The Syracuse men's lacrosse team will play in a second consecutive NCAA Tournament semifinal this weekend. The Orange are looking to mirror what they did in the previous round of the tournament: avenge a loss from earlier in the season. 

The Orange started the tournament with an opening-round victory at home as they defeated Yale, 16-`15.

In the following round, the Orange eliminated North Carolina, 13-11. Syracuse dropped two games to the Tar Heels earlier in the season. 

Notre Dame started its tournament journey with a win over Jacksonville, 18-5. The Fighting Irish followed that up with a quarterfinal victory over Johns Hopkins, 15-9. 

The two teams squared off on April 25 in South Bend, Ind. The Fighting Irish entered that contest as the No. 1 team in the country, and both teams had an explosive first half on offense with a combined 15 goals.

Syracuse took an 8-7 lead into halftime, but the Fighting Irish started their rally early in the third quarter. Less than 30 seconds into the second half, Will Maheras scored an unassisted goal to tie the game at 8-8. The Irish then scored four more unanswered goals, extending their lead to 12-8. Notre Dame never relinquished the lead and walked off its home field with a 16-11 win.

For the Orange, Payton Anderson led the scoring with four goals while Tewaaraton Award finalist Joey Spallina added three. 

A win for Notre Dame on Saturday would give the program a fifth championship game appearance since 2010. The Fighting Irish lost in the title game in 2010 and 2014, both to Duke. If Notre Dame wins its next two games, the school would capture its third title in the four seasons. 

In 2025, head coach Gary Gait helped Syracuse to the Final Four, the program's first appearance since 2013. The 12-year gap between Final Four appearances was the longest in program history. (The 2020 championship was canceled.)

Gait is hoping to end another historic drought. A win over the Fighting Irish would put Syracuse in position to play for a national championship. If the Orange can win their next two games, Syracuse would end a 16-year title drought, the longest in school history. A national title for the Orange would also be their 11th since 1983, more than any program in the country. 

ESPN2 will broadcast Saturday's game with the coverage set to begin following Game 1 of the national semifinals, which features top-seeded Princeton and Duke at noon ET. Syracuse and Notre Dame will follow with action scheduled to begin approximately at 2:30 p.m. This year's championship weekend is being held at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va. 

ESPN2's broadcast team will feature two Syracuse alumni. Anish Shroff will handle the play-by-play duties with fellow Orange alum and former All-America midfielder Paul Carcaterra on color commentary. Quint Kessenich and Dana Boyle round out the television crew. 

On the audio side, fans can listen on TK99/105 (99.5/100.5 FM) in Syracuse, through Cuse.com, The Varsity App, and the TuneIn app.

Two Syracuse alumni will also be apart of the radio broadcast coverage. Tim Leonard and former lacrosse player player Kyle Fetterly bring you the action. 

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