The Syracuse men's lacrosse team is still days away from facing off against Notre Dame in the national semifinals, and the Orange are hopeful about bringing another national championship back to Central New York. SU defeated North Carolina in the quarterfinals on Saturday and is seeking its first title since 2009.

But a national title may not be the only hardware added to the school's trophy room this year. 

This past Wednesday afternoon, ESPN broadcaster Anish Shroff joined Orange Nation on ESPN Radio Syracuse to preview the weekend's semifinal action.

Since 2017, Shroff has been ESPN's lead play-by-play broadcaster for men's college lacrosse. The near decade-long run as the top voice has included multiple calls of national championship weekend.

A 2004 Syracuse graduate, Shroff was asked about Syracuse's Joey Spallina potential to win the Tewaaraton Award, which is the lacrosse equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. Spallina was named as one of five finalists earlier this month.

Shroff said:

"I think, right now, Spallina has pulled away from the pack."

Since 2001, the Tewaaraton Award recognizes the most outstanding American college lacrosse men's and women's players in the country. The sport of lacrosse has a rich history with Native American origins and 'Tewaaraton' is the word for lacrosse in the Mohawk language.

Joey Spallina is joined by a list of a list of fellow nominees which include:

--North Carolina junior attackman  Owen Duffy

--Cornell junior attackman Willem Firth

--Princeton junior attackman Nate Kabiri

--Notre Dame junior defenseman Shawn Lyght

Spallina has posted 85 points this season while guiding the Orange to their second straight national semifinal.

Last month, Spallina broke Syracuse's career points scored record, passing Mikey Powell's record of 307 career points. 

Spallina is the first Orange player to be named a finalist since Kevin Rice in 2015.

If Spallina were to win the award, he would join two former Syracuse players who also received the honor: Mike Leveille won the award in 2008, while Powell won in both 2002 and 2004. 

This year's winner will officially be announced on May 28. 

The Orange will try to become the first No. 6 ever to win a national championship, but in order to do that, they will need to defeat Notre Dame in the semifinal matchup Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET in Charlottesville, Va. 

In the teams' previous matchup on April 25, the Fighting Irish defeated the Orange 16-11. 

The winner of Notre Dame and Syracuse will face off against either Duke or Princeton in Monday's national title game. 

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