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Syracuse men’s lacrosse isn’t in free fall just yet. The severity of its situation will truly be decided Sunday, in the second leg of the ACC/Ivy League Challenge.

SU can survive losses to Harvard and Princeton. It’s only February after all, and championships are decided in May. Both of those squads are top 10 teams by a good margin, and might even be top five if you really think about it.

But a loss to Penn, which is desperately clinging to its No. 19 ranking after losing an 11-9 contest to No. 1 North Carolina, is probably something the Orange cannot afford right now. Gary Gait has one chance to right the ship before Syracuse’s visit to Johns Hopkins and a cross-country trip to Colorado next week, and it comes at Franklin Field.

Here’s everything to know about No. 19 Penn (2-2, Ivy) before it hosts No. 6 Syracuse (3-2, Atlantic Coast) Sunday:

All-time series

Syracuse leads 26-1-1.

Last time they played

It’s been over 23 years since these squads last squared off. Kind of strange, right?

One would figure that these two Northeast programs would take each other on with more regularity, but in reality, they haven’t faced each other since Gait returned to Syracuse to helm its women’s lacrosse program.

Their last matchup came on April 19, 2002, when John Desko was in his fourth season as SU’s head coach. The Orange beat then-No. 15 Penn 12-7 on that spring day, with Mikey Powell collecting six points to lead the way for Syracuse. The victory was Desko’s 50th in his tenure as SU’s head coach, and moved the Orange’s record up to 10-2 at the time.

The Quakers report

There’s a new boss manning the Penn sidelines. His name is Taylor Wray, and so far, it seems he’s here to play.

Wray spent 14 years at Saint Joseph’s, winning eight Atlantic-10 regular season championships and earning eight A-10 Coach of the Year honors in his tenure with the Hawks. He finished his tenure at SJU with 127 wins and a 61.6% winning percentage, and left the program as the winningest coach in St. Joe’s history.

That made him the perfect choice to replace Mike Murphy. In his 15 seasons at Penn, Murphy won 109 games and finished his career as the Quakers’ all-time winningest coach. But it was time for a change. Murphy’s Penn squad went just 4-10 overall and 1-5 in Ivy League play last year, getting outscored 145-120 by its opponents.

Thus far, it looks like Wray didn’t need much time to turn the program around. Penn’s 2-2 record doesn’t look all that impressive, but its two losses have been competitive affairs against elite programs in Georgetown and North Carolina, and it has a ranked win over UAlbany.

Furthermore, junior Anthony McMullan is a force to watch in its midfield, leading the Quakers with 17 ground balls and four caused turnovers in just four games.

How Syracuse beats Penn

The formula is simple. Unleash Joey Spallina.

Against Harvard, SU’s star attack finished with one goal and three points, something that was then a season-low for him. Against Princeton, he somehow fared even worse, getting held to zero points for the third time in his career. It’s no coincidence that Syracuse’s offense put up just 12 goals against the Crimson and — even worse — a season-low seven against Princeton.

When Spallina is clicking — as he was in four-goal performances against then-No. 1 Maryland and Saint Joseph’s — then the Orange are clicking as well. When he isn’t, it’s a bad sign for the rest of SU’s offense.

His recent offensive play is one of the biggest reasons behind Syracuse’s two-game losing skid. And ironically enough, his offensive play is the only way for SU to dig itself out of its current rut.

Stat to know: 59.2%

That’s the lowest win percentage among Penn’s three primary faceoff takers. Wray seemingly doesn’t believe in using one faceoff specialist, instead choosing to alternate between Mac Eldridge, Ethan Costanzo and Quinn Ball.

The strategy is certainly working thus far. Ball has won 69.2% of his 13 clashes. Costanzo has won 60.6% of his 33 faceoffs. And across 49 clashes, Eldridge owns that aforementioned 59.2% win rate. The issue for the Orange? All three of those figures are above John Mullen’s 56.3% win percentage.

After Mullen lost 10 of his 16 faceoffs against Princeton, Gait said postgame that there are a lot of good faceoff specialists in the country. He’ll have to deal with three of them on Sunday.

Player to watch: Griffin Scane, Attack, No. 23

Izzy Scane is probably a familiar name to most lacrosse fans. The former Northwestern attack established herself as a dominant force for the Wildcats’ women’s lacrosse program, finishing her five-year career with 376 goals, 483 points and two Tewaaraton Awards in 2023 and 2024.

Get ready to meet her brother, Griffin Scane.

He’s not nearly as dominant as his sister once was — in all fairness, nobody is — but the senior is quickly establishing himself as the Quakers’ premier attacking threat. He led Penn with 25 goals and 30 points in 2025, earning second-team All-Ivy honors in the process, and currently leads the team with 13 goals in just four games.

Shutting down Scane seems awfully germane for Syracuse’s defense on Sunday.

Published on February 28, 2026 at 3:07 pm
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO