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Just like that, Syracuse is two-thirds of the way through the regular season. With five games until the postseason, the Orange are tied for the most wins in the country, though with the caveat that they’ve also played the most games.

Still, Gary Gait is probably satisfied with where his team is heading into Atlantic Coast Conference play. SU’s back-to-back February losses are in the rearview mirror. Since then, Syracuse has won five straight games, one shy of its longest winning streak under Gait.

More importantly, Syracuse is No. 2 in the Ratings Power Index, only sitting behind Richmond. RPI is key in determining NCAA Tournament seeding, and as long as SU doesn’t have a monumental collapse, it’ll have a strong case for a high seed in May.

Here are some key stats from No. 5 Syracuse’s (8-2, Atlantic Coast) first 10 games of the season:

5,277 miles traveled

It’s no secret Syracuse has traveled a lot this season — 5,277 miles, to be exact. The Orange scheduled eight road games for the first time since 2012, including a six-game road trip extravaganza that lasted 37 days. It was their longest road trip since 1980.

Much has been made of SU’s road struggles under Gait. Before this season, it was 7-12 in true road games since 2022, sparking narratives that Syracuse is a “different team away from the Dome.” To dispel that, Gait put together a challenging road slate.

The stretch included a February matchup with Harvard, an Ivy League weekend against Princeton and Penn, a meeting with Johns Hopkins and a West Coast swing to Air Force and Denver.

Making it back and forth from those campuses has racked up SU’s mileage. Syracuse’s month-long road trip started poorly with defeats to Harvard and Princeton. The Orange needed a dramatic overtime comeback in their victory over Penn. It was smooth sailing from there, though, as SU won its next three before returning home last Sunday.

“I think for this year, it’s a great schedule,” Gait said on Jan. 22. “It’s what we need if we want to make a run at the end.”

12 points

Joey Spallina is 12 points away from breaking Mike Powell’s all-time Syracuse points record. Yes, the senior would probably exchange every single point in his career for a national championship in May, but that’s not how it works. Spallina’s impending accomplishment shouldn’t be glossed over.

Mike, along with his brothers Casey and Ryan — who both now rank third on the all-time list — are some of the best college lacrosse players ever. Spallina won’t only likely break his record; he will shatter it.

The Orange have five regular-season games remaining, plus a potential run in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. Spallina is averaging 4.75 points per game in 62 career contests, as well as a career-high 4.9 points this season.

Even if Spallina were to enter a monumental slump, Mike’s record is bound to fall. A bad stretch is also unlikely.

Since being shut out against Princeton, Spallina is averaging 5.6 points per game, including three outings of more than seven points. If the senior keeps that up, he could break the record against North Carolina in Chapel Hill on April 4, but he’ll likely reach the mark against Virginia on April 11.

It would be a poetic moment, since former SU coach John Desko is getting immortalized in the JMA Wireless Dome’s ring of honor at halftime. Desko not only coached all the Powell brothers but also recruited Spallina before he left the program in 2021.

Michael Leo has already logged a career-high 13 assists roughly midway through his senior season. Eli Schwartz | Asst. Photo Editor

Michael Leo’s 13 assists

Michael Leo isn’t known for being an elite distributor. Usually, SU relies on his speed to create offense off downhill dodges from the wing. However, Leo has already surpassed his career high in assists with 13. He totaled just 12 dishes last year and 17 combined over his freshman and sophomore campaigns.

This year’s production can be boiled down to Leo playing more attack. Gait has flirted with that idea in the past, but Leo has mostly come out of the box as a midfielder at SU. Now that he’s on the field for almost every possession, he has more chances to put up points.

Leo spent a few games at midfield this year while the Orange experimented with Payton Anderson at attack, but over the past month, attack has been Leo’s spot to lose. Entering 2026, Leo never had a three-assist game. That changed against Harvard, when he recorded four assists, then three the following game versus Princeton.

And the senior’s scoring prowess remains. Leo recorded a career-high five goals twice in Syracuse’s last three games. It’s no secret he’s one of SU’s X-factors, and if he keeps up his offensive production, its offense will continue to thrive.

Ilyan Sarech | Design Editor

38 man-down defense opportunities

If teams want to win national championships, discipline is key. If the SU wants to go all the way, it’ll have to clean up its penalty issues. The Orange have been flagged 38 times this season, which is the third-highest mark in the country.

The only teams that have had to defend more man-downs this season are Queens and Iona — programs that aren’t even in the same stratosphere as SU. The Orange are still killing 71% of those penalties, the 22nd-best mark in the country.

Though it could come back to bite them at some point. Chuck Kuczynski was ejected and earned a three-minute locked-in penalty with Syracuse up six late Sunday. Six days before, Drew Angelo’s minute-long penalty allowed Denver to cut SU’s five-goal lead to two.

Syracuse won both those games, but it’s walking a fine line.

“We’ve been talking about that quite a bit lately. Just mental toughness, making good decisions and not getting caught up in the frenzy of a game where the calls are made,” Gait said after SU beat Georgetown. “If that’s a one-goal game, and we do that, it could cost us.”

58.3% adjusted faceoff win rate

Compared to last season, John Mullen is having a slight down year. But he’s hitting his stride recently, and it’s no surprise SU has won five games in a row because of it. As a team, SU has an adjusted faceoff win rate of 58.3%, according to Lacrosse Reference. Adjusted win rate accounts for opponents’ strength, rather than just tabulating the raw numbers.

In each of its last four games, Syracuse had an adjusted win rate over 60%. The Orange only reached that mark twice in their first six games. It also had a season-low 38.1% mark against Penn, where Mullen won just one of his first 10 faceoffs.

Eventually, he found a rhythm and sparked a 4-0 run to force overtime. Mullen then won the most important faceoff of the game, and Leo subsequently scored the game-winner.

Mullen — who’s won 57% of his faceoffs — is set to face some real tests in ACC play. North Carolina’s Brady Wambach leads the nation in faceoff percentage, winning 70% of his draws. Duke’s Cal Girard is also at 63.6%, while Notre Dame freshman Aidan Diaz Matos is at a respectable 55.7%.

The Orange specialist will have to be on his A-game as SU heads into the business end of its season.

Published on March 26, 2026 at 12:09 am
Contact Zak: zakwolf784254@gmail.com | @ZakWolf22