Not A Great Weekend To Be No. 1 At Syracuse

On Saturday, the No. 1 basketball Orange ran into the upset-minded Louisville Cardinals.  For the No. 1 SU lacrosse team, Sunday meant a showdown with No. 2 Virginia, which pretty much ensured that the game would be decided by one point and would come down to the final seconds.  Which is exactly what happened.  Unfortunately, not in SU's favor.

The No. 1 Syracuse lacrosse team scored one — repeat, one — even-strength goal against No. 2 Virginia’s defense in the first three quarters of an 11-10 loss before a crowd of 7,501 on a glorious 60-degree Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium. It trailed 10-6 with 13:46 to play and had only junior goaltender John Galloway and his 18 marvelous saves standing in the way of a rout.

Eleven minutes later the score was 11-10 and the Orange (2-1) had the ball and a chance to tie. Make that two chances. Amazing. Again. It never happened, though, as an errant shot and a fatal turnover allowed the Cavs (4-0) to weather a storm few envisioned brewing and defeated Syracuse for the seventh times in the last eight meetings between the rivals.

Now, the last four meetings in this heated rivalry have all been decided by one goal. 

Chris Daniello led Syracuse with two goals and three assists while Stephen Keogh and Jeremy Thompson each added a two goals.  John Galloway stopped 18 shots in a busy day.

Don't expect the Orange to fall too far.  Even Kessenich only drops them to No. 2 in his rankings.  They'll get a chance to right the ship against Georgetown (2-1) on Saturday in the Dome.

A very ominous and mysterious Dave Rahme tells us more about the game.