Syracuse Lacrosse: Men Limping, Women Surging Into Big East Tournament

The Syracuse Orange's 8-6 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday just about typified the entire 2012 season for the 7-7 squad.

The Irish jumped out to a quick lead and used a dominate performance on face-offs to take a 4-0 lead into the half. Syracuse began to creep back into the game with a newfound sense of urgency, chipping away until they were down 7-6 with just under ten minutes left. Unfortunately, the Orange couldn't overcome their mistakes and the Irish held on, solidifying their place as the top team in the Big East and basically ending SU's chances at an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.

And so it's on to the Big East Tournament, which Syracuse will have to win if it wants any chance of playing into May. 3-seed Syracuse will take on the 2-seed Villanova Wildcats on Thursday in what they hope will be a revenge game to make up for the 11-10 loss to Nova during the season. The loser will almost certainly be eliminated from NCAA contention and the winner still likely needs to win the whole thing to be make the Big Dance. The winner will take on the winner of Notre Dame - St. John's (read: Notre Dame) on Saturday.

The Orange end the regular season barely holding on in the Media Poll (No. 18) and dropping out of the Coaches Poll completely. If they're unable to win the BET, it won't be as bad a season as the 2007 5-8 debacle, but it won't be that far behind in the history of SU lacrosse.

Don't blame Tim Desko, though. He makes things pretty.

"He's mastered the flair for the dramatic." Is that a thing that one can do?

Meanwhile, all the Women's team does is keep winning and they wrapped up a Big East regular season crown this past weekend as they prepare for the BET as the No. 1 seed.

The Orange won a hard-fought battle over Loyola and demolished Louisville to end the regular season with a 15-2 overall record and 8-0 conference mark.

In spite of the fact that they've won 14-straight games, including a win over the Florida Gators, the pollsters moved the Gators ahead the Orange, dropping SU to No. 3 in the polls. Seems logical. Hopefully SU will have a chance to smack Florida around in the NCAA Tournament and remind voters what's what.

The Women's BET starts on Thursday, May 3 in the Carrier Dome. One-seed Syracuse will take on fourth-seed Georgetown at approximately 8:15 p.m. That game follows the opener, between No. 2 Loyola and No. 3 Notre Dame (5:30 p.m.) The winners will play for the BET title on Saturday, May 5 at 1 p.m.