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Syracuse is now entering a “series of one-game championships.” That’s what head coach Gary Gait called the Orange’s NCAA Tournament approach Thursday. Star senior attack Joey Spallina also talked about possessing a “Game 7 mentality” last week.

SU is in the postseason, and in case you haven’t heard, this team — with its senior-heavy crux — desperately wants to win a championship for the first time since 2009.

The first mini title game for the experienced No. 6 seed Orange (12-5, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) was a 16-15 survival against Yale (9-6, 4-2 Ivy) in the NCAA Tournament First Round Sunday. A four-goal Bulldog run to end the first half had Syracuse down two goals at the break. But the Orange did something they hadn’t done much, particularly in high-stakes clashes — they mostly played their best lacrosse in the third and fourth quarter to snatch a win. North Carolina awaits in the quarterfinals Saturday on Long Island.

“We scored one more than they did, made a play when we needed it and got the W,” Gait said.

That major play Gait spoke of came after Yale had scored three goals to cut SU’s lead to one with 1:17 remaining — a run Gait commended the Bulldogs for just “making plays.” Yale won the ensuing faceoff on a violation, setting up a nervy finish.

The Bulldogs’ Connor Gately fired with 47 seconds left, but his attempt was high. Out of a timeout, Gately fed Luke Pascal from X. Pascal twisted away from Syracuse’s Dante Bowen and bounced a shot.

Jimmy McCool saved it with a swoop of his stick.

The Bulldogs’ Cole Cashion picked up the ball and flipped a behind-the-back bid.

McCool saved again.

What happened on that last play?

“No idea, no clue,” McCool said.

What was the goalie thinking, making his 16th and 17th saves in quick succession?

“I completely blacked out.”

Really, no recollection?

“I’d assume the defense gave up what we were comfortable with and made the save,” McCool said.

He didn’t just make the save once. He did it twice. With no memory of the play, McCool had to be reminded of that.

Syracuse cleared the ball and ran out the clock. The JMA Wireless Dome collectively exhaled.

Postgame, McCool told ESPNU that his grandmother died this week.

“It’s tough to put into words,” he said moments after the game’s conclusion. “My teammates and coaches were there for me all week.”

“I’m so thankful for her and thankful for all the lessons I learned from my grandma,” McCool added in the press conference. “And I’m just excited that we got the win for her today.”

It was SU’s final game at the Dome this season, cementing it as a fortress with an 8-0 home record. The Orange now have to play in neutral territory — Hempstead and then potentially Charlottesville for the Final Four — to win the crown.

They’ll hope to have similar balanced production for their attacking group, too. All six starters logged at least a goal Sunday. Michael Leo and Finn Thomson netted three, while Spallina, Luke Rhoa and Wyatt Hottle contributed two.

It also saw a continued uptick in form from faceoff man John Mullen. He scored six seconds into the game and delivered his most wins at the X also season, going 21-for-33 (63.6%). It was the kind of prowess he sported last year before his winning percentage dipped by 10.5% in 2026. And it came at a decisive time.

Syracuse struck the post four times in the first half, preventing the score from ballooning early. The Orange resembled an overzealous social media user frequently hitting the like button while scrolling with all the posts they hit.

Yale made SU rue those near-misses. It tied the score 2-2 at the 6:11 mark of the first.

“First half, obviously, hit a couple pipes,” Thomson said postgame. “Then, Joey told me to shake it off and keep going. So that’s kind of what I did. You got to shoot to get hot, shoot to stay hot.”

Thomson “lives by” that mantra.

The woodwork was kinder to Yale. Cashion’s first shot clanged the pipe and rolled back, so he capitalized on the second chance to make it 3-3 two minutes into the second quarter.

After starting on the back foot, the Bulldogs ended the first half on top. They scored four straight goals in the final five-plus minutes. Peter Moynihan received a kind bounce off the post that ricocheted off McCool and went in to hand Yale its first lead of the game at 7-6.

Mullen won the ensuing faceoff, but the ball was checked out of his stick as he charged downfield. Yale went down the other end, and defender Patrick Pisano blasted one home. 8-6.

Syracuse’s season and its 2022 recruiting class’ future looked tenuous. It was Game 7, Spallina reminded his team at the break. His outlook was positive.

“That first half score might not have shown it, but I feel like we were kind of all over them,” Spallina added. “Just looking at everything, I feel like we kind of dominated the first half stats-wise, maybe not on the scoreboard.”

It’s fine to be loose as long as you don’t lose. SU didn’t.

The scoreboard favored SU again when it scored the first three goals of the third quarter. Gait said his team “shot a lot better” in the second half, allowing a 7-3 third-quarter advantage.

But it was back to Even Stevens as the game drifted deeper. Tied at nine. Level at 10. Equal at 11.

A penalty was hugely detrimental to the Orange last time out in their ACC Tournament loss when North Carolina scored twice on a fourth-quarter man-up. It was similarly damaging Sunday when Mullen was called for offside, and the Bulldogs’ William Sheehan had an easy look to even the game at 11-11.

With 35 seconds left in the third, SU profited from its own extra man. Spallina rifled a low bid past Yale goalie Ben Friedman. The Syracuse salvation was sustained as midfielder Tyler McCarthy dumped another score 13 seconds after the restart.

The Orange entered the third quarter down two. They ended it ahead two.

Cashion cut the cushion immediately in the fourth. Rhoa reinstated it with a bouncing attempt. Syracuse built its largest lead of the day when Rhoa set up a running Hottle.

It got better for SU when Spallina slotted a stentorian shot from an acute left-flank angle to build a four-goal lead with six minutes remaining.

Once he’d made the insane look routine again, Spallina turned to the crowd and Syracuse’s bench. In one of his final collegiate games, in front of the building he’s wowed for four years — “the best place to play in the country…it’s just not even close,” he said postgame — Spallina raised his hands in cathartic celebration. The bench and plentiful supporters did the same.

Spallina said the Orange’s senior-heavy team has “been in almost any kind of playoff game.” Yale certainly didn’t make it a smooth one Sunday. The Bulldogs were pesky all day and got within one in the final moments, raising Orange nerves. But McCool’s last saves sealed SU’s survival.

“We knew they were gonna be a really good team, and they showed it in the first half. I never lost the trust in myself and in my teammates to make the next play, and I think we responded really well in the second half,” said McCool, who had 12 second-half denials. “And ultimately, we just needed to make the last stop, and that’s what we did.”

The fact McCool doesn’t remember it doesn’t matter. All that does is Syracuse moves on to another Game 7.

Published on May 10, 2026 at 7:44 pm
Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal