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The immunity finally ran out.

Nobody could’ve seen it drying up when it did. Not with a six-goal lead and less than 20 minutes left in the biggest game of the season. Syracuse spent all year in these situations, absorbing opposing teams’ momentum but burying it moments before the final buzzer.

This was the Orange’s identity. They always had the magic and grit to grind out close games, which sometimes looked like enough to spark a miracle run to Championship Weekend. Until Sunday.

On Sunday, Navy stole the magic. The Midshipmen, once down 10-4, scored seven unanswered goals. Two minutes into overtime, Alyssa Chung buried the game-winner. Just like that, it was over.

“We tried everything,” SU head coach Regy Thorpe said. “When the momentum went, it went. We did the best we could.”

Dropping a close game was inevitable. Syracuse had the hardest schedule in the country, played in the hardest conference in the country and entered the season with extreme uncertainty. It escaped with eight wins by two or fewer scores, including four by one goal. Its average scoring margin — 1.55, the nation’s 45th-best mark — suggests it was living on the edge all season.

It doesn’t make Sunday’s defeat hurt less. But SU’s collapse versus Navy shouldn’t define its campaign. Its improvements should. The Orange weren’t just functional this year — they were elite.

Remember the backdrop: Thorpe inherited a program in trouble after a disastrous end to Kayla Treanor’s tenure. He returned to Syracuse to restore a standard he built as an assistant from 2010-19.

With help from defensive coordinator Caitlin Defliese Watkins, Coco Vandiver and Izzy Lahah became the first SU teammates with 40-plus caused turnovers each in the same year. Dan Guyette emerged as one of the program’s finest goalies. Molly Guzik grew into a legitimate offensive threat, not just within the Atlantic Coast Conference but the whole country.

Look at Syracuse’s wins this year. Nine against ranked teams. Twelve in a row. Three as underdogs. That’s remarkable. But there were still occasional hiccups. I’m not talking about the losses. I’m talking about wins that Syracuse nearly gave away.

On April 11, it ebbed and flowed with Notre Dame. Tied at one. Tied at two. Tied at five. Tied at six. Then, the Orange jumped ahead. They scored four unanswered and took a three-goal lead with under eight minutes to play. Soon after, the Fighting Irish scored twice in 22 seconds. Then, another with 2:35 to go. Tied at nine.

Syracuse entered overtime, a brand-new ballgame. After 20 minutes, Caroline Trinkaus delivered the sudden-death dagger to send the Orange home happy. But the fourth-quarter collapse went overlooked. SU lost a snug lead it spent over 45 minutes building.

“We have a chance to put the nail in, and we make a mistake,” Thorpe said. “They go out, they bring someone off the bench and she hits a big 8-meter and momentum swings.”

Seven days earlier, Syracuse encountered a similar setting, going back and forth with Duke. The Orange held a one-goal first-quarter lead, which they extended to two in the second. It grew to three in the fourth. But it didn’t stick. Duke responded with three goals, forcing a fresh start. Emma Muchnick restored Syracuse’s lead for good with two minutes left.

“We got a little frazzled,” Thorpe said.

Syracuse women’s lacrosse celebrates its quadruple-overtime win over Notre Dame on April 11. The Orange led by three goals in the fourth quarter but let ND tie it up with less than three minutes remaining. Eli Schwartz | Asst. Photo Editor

There are many examples across the season. That’s what happens when you regularly face the nation’s best teams. The Orange were forged in games like this and came away with 14 wins and a positive scoring margin. They were bound to drop one.

Thorpe built the country’s hardest schedule, not to prove a point, but to prepare his team for May. That makes Sunday’s loss that much harder. Yet it’s not like Thorpe was oblivious to what he constructed.

He acknowledged the Orange had been in “a lot of dogfights this year.” He said they became “immune” to losing them. While that might’ve been the case across the regular season, Thorpe also repeatedly said Syracuse hadn’t played a complete 60 minutes.

In the playoffs, against a top-four team, Thorpe’s two ideas go hand in hand. If SU wants to be the best, it needs to beat the best. For a full four quarters.

In second halves all year, Syracuse switched between gas and brakes. On Sunday, it rested comfortably on the brakes, and Navy, which Chung hailed as a “never-quit school,” floored it.

“We couldn’t stop it,” Thorpe said.

Syracuse spent the season doing the improbable. It won games it had no business winning and held leads it had no business holding. It ranked seventh in the ACC Preseason Poll and 11th nationally but exceeded both predictions.

The Orange had dreams of Memorial Day Weekend in Evanston, Illinois. For most of the year, that felt attainable. Now, when people reflect on the 2026 Syracuse women’s lacrosse season, they’ll think of SU’s NCAA Tournament collapse against Navy. That’s fair for now.

It’ll take weeks, probably even months, for the sting of that loss to vanish. Though it was long overdue, it still wasn’t pretty. But right now, it’s nothing more than dust.

When the dust settles, there’s a lacrosse team underneath that took significant strides under a first-year head coach. It proved doubters wrong and reasserted national relevance with each unlikely victory.

So, yes, the immunity ran out Sunday. But Syracuse’s successes don’t disappear with one overtime loss. This was a special season. It deserves to be remembered as one.

Jordan Kimball is the Sports Editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at jordankimball28@gmail.com or on X @JordanKimball_.

Published on May 12, 2026 at 5:31 pm
Contact Jordan: jordankimball28@gmail.com | @JordanKimball_