Gait talks Maryland’s additions, defense before matchup vs. No. 1 UMD
Gary Gait discussed Maryland’s new-look roster, lessons from last year’s Final Four loss and Payton Anderson’s health at his media availability ahead of Syracuse’s Friday matchup against No. 1 Maryland. Jacob Halsema | Staff Photographer
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The Super Bowl, where the Seattle Seahawks were crowned NFL champions, was on Sunday. But Syracuse men’s lacrosse’s Super Bowl is on Friday against Maryland.
The Orange have a lot of Super Bowls on the docket, to be fair. If you take SU goalie Jimmy McCool’s word for it, they have a Super Bowl every week.
“It’s the next one, right?” McCool said at Tuesday’s media availability. “Like, I think last week versus St. Joe’s, that was our Super Bowl, because it was the next one. The week before, it was BU, and our scrimmage before that was the biggest game of our careers, too.”
It’s impossible to look at Friday’s matchup in a vacuum. Syracuse hasn’t defeated Maryland since 2009. John Tillman has consistently given SU’s offense fits, and last year’s Final Four matchup was no exception. When the Terrapins enter the Dome Friday afternoon, they’ll do so as Inside Lacrosse’s No. 1 team — the Orange are No. 2.
But Gary Gait has stressed the importance of approaching this season one game at a time. With the Terps on deck, he’s ensuring his team remains laser-focused on the task ahead.
Here are some takeaways from Gait’s Tuesday media availability ahead of No. 2 Syracuse’s (2-0, Atlantic Coast) Friday matchup against No. 1 Maryland (1-0, Big Ten).
Final Four lessons
The first question posed — both to Gait and McCool — on Tuesday asked them to reflect on lessons they learned from last year’s Final Four loss to the Terrapins. There wasn’t much good for Gait to reflect on. His biggest takeaway? There were a lot of things his team needed to do better this time around.
“We definitely got to execute at a much higher level,” Gait said Tuesday. “We just made way too many mistakes. Didn’t clear the ball well, didn’t shoot well, didn’t do a lot of things.”
McCool concurred, saying the loss was a learning experience for the entire team. As a senior — and a member of SU’s star-studded 2022 class — he recognizes this season will likely be the final time he shares the field with many of his teammates.
So, his mentality heading into Friday is simple. It can be explained simply by the three words on Syracuse’s warmup shirts.
“We have the mantra: ‘Burn the boats,’” McCool said. “We’re going out and treating every game like it could be our last.”
Preparing for the Terrapins’ fresh faces
This isn’t the same Maryland team that Gait faced twice in 2025. Tillman reloaded in a big way after the Terrapins’ national championship loss to Cornell, making several shrewd offseason transfer portal additions.
Perhaps none more important than Leo Johnson, the graduate attack who spent four years starring at Yale before joining the Terps. Johnson transferred to UMD alongside fellow Bulldog attack Chris Lyons — giving Tillman a formidable duo to pair with Eric Spanos — and erupted for five goals and six points in Maryland’s season-opening win over Loyola (Maryland).
With only one game of Tillman’s revamped roster on film, Gait wasn’t able to pinpoint many differences he’s noticed relative to last year’s Terrapin squad. But in Gait’s opinion, it’s certainly obvious that UMD’s attack is going to be a bigger handful to deal with than usual.
“We definitely have seen that their attack is different, and they’re scoring a lot of goals,” Gait said Tuesday. “Coach Odierna, I know, has got that in mind when he’s scheming the defense, and hopefully we’ll do a good job at holding those guys and moving the numbers.”
The attack isn’t the only unit that Tillman bolstered through the portal. He also added Vermont faceoff specialist Henry Dodge — who sported a nation-leading 71.3% win percentage in 2025 — to pair with sophomore starter Jonah Carrier, forming a strong 1-2 punch at the X for UMD.
But Gait isn’t really concerned about that department. With John Mullen, he knows he has the secret weapon he needs to beat any opponent at the X.
“I don’t think it’s that difficult,” Gait said about gameplanning for UMD’s faceoff duo. “I do like the two guys that we have, with (Drew Angelo) and John Mullen, and we’ll see how it goes.”
Cracking Tillman’s defensive code
Maryland’s least-changed — and best — unit is its defense. Tillman added Yale’s Michael Alexander, who’s started on the backline, but for the most part, its core is the same. Names like Will Schaller, Eric Kolar and AJ Larkin are all back and terrorizing attacks for the Terps, which is an unfortunate sight to see for SU.
That unit held Syracuse to just eight goals in the Final Four. Gait is cognizant of some of Tillman’s defensive tendencies, such as overloading the midfield with long poles and using shortstick defensive midfielders on attacks like Finn Thomson. He expects March to have the offense prepared for all of Tillman’s tricks on Friday.
“Coach March is dialing up an offensive scheme that I think will adjust to the looks that we’ve seen in the past from Maryland,” Gait said. “So, we’re going to be well prepared and dialed in for the game.”
No Orange attack had more trouble in the Final Four than Joey Spallina. The preeminent preseason Tewaaraton Award favorite was held without a point for 59 minutes and 57 seconds in the loss. It was a disappearing act — Schaller effectively turned him into Harry Houdini.
When Gait was asked what he hopes to see from Spallina Friday, he emphasized that he doesn’t want him to get too hung up on his matchup. He told Spallina he wants him to focus on moving off the ball, creating opportunities for his defender to slip up without dodging.
“I think we’re going to see a much better version of Joey (in) this game,” Gait said. “I’m excited to see what he can do.”
Anderson’s availability
After Payton Anderson scored three points in SU’s season-opening 13-6 win over Boston University, he was curiously absent from Syracuse’s starting lineup in Saturday’s 20-2 win over Saint Joseph’s. Ten minutes before the game, an SU spokesperson confirmed that Anderson was unavailable due to illness.
The Orange didn’t have much issue generating offense without him, scoring 20 goals on 23 shots on target against the Hawks. But Syracuse’s offense simply isn’t complete without Anderson in the attack.
Fortunately for SU, its offense will be back at full strength on Friday. Gait confirmed Tuesday that Anderson will be available for the Orange against Maryland. Ever-so-secretive about his game plan, Gait wouldn’t disclose what that meant for Michael Leo, who slid up from midfield to attack in SU’s win over St. Joe’s. It’ll be a surprise, he says, for fans to see come Friday.
“We have a few different ideas of what the lineup should look like,” Gait said. “Coach March has a few different things up his sleeve, and he’s gonna bring it all to Friday.”
