Syracuse lacrosse: Women remain No. 1 in polls, men jump to best ranking of season

Saturday was one of the best collective days the Syracuse Orange lacrosse teams have had in recent memory.

The women went down to Chapel Hill and exercised some demons over the North Carolina Tar Heels, ending their 41-game home winning streak in the process. Meanwhile, the men also took down North Carolina in an exciting, back-and-forth battle that they won in the final seconds.

The corresponding polls were equally as impressive when they were released on Monday. The women remained No. 1 in the ILWomen/IWLCA Division I Poll, while the men jumped up to their best ranked position of the season at No. 12 in the Inside Lacrosse Division I Media Poll and No. 13 in the USILA Division I Coaches’ Poll.

The women once again received all 22 first-place votes as they remained No. 1 for a program-best fifth consecutive week. The Orange now have five wins against teams ranked in this week’s top 10, and eight wins against this week’s top 20.

Northwestern (No. 2), Denver (No. 3), and James Madison (No.4) all remain in the top 5 from last week, and Boston College moves in at No. 5 after they demolished Virginia over the weekend. This means the Orange will play in their second-straight top 5 matchup when they hold the Eagles this Thursday, April 20 at the SU Soccer Stadium at 7 PM on ACC Network.

North Carolina dropped one spot to No. 6 after their loss to SU, and they’re followed by Notre Dame at No. 7 and Florida at No. 8. Stony Brook dropped to No. 9 after their midweek, upset loss to Rutgers, and Loyola rounds out the top 10.

The men moved up five spots in both polls to achieve a new season-high in the rankings after back-to-back weeks with road wins against ranked teams.

After picking up their first conference win of the season over North Carolina (No. 14/15), ‘Cuse (No. 12/13) is no longer the lowest-ranked ACC team. There’s still a significant gap to the rest of the league, though, as Notre Dame (No. 1/1), Duke (No. 2/2), and Virginia (No. 4/3) make up three of the top four in the media poll and the top three in the coaches’ poll.

As they continue to grow as a team, the Orange will face one of their toughest tests of the season this weekend when they travel to Charlottesville on Saturday, April 22 to face Virginia at 2 PM on ESPNU.