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No. 6 Syracuse finishes the 2024 regular season against No. 4 Virginia after splitting four straight road games. SU defeated Hobart and North Carolina, dropping contests to Notre Dame and Cornell in between those wins.

The Cavaliers are coming off an 18-12 loss to Duke, which was their worst defensive performance since 2022. The Orange haven’t defeated UVA under head coach Gary Gait, allowing Virginia to score an average of 20 goals in all three of those losses.

Here’s how our beat writers believe No. 6 Syracuse (10-4, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) will fare versus No. 4 Virginia (10-2, 1-1 ACC) Saturday in the JMA Wireless Dome:

Zak Wolf (9-5)
Instant Classic
Syracuse 17, Virginia 16

Syracuse has been in some pretty wild games this season. Why not have one more to wrap up the 2024 regular season? In the JMA Wireless Dome, SU had a controversial overtime loss to Maryland and then a heartbreaking overtime defeat to Army.

Games in the Dome have delivered this season and Saturday will be the same. Two explosive offenses — both of which are top seven in the country in scoring — going head to head will lead to an exciting back-and-forth affair. Each attack has numerous offensive weapons but revolve around one star. For Syracuse, it’s Joey Spallina while Virginia has Connor Shellenberger. Both aren’t necessarily score-first options but their presence opens up lanes for secondary options. I expect both to show up big time Saturday and each offense to be on its A-game.

But as much as offense will play a role, the difference will be who plays better between Will Mark and Matt Nunes in net. Mark holds a 61% save percentage in his last six games while Nunes is coming off the worst performance of his career. Against Duke, the junior let up seven first-quarter goals without registering a save and was benched for the last three quarters.

Syracuse has plenty of firepower to keep up with Virginia and behind stellar play in net from Mark, the Orange will get the job done.

Cooper Andrews (10-4)
Toss-Up
Syracuse 13, Virginia 14

SU’s final regular-season contest leaves me in a bind. I’m one correct pick behind Anish in our beat writer’s predictions leaderboard. And with Syracuse and Virginia being as evenly matched as possible, I have to make a business decision. So, I’m riding with the Cavaliers to hand the Orange a home loss heading into postseason play.

Syracuse has raised some hefty concerns over its last two games, particularly in its fourth-quarter mishaps. On April 2 versus then-No. 13 Cornell, SU blew multiple seven-goal leads in an 18-17 double-overtime loss. Its offense was lifeless while the Big Red’s attack ran rampant in the fourth, outscoring Syracuse 5-1. Eleven days later against North Carolina, the Orange exited with a victory but allowed five unanswered second-half goals — including three in the fourth — for UNC to cut its deficit to one.

That same late-game sloppiness isn’t going to play against Virginia. Sure, the Cavaliers had their worst performance of the season last time out versus Duke in an 18-12 loss. Yet they were consistent before then, while SU has been inconsistent late all year long. Overtime defeats to then-No. 4 Maryland and then-No. 5 Army are still fresh in my mind. The Orange have put together a commendable season, though they haven’t shown enough in crunch time for me to think they’ll upset UVA in this spot.

Anish Vasudevan (11-3)
(21, 21, 21)
Syracuse 15, Virginia 13

Owen Hiltz starred on the attack as a freshman during Syracuse’s two wins over Virginia in 2021 when the Cavaliers defeated Maryland for their second NCAA championship in two years. The first was a commanding 20-10 victory where the Orange finished the game on an 11-3 run and Hiltz recorded five points in his first collegiate start. The latter was a gutsy 13-11 win where Jakob Phaup’s 88.9% win rate made up for 18 turnovers.

Syracuse’s 2024 squad can take lessons from both those wins. SU needs to deliver a strong second half, something it hasn’t done on the road throughout April. And to make up for sloppy mistakes (another issue the Orange have had lately), the faceoff unit has to be consistent. Luckily, they won’t have to rely on just Phaup with Mason Kohn and John Mullen coming off an assertive showing in Chapel Hill.

This isn’t the Syracuse from recent past. The Orange are on the cusp of finishing above .500 in ACC play for the first time since 2018, almost a month removed from their statement win over Duke. Now, SU has the chance to complete the regular season with another defining victory over the only team it hasn’t faced above it in Inside Lacrosse’s rankings. And it’s going to do it.

Published on April 18, 2024 at 1:55 am