As a new chapter of Syracuse lacrosse begins in 2022, with the Gary Gait era beginning, familiar rivals return to the team’s schedule after two seasons of scheduling disruptions caused by COVID-19.
Gait has assembled a difficult slate for the Orange this year, playing a total of five contests against the teams in last year’s final four.
The Orange will play six conference games this spring, keeping the format that was used last year with no conference tournament. ‘Cuse will play Virginia, Notre Dame and Duke at home and travel to face North Carolina, the Cavaliers and Irish.
In addition to the league games, rivalry games will be renewed with Cornell for the first time since 2019 and Johns Hopkins and Hobart for the first time since 2020.
The Orange will open the year with back-to-back home games. The home opener is set for Feb. 12 against Holy Cross, followed a week later by an event that will most certainly serve to be one of the highlights of the season.
On Sunday February 20, in a double header with the SU women’s lacrosse program, three Syracuse lacrosse legends will be honored. Six-time NCAA Champion head coach Roy Simmons Jr. will be inducted into the Syracuse Ring of Honor and Gary Gait will be the first men’s lacrosse player to have his jersey retired in the Dome when the team hosts Maryland. Later in the day during the women’s game, Katie Rowan will become the first women’s lacrosse player and second woman to be honored with her jersey retired in the Dome.
It doesn’t get any bigger than the Orange’s first road test of the season on Feb. 26. Syracuse will head to face a two-time defending champion Virginia squad to continue a historically close rivalry. The Orange swept both regular season meetings last year to take an overall lead in the series. The teams will play a home-and-home series again this year with UVA also visiting the Dome on April 23.
The Kraus-Simmons Trophy is back up for grabs on March 6 in the Dome. After not playing last season due to COVID, one of the oldest rivalries in lacrosse returns this year. Another longtime rival that ‘Cuse didn’t play last year was Johns Hopkins. That series will continue on March 13 at Homewood Field.
Syracuse will then head to Long Island a week later (March 19) to face Stony Brook.
After back-to-back road trips, ‘Cuse will host Duke on March 26, before another back-to-back road games at Notre Dame (April 2) and for the first time at Albany (April 7) bookend the month stretch of four road games in five weeks.
‘Cuse hosts Cornell on Monday, April 11, before closing its road schedule at North Carolina on April 16.
Following the second of two games against UVA, the Orange will conclude the regular season with their second game against Notre Dame on May 1 in the Dome.
The inaugural season of the Gary Gait era will feature the most Dome games with fans since 2018, after the majority of the 2021 slate featured an empty stadium, 2020 was canceled by COVID and 2019 had a seven-game slate.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].