. “We have five great guys on our team that really helped us prepare, and I think we just went out and executed the game plan really well today.”
Greenspan said Mullen’s fast hands were what stood out to him the most while watching his game film. Mullen displays innate body control on faceoff attempts, whipping himself into a striking position within milliseconds of muscling an opponent and grasping the ball in his stick. He often immediately charges downhill to look for scoring opportunities; despite his overall struggles, Mullen dished an assist to Owen Hiltz in the first quarter Saturday.
But that instance was a one-off. Greenspan got to the initial clamp quicker than Mullen, and on successful reps, he’d turn his body to face UVA’s cage, shielding Mullen from scooping the ball for a transition chance. Greenspan lauded the Cavaliers’ wing play, too, as their midfielders prevented Mullen from consistently breaking free in the open field.
Sure, it didn’t help that Syracuse’s backup faceoff specialist, Drew Angelo, finished 0-for-3. But make no mistake about it, Virginia had Mullen’s number.
“I think any given day, anybody could come out on top (in the faceoff battle), and it happened to be us today,” Greenspan said.
Greenspan’s right. Faceoffs are unpredictable. To play a position that requires such speed and technical perfection, mistakes are bound to occur.
There could’ve been a litany of reasons why Mullen didn’t find a rhythm. Maybe the 70-degree day in Charlottesville threw him off. Maybe the bladed grass was too firm. Or maybe he just didn’t have his best stuff. Any way you draw it up, it resulted in Mullen’s worst day at the X.
So, was this a fluke? Or was it a wake-up call?
