Syracuse Lacrosse: IL announces its ACC Preseason Poll and All-Conference player selections

Inside lacrosse posted its preseason ACC rankings and preseason All-Conference selections. Note that this is not the coaches’ poll, which has yet to be announced. The mag placed the Syracuse Orange third out of five in the conference and gave SU two All-Conference selections in Sergio Salcido and Nick Mellen. Mellen, a sophomore, is the only returning starter on the Syracuse close defense but is still recovering from an injury and will hopefully be back for the first game of the year. Meanwhile Salcido, a former walk-on, had an unexpected breakout season in 2016, posting the second most points on the Syracuse roster with 53.

Of course you have to ask why Ben Williams was left off the list in favor of North Carolina’s Stephen Kelly. Kelly was 19^th in the country for faceoff winning percentage (.574), Ben Williams was 10^th (.622). Kelly won 17 more faceoffs last season than Williams, but Kelly took 61 more faceoffs to do that. Most telling however, in the head-to-head matchup Ben Williams beat out Stephen Kelly on 28 of 45 faceoffs. But do you IL.

ACC Poll

1. North Carolina Tar Heels

2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

3. Syracuse Orange

4. Duke Blue Devils

5. Virginia Cavaliers

All-Conference

Justin Guterding – A – Duke

Luke Goldstock – A – North Carolina

Mikey Wynne – A – Notre Dame

Michael Tagliaferri – M – North Carolina

Sergio Salcido – M – Syracuse

Sergio Perkovic – M – Notre Dame

Stephen Kelly – F/O – North Carolina

Jack Falk – SSDM – Virginia

Michael Howard – LSM – Virginia

Austin Pifani – D – North Carolina

Garrett Epple – D – Notre Dame

Nick Mellen – D – Syracuse

Shane Doss – G – Notre Dame