Syracuse lacrosse: Maryland preview and game thread

The first road trip of the year for both teams is a ‘Cuse-MD doubleheader.

The Syracuse Orange are taking the lacrosse show on the road for the first time in 2025 as both teams make the trip south to play the Maryland Terrapins.

The women are opening the festivities with an 11 AM draw on B1G+. The men will follow with a 2 PM face-off, also on B1G+. It requires a subscription to watch.

The Orange’s first trip outside the JMA Dome looks like it will be met with some weather, especially for the men. Afternoon rain is predicted for possibly the back half of the women’s game and throughout the men’s.

Women vs. Maryland — 11 AM on B1G+

• All-time series: 28th meeting; Maryland leads, 24-3
• Last meeting: Maryland W, 9-8 OT on February 17, 2024
• Syracuse this year: 1-0, 21-9 win over UAlbany
• Maryland last year: 14-6 overall, 4-2 Big Ten; lost to Florida, 15-9, in NCAA Quarterfinals

It feels like it’s been forever since the women played their season opener eight days ago. For their opponent, it actually has been forever since this is Maryland’s first game.

The Orange started the season fast with 21 goals in their 12-goal win over UAlbany, but going on the road to No. 7 Maryland is a major step up in competition.

Although, it’s a little tough to get a beat on exactly how good this UMD team is since it’s their first game and because they lost so much from last season.

Let’s take a quick look at it by the numbers. Maryland returns just:

• 34.8% of their goal-scoring
• 38.3% of their assists
• 35.97% of their points
• 8.3% of their draw controls wins
• 11.05% of their minutes in goal

The Terrapins lost three major players on their offense (their two leading scorers and three of their top five), their draw taker, their best defender and their starting goalie, most of whom were All-Americans during their careers.

So, much like Syracuse, there are a lot of questions about Maryland coming into the 2025 season that will require answers from young players stepping up for the first time.

The Terps were picked in a tie for third in the Big Ten preseason poll, behind Northwestern in first and Michigan in second, and tied for Johns Hopkins. They had three players picked on the “players to watch” list: midfielder Kori Edmondson, attacker Jordyn Lipkin and defender Kennedy Major.

Men vs. Maryland — 2 PM on B1G+

• All-time series: 21st meeting; Maryland leads, 14-6
• Last meeting: Maryland W, 13-12 OT on February 17, 2024
• Syracuse this year: 3-0, ranked No. 2 in country
• Maryland this year: 2-0, ranked No. 6 in country

Amazingly, the Orange have lost six straight games to Maryland. Two crazy stats: SU hasn’t beaten the Terps since the 2009 NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, and they haven’t won a game on the road at Maryland since 1995, which just so happened to be the NCAA Championship game. Now, there haven’t been a ton of games in the intervening years, but those are still two very long droughts that ‘Cuse want to bring to a close this afternoon.

This game continues the trend of upping the competition for SU, with Maryland representing their first of many Top 10 opponents this season.

The Terps have started the season well, going 2-0 with a 12-7 win over Richmond to open the year and an 8-7 overtime win over Loyola last weekend. Much like Towson on Monday, Maryland has a couple extra days rest for this game.

They really struggled offensively last year and lost a lot of personnel, but return some key players and will rely heavily on transfers, particularly at the midfield. Their attack are all returners, led by last year’s leading scorer, Braden Erksa. He’s joined by Eric Spanos and Daniel Kelly, because it’s against the law for Maryland to not have someone named ‘Kelly’ on their roster.

Midfield is largely where they’re relying on transfers, led by Binghamton transfer Matthew Keegan and Fairfield transfer Bryce Ford, as well as DIII Salisbury transfer Jack Dowd.

They lost their all-everything FOGO Luke Wierman, so it’ll be a huge battle of young guns at the dot in this one.

Defensively, they lost their leader in Ajax Zappitello, but the rest of the unit returns largely intact. Most importantly, goalie Logan McNaney is back for his graduate season between the pipes. As experienced as they come, McNaney’s one of the best goalies in the country and will be the centerpiece of the biggest test for the Orange offense on the young season.