Syracuse men’s lacrosse falls out of top 10 after late loss to Navy

While the NCAA Tournament selection committee considered the Syracuse Orange men’s lacrosse team a top-10 team over the weekend, those rankings were also compiled prior to the results of Saturday’s contest. Syracuse fell to Navy, 13-12 at the buzzer, knocking them down to 7-5 on the year.

That loss does have some repercussions in the polls, as you’d guess. SU fell from the top 10 in the Maverik media poll, dropping from ninth to 12th. The Orange made the same move in the Nike/USILA poll, also going from ninth to 12th in those rankings.

The rest of the rankings are littered with plenty of familiar faces. Saturday’s foe, Navy, is in both polls, and same goes for Friday night’s opponent, the Virginia Cavaliers (13th in one poll, 11th in the other). Fellow ACC Tournament qualifiers Duke and Notre Dame also appear in each of the differing rankings this week. North Carolina received votes for both as well, sitting just outside the top 20 in the USILA poll (21st).

First, here’s what the top 20 looked like in the Maverik poll:

1. Yale Bulldogs (11-2) (22 first-place votes)
2. Duke Blue Devils (12-2) (9)
3. Maryland Terrapins (10-2) (1)
4. Denver Pioneers (10-2)
5. Albany Great Danes (11-2)
6. Cornell Big Red (10-3)
7. Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (9-3)
8. Loyola Greyhounds (10-3)
9. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (9-4)
10. Bucknell Bison (11-3)
11. Navy Midshipmen (9-4)
12. Syracuse Orange (7-5)
13. Virginia Cavaliers (10-4)
14. Penn State Nittany Lions (8-5)
15. Villanova Wildcats (9-4)
16. UMass Minutemen (9-4)
17. Georgetown Hoyas (9-4)
18. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-5)
19. Ohio State Buckeyes (7-6)
20. Robert Morris Colonials (10-3)

Major shifts at the top, obviously, with both Maryland and Albany losing. Yale becomes the fourth different team to hold the No. 1 spot this year, taking it from the Terps, who’d held it for the last two weeks. Albany’s been ranked first for six weeks this season, while Duke was for the first three weeks.

Things did not look the same in the Nike/USILA top 20, however. That poll:

1. Duke (14 first-place votes)
2. Yale (5)
3. Maryland
4. Denver (2)
5. Albany
6. Loyola
7. Johns Hopkins
8. Cornell
9. Rutgers
10. Bucknell
11. Virginia
12. Syracuse
13. Navy
14. Penn State
15. Villanova
16. Notre Dame
17. Georgetown
18. Robert Morris
19. Ohio State
20. UMass

You’ll notice a few differences there, especially among the top 10 teams, and the fact that there are two different top-ranked teams. Bottom of the poll is also slightly different -- with slightly altered orders for the same group of teams (and USILA giving more credit to Notre Dame).

Of course, none of that matters for the Orange as they have far more important matters to attend to (in new helmets, no less, as the tweet above indicates). Maybe you hate the chrome, and maybe you love it. Either way, SU is off to the ACC Tournament down in Charlottesville, Va., where they’ll face the fourth-seeded Hoos in what’s being considered a “neutral site” matchup.

UVA’s Klockner Stadium is familiar turf for Syracuse this season, having beaten Virginia 12-11 there back in early March following a furious last-second comeback. All-time, these two programs are 6-6 at Virginia, with this year’s evening the score. The Orange are 18-16 overall against the Hoos, and have won four straight in the series since losing their inaugural game as ACC foes back in 2014.

We’ll have more on that game later in the week. But prepare for an 8:30 p.m. ET start on ESPNU. Should Syracuse win, they’ll play the winner of Notre Dame and Duke for a shot at the ACC Championship -- which would be the Orange’s third since joining the conference and fifth league title (including the Big East) since 2012.