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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — If Syracuse wants to win national championships, it has to beat the best teams in lacrosse.

Yes, duh.

It may seem obvious, but it’s also logical. The Orange’s 2022 recruiting class was billed as the best way for SU to win its first title since 2009. Just listen to the doyen of that class, Joey Spallina, both when he arrived and as he entered his senior year in 2026.

“Putting a 2026 championship banner up in the (JMA) Wireless Dome is the only thing I really give a sh-t about,” he said prior to this season.

Syracuse arrived at a litmus test Saturday to prove it had championship credentials at No. 2 North Carolina. The matchup pitted the nation’s top two teams in the Rating Percentage Index, which determines NCAA Tournament seeding. Big game, right? The lacrosse world was watching.

Instead, the Orange proved they aren’t the prohibitive favorite quite yet. No. 3 Syracuse (9-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) was outmatched 14-9 to No. 2 North Carolina (10-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) Saturday at Dorrance Field, ending a six-game winning run. While the loss is a setback, it isn’t a catastrophe. SU is a near-lock to make the NCAA Tournament and be a high seed, where its season is defined.

However, it’s another loss in a major game away from the Dome for Syracuse. Goalie Jimmy McCool was benched in the third quarter. Spallina was held pointless. SU was expectedly overwhelmed against the best faceoff man in the country, UNC’s Brady Wambach.

“Tough game,” SU head coach Gary Gait said after the loss. “North Carolina played an awesome game, capitalizing on all our errors. And obviously, we had a tough time fighting back. They got a good mid-game run that gave them the lead and secured the win.”

Yes, losing happens in the anarchic minefield that is college lacrosse, but the Orange have had some excruciating defeats recently, particularly away from the friendly, climate-controlled confines of their home venue.

In 2024, they collapsed at then-No. 13 Cornell, were thrashed in the ACC Tournament against Duke and eliminated by No. 5 seed Denver in the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals. Last year brought losses in the sleet at then-No. 6 Maryland, in the rain versus then-No. 1 Cornell on Long Island, in the heat versus then-No. 12 Duke in the regular season and in the Final Four against No. 2 seed Maryland. Consecutive losses at frigid venues against then-No. 14 Harvard and then-No. 7 Princeton arrived earlier this year before Saturday’s hitch.

A hard truth for Syracuse: The games of consequence, the games that win you national titles take place away from home, like Saturday’s. And many of them, like the one in Chapel Hill and this year’s Final Four at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, will take place on grass. That green ground has become the Orange’s kryptonite.

Syracuse is 2-6 on grass in Gait’s four-year tenure. The head coach complained about the playing surface postgame Saturday.

“It’s tough to replicate a grass field,” he said. “(We) saw it throughout the game. The ball was jumping and popping, and it’s tough when there’s just nowhere to practice on grass, so you just show up and you try and make the plays and do your best.”

The grass’ most damaging effect appeared in SU’s 15 turnovers. Ten of those came in the first half. UNC put together a 6-0 run in the first and second quarter, where it transformed a 3-2 Orange lead to a 8-3 Tar Heel advantage. That deficit, as well as North Carolina’s Dominic Pietramala’s five-goal explosion, was insurmountable.

The faceoff battle was an enticing subplot within the already-alluring game. UNC’s Wambach is the best specialist in the country, winning 71.8% of his draws. SU’s John Mullen is a force of his own, claiming 56.4% on the year and 60.1% in his career. By game’s end, Wambach and North Carolina won the battle 17-10.

“Obviously (the Tar Heels) had the advantage there, and I think that was a big difference in the game,” Gait said. “We missed some would normally be easy ground balls, starting from the opening faceoff all the way through the game.”

Another pregame note to follow was Spallina’s chase for the all-time program points record. He needed seven to pass Mikey Powell at 308. He logged zero after averaging five per contest. You couldn’t help but think back to his lone garbage-time point against Maryland in the Final Four last year, and his zero versus Denver the year prior in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.

Spallina’s not easily silenced — there’s no time or space to list all the times he gave teams nightmares, but last year’s eight-point quarterfinal showing against Princeton comes to mind.

However, when a team hushes him, you have to give them credit.

“When he did get the ball a few times, they slid to double really quick, so it wasn’t much he could do with the ball and stick,” Gait said of Spallina’s play Saturday. “So, they made it really tough. They pressed out on him so he couldn’t be a feeder, and did a good job. And we’ll have to make some adjustments. That’s when we need our other players to step up.”

In net, as the Tar Heels goals kept pouring in, SU goalie Jimmy McCool was benched just over five minutes into the third quarter with a .368 save percentage. He walked off in ignominy into the bench, removed his helmet and had his stick atop of his head as Gait came over to speak with him briefly.

When discussing the decision, Gait said “we just needed to change something” and reaffirmed McCool’s place as the Orange’s starter.

Those three plot points — Spallina’s quiet day, McCool’s benching and North Carolina’s faceoff dominance — were the headlines. Yet, SU was again second-best in a high-stakes road contest.

There are still more big games to go for the Orange to rewrite the narrative. Good news: most of those remaining games are on turf. The corollary? The most important of those potential games — the Final Four — will be played on grass. So, if the goal is a banner in 2026, Syracuse just got a clear look at what playing surface stands in the way.

“A very slippery field, too,” Gait said of the surface. “It’s a tough field for both teams, watching them falling all over the place every time they try to change directions. So, it’s definitely a home-field advantage for that field.”

Published on April 4, 2026 at 4:17 pm
Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal