R
iley Figueiras has a bit of an edge to him. If you took his temperature, his youth club coach says, the reading might be a couple degrees higher than everyone else’s. He just has a different heat — precisely why he became a defender. It certainly wasn’t to win popularity contests, because if he had it his way, he might stay in the shadows forever. His performances don’t stand out. They hide, best noticed by the absence of an opponent’s top attack.
He can be vicious at times, brutal, even. Are those the right words?
No, not exactly. Those imply a sense of maliciousness, the idea Riley plays lacrosse to harm his opponents. It’s more of a “see ball, get ball” mindset. His physicality is just a means to an end.
Intense. That’s the word. It encapsulates each of his actions since he first picked up a lacrosse stick. He approaches everything, on and off the lacrosse field, with the same drive and desire to achieve greatness. It’s why, in his fourth season with the Orange, it’s up to Riley to anchor their potential title-winning backline. It’s why, for the past three years, he’s been Syracuse’s No. 11.
“He’s gonna be the best defender in college lacrosse,” former SU goalie Kyle Rolley said.
Historically, the No. 11 has been given to some of Syracuse’s best defenders. Nine players have worn the number in the past two decades. Seven of them were All-Americans, and if everything goes to plan for Riley, he has a shot at making it eight.
His film habits, unparalleled. His weight room habits, extreme. They made him go from an undersized kid, in the eyes of his high school coach Wesley Speaks, to someone who maxed out at a 405-pound squat in his senior year. When he tore his ACL in his first year at SU, those habits helped him return as a starter.
“Some guys will get hurt, and the recovery is so intensive and so grueling that they don’t want to put in that effort to come back at the same strength,” former SU midfielder Vinnie Trujillo said. “Riley took it to the point where he came back stronger than he was before.”
Growing up, Riley used to put on WWE Smackdown and wrestle his older brother, Ryan Figueiras, in their basement, remaining as quiet as possible to not alert their parents. Before each game, he plays Super Smash Bros to get in the mindset of knocking opponents off the map, and his Mario Kart skills are second to none.
It’s that competitive fire that has everyone around him convinced he’ll take a bigger leap this season. He’s only played two full seasons, and he already ranks eighth all-time in SU history with 55 caused turnovers. Entering his fourth year at Syracuse, consider this Riley’s coda. The first act was bouncing back from an ACL tear. The second act was pushing SU’s defense to an ACC Championship.
Riley’s third act? Cementing his legacy as Syracuse’s No. 11 by leading its defense to a National Championship.
“If we win this year, the number will be lived up to,” Riley said.
Riley Figueiras guards Princeton attack Coulter Mackesy during Syracuse’s 19-18 NCAA Tournament Second Round win over Princeton on May 17, 2025. Figueiras held Mackesy to just three points in SU’s win. Jacob Halsema | Staff Photographer
• • •
Riley wasn’t all that menacing to Nick Fraterrigo. The former SU defender gave Riley slack for it all the time, how his voice would become an unintimidating, high-pitched yell when he barked out directions. If you don’t buy the idea of Riley as one of the most intense defenders in Division I lacrosse, no one would blame you.
But ask the Arden Diamondbacks about it. They spent years despising Riley. The way his father, Rich Figueiras, tells it, the animosity began when 6-year-old Riley faced off against the Diamondbacks in a tournament. He laid waste to anyone in his path.
“I’m not gonna keep telling him to stop hitting people,” the referees told Rich. “We’re gonna have to kick him out of the tournament.”
Riley turned around, locked eyes on his target — the son of the Diamondbacks’ coach, conveniently enough — and “wrecked his world,” Rich said. The child began wailing and was whisked away to a tent on the Diamondbacks’ sideline. Riley was on the sideline, too, for a much different reason. The referees ejected him, and he was furious. Rich went to grab his son.
“Dude, you need to walk over and apologize,” he told Riley.
Riley relented and followed Rich to the Diamondbacks’ sideline. He looked at his teary-eyed rival and issued what — in his mind — constituted an apology.
“Sorry, I crushed you.”
That right there, that’s Riley. He throws opponents off their game. If he’s already won the mental battle, it’s all but over for an attack. He just had to find a different way to gain an edge on his foes. The problem with trucking 6-year-olds is that it often lands you in the penalty box.
Watching film doesn’t carry that same issue. Riley and Ryan spent every Saturday watching lacrosse in their basement, recording whatever was on ESPNU. Since Syracuse was often on, Riley watched defenders such as Nick Mellen and Brett Kennedy — both former No. 11s — to incorporate their tricks into his arsenal.
That’s where he’d find his advantage. He studied his opponents’ tendencies through their Hudl highlights. It’s one of the reasons why, after Riley moved to the Annapolis Hawks in sixth grade, he limited elite attacks like Joey Spallina.
Playing for the Annapolis Hawks, Riley Figueiras guards Joey Spallina. The future SU teammates faced off regularly throughout their club careers. Courtesy of Rich Figueiras
After their first matchup at Lehigh University, Team 91 head coach Brian Spallina approached the Hawks’ head coach, Tom Ripley, who stood next to Riley after a one-goal loss. He had something to get off his chest.
“I want you to know, that is the best job anyone has done covering Joey,” Brian said. “Ever.”
Years later, when Riley rematched Spallina at Lake Placid — and beat him handily — he didn’t ask Ripley if he could guard Spallina. He told him, with a sense of assuredness few used when speaking to the former Marine. Riley spent years guarding teams’ No. 1 attacks with the Hawks, on a team with Billy Dwan III and Penn State defender Alex Ross, and did the same as a freshman at St. John’s College (Washington, D.C.).
“Go take a blanket, soak it in water and then walk around with it … It’s f—ing suffocating,” Ripley said. “That’s the way the guy plays. He plays like a wet blanket.”
Riley’s penchant for frustrating attacks followed him to the Cadets. In his junior year at St. John’s, Riley faced off against Taft School (Connecticut), led by future Notre Dame attack Chris Kavanagh. The future Irishman got so infuriated, Speaks recalls, that he was penalized after swinging his stick like a baseball bat at Riley’s back.
His penchant for studying film did as well. Riley crafted defensive gameplans for St. John’s in his senior year, when he led the Cadets to a 19-0 record and wasn’t scored on once. As Inside Lacrosse’s No. 6 recruit in the class of 2022, he was getting everyone’s attention — except John Desko’s, evidently. When former SU defensive coordinator Dave Pietramala reached out to Rich after Gary Gait took over, Riley wouldn’t let him forget it.
“I’m committed to Rutgers,” Riley told Rich. “They didn’t call me.”
But it was always going to be Syracuse. He was always going to follow Mellen and Kennedy’s footsteps. Riley should’ve known better. Eavesdropping from their kitchen, Ryan just couldn’t stay out of it.
“Come on, Riley,” Ryan told him. “You know we’ve always loved Syracuse.”
• • •
Joel White became a Syracuse lacrosse legend by accident. He grew up playing three sports — soccer, basketball, lacrosse — in that exact order. White didn’t pick up a lacrosse stick until sixth grade — a ridiculously late start for a kid from Cortland — and when he did, he played short stick midfield.
He didn’t become a long stick midfielder until he got to SU, where it took him about a year to learn the mechanics of throwing and catching with the long pole, he said.
The rest is history. Donning the No. 11 — which he wore in every sport throughout high school, simply because it was available — White became a two-time First Team All-American and the most offensively-skilled defender in Orange history.
Steven Panarelli, a former All-American defender who wore the number before White, took notice. He’d seen how the No. 22 became a North Star for Orange attackmen, and he talked to White about leaving a similar legacy with their number.
It’s since become an exclusive club. Of the nine defenders who have worn it in the past two decades, only Austin Fusco and Riley haven’t earned All-American honors yet.
But that’s not to say Riley doesn’t belong in that group. There’s a reason why — unlike previous No. 11s, who earned it years into their careers — he received it before he arrived on campus.
“Every single week, Riley’s most likely guarding an All-American,” Kennedy said. “I feel like he has a killer mindset, that he’s gonna go out there and dominate these matchups.”
Ilyan Zarech | Design Editor
You could see it on May 12, 2024, with just over 13 minutes left in the third quarter of the Orange’s NCAA Tournament win over Towson. With the game tied at 9-9, Alex Roussel to his right and Nick DeMaio to his left, Riley read Roussel’s eyes, sensed the pass, flipped his hips and lifted his stick to snag the ball out of the air, snuffing out the Tigers’ two-on-one opportunity.
You can see it each day in practice, when Riley seeks out Spallina — the same way he did with the Hawks — and the two spend hours going at it. They have their battles, Riley frustrates Joey, and the team gets all amped up for him every single time, Rolley said.
You could even go back to March 30, 2024, rewatch his performance in SU’s 14-12 loss to Notre Dame, and see it in how he stalked Pat Kavanagh for four quarters. The way he held the 2024 Tewaaraton Award winner to three points, even though Pat entered the contest averaging over 8.5 points per game against the Orange.
Because that’s what a No. 11 does.
“If you’re looking for the hallmark traits of what it means to wear No. 11,” Ripley said. “I think Riley is as deserving as any young man I’ve ever seen.”
On Jan. 20, USA Lacrosse named its Preseason All-American selections. Ten days before that, Inside Lacrosse released its Preseason Top 50 Players list. Riley was absent from both. Inside Lacrosse CEO Terry Foy feels that due to his ACL tear, it’s difficult to decipher how much of Syracuse’s defensive success Riley’s responsible for compared to his backline counterpart Dwan, who was No. 35 on Inside Lacrosse’s Preseason Top 50.
Add that to the list of reasons why Riley has a chip on his shoulder. Spallina and Dwan think it’s ridiculous. The best-kept secret in college lacrosse is that Riley Figueiras is an All-American-caliber defender, and they’ve known it since high school. Trujillo calls him a “silent killer.” He flies under the radar, obsesses over his opponents’ tendencies and locks them down.
That nickname, as clean as it sounds, has about a four-month expiration date, because there’s only one way for Riley to live up to the jersey on his back. The team doesn’t talk about it much, but they all know it. He’ll have to render a championship contender’s No. 1 attack useless for 60 minutes — nothing new — and Spallina and Co. will have to outscore them. Then, and only then, he’ll get to hoist a national championship trophy and celebrate SU’s first title since 2009.
Riley will be a lot of things in that moment. But he certainly won’t be silent anymore.
Photograph courtesy of SU Athletics
Published on January 29, 2026 at 12:00 am