Syracuse tallies 7 Inside Lacrosse 2026 Preseason All-American selections
Syracuse saw three players named to an Inside Lacrosse Preseason All-American team, and four additional players earned an honorable mention. Angelina Grevi | Daily Orange File Photo
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The preseason awards keep coming for the Orange. Syracuse earned seven selections on Inside Lacrosse’s 2026 Preseason All-Americans list, the magazine announced Tuesday. That ties them with Maryland and Princeton for the most selections of any school.
Joey Spallina and Michael Leo led the way for the Orange, earning First Team selections at attack and midfield. Faceoff specialist John Mullen also earned a Second Team selection. Syracuse was one of four teams — along with Maryland, Notre Dame and Ohio State — to have two players selected to the First Team.
Beyond those three, defender Billy Dwan III, midfielder Luke Rhoa, goalie Jimmy McCool and defender Riley Figueiras were all named Honorable Mentions.
The group is headlined by Spallina, who has racked up an obscene amount of preseason hardware thus far. He earned a Preseason All-ACC selection Tuesday, earned a Preseason USA Lacrosse First-Team All-American selection and sits atop Inside Lacrosse’s 2026 Preseason Top 50 Players list.
Spallina enters 2026 as the preeminent Tewaaraton Award favorite in his final year of eligibility, and sits just 61 points away from Mikey Powell’s program-record 307 career points.
Leo is expected to take a significant step up in SU’s midfield, especially with Sam English’s departure leaving a vacancy. He earned Inside Lacrosse Second Team All-American honors last year, but has yet to earn a First Team selection. And Mullen is looking to build off of a 2025 campaign where he led the Atlantic Coast Conference with 283 faceoff wins.
While they’ve accrued an impressive amount of preseason accolades, the Orange have one goal in mind ahead of their highly-anticipated 2026 campaign. They’re hoping to return to Championship Weekend, and exit with their first national title since 2009.
“It’s just all preseason stuff, it’s all just water under the bridge,” Spallina said at Syracuse’s preseason media availability. “I just want a championship.”
