Syracuse lacrosse: Women hold steady, men hang by a thread in polls

The Syracuse Orange lacrosse teams opened up conference play to very different results last weekend.

The women went on the road for the first time and blitzed Pittsburgh on their way to an easy, 16-4 win, while the men returned home and got run over by a 12-goal first half from North Carolina en route to a 19-13 loss.

Without much room to move up, the women remained No. 2 in this week’s ILWomen/IWLCA Division I Poll as voted on by media members and coaches alike.

‘Cuse received six first-place votes this week, one more than last week, and came in behind No. 1 North Carolina and their 21 first-place votes. Northwestern and Boston College remained No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, as the top four teams remained unchanged from last week. Maryland jumped over Stony Brook into the No. 5 spot after winning an exciting, one-goal game over Florida. The Seawolves drop back to No. 6, and the Gators remain at No. 7 despite their loss.

The women are now 4-0 on the season (1-0 ACC) and will next appear back at home in a midweek non-conference game against Katie Rowan’s Albany Great Danes on Wednesday, March 1 at 4 PM on ACC Network Extra.

The men have somehow held onto their ranking in both major polls despite the back-to-back losses to Maryland and North Carolina. They are now ranked No. 20 in both the media and coaches polls, sliding down one spot in the former and two in the latter from last week.

SU’s next opponent, Duke, is ranked No. 6 in the media and No. 5 in the coaches this week after a very impressive win over Penn on Saturday. They are now 4-1 on the season after back-to-back wins over Denver and Penn and will be opening their ACC schedule against SU this weekend.

The Orange and Blue Devils will meet next weekend, Sunday, March 5 at 4 PM on ACC Network Extra.