Since 2000, 16 of the 25 national championships have been won by current members of the ACC. This weekend, four of the nation’s best will head down to Charlotte to play the 2025 ACC Men’s Lacrosse Tournament in the next step towards memorial day.
There are significant NCAA tournament implications this year. According to Inside Lacrosse, Syracuse is one of the last teams into the NCAA tournament, and will be in trouble should someone like Yale or Rutgers win their conference tournament. So Friday’s results will matter significantly, likely even more than the finals.
In the first of our tournament previews this week, let’s jump into everything you need to watch before the ACC men’s lacrosse tournament!
Who’s In?
The four teams in the ACC tournament, in order of their seeding, are: Notre Dame, UNC, Duke and Syracuse. Below is a table of the current ranks nationally of all four teams.
| Team | RPI | Scoring Offence | Scoring Defence | Faceoffs | Clearing Percentage |
| Notre Dame | 6 | 9 | 6 | 17 | 27 |
| UNC | 5 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 8 |
| Duke | 7 | 25 | 17 | 28 | 55 |
| Syracuse | 11 | 7 | 16 | 10 | 39 |
Notice in particular the ranking of each team in clearing percentage. I chose to include that stat because of the struggles for nearly every team in the ACC in that column. Managing clears and turnovers will be arguably the central theme of this tournament.
Matchup History
Notre Dame last played Syracuse in the JMA Wireless Dome on April 5th. It was both the last time Syracuse won and the last time Notre Dame lost, with the Orange winning 14-9 over the Irish. To me, it was one of the most surprising and impressive result of the entire season, as Syracuse bullied a Notre Dame team that has been the toughest team on the block for at least two years.
Joey Spallina had 4 goals and an assist while Owen Hiltz had 2 goals and 2 assists. But it was arguably the secondary scoring for Syracuse that was more impressive, as they got 2 goals each from Michael Leo, Sam English, Wyatt Hottle and another from Trey Deere.
Syracuse notably dominated at the faceoff X, winning that category 16-9 and parlaying that into a sizeable lead in ground balls as well. They were lucky to survive 4 man-down opportunities with only a single goal given up.
Notably, this game was also played at Syracuse. Syracuse finished the season 7-2 at the Dome, and just 2-3 outdoors.
We discussed that game on the College Lacrosse Show.
UNC and Duke played more recently, with UNC taking the contest 8-7 over the Blue Devils. It was an unusual victory for the Heels, who got just 3 combined goals from Owen Duffy and Dom Pietremala, who have contributed the bulk of the team’s overall production this year.
Speaking of unbalanced scoring, Duke’s problems are basically inverse of UNC. Duke got just 1 goal from their attack in that first matchup, with UNC holding Eric Malever and Andrew McAdorey to just 1 assist and 3 shots cumulatively.
The story of the game was the failure to clear for Duke, who failed six clears while UNC was perfect in that stat. In a one-goal game, that possession difference was key.
Speaking of possessions, Duke managed to have some success on superstar UNC faceoff athlete Brady Wambach, with Wambach winning 10 of 19 faceoffs in the game.
Keys for Each Team
Notre Dame – Avoid the drought
I spent some time earlier this season discussing the ebbs and flows of the Notre Dame offence, which you can find here.
Recently, the biggest issue has been extended scoring droughts throughout the game. This graphic from the ESPN broadcast on the weekend was presented early in the second quarter, and the drought would go on to not score for several more minutes. For an offence that still finds itself in the top ten nationally, it’s unusual that they go so long between goals.
One of the reasons for this issue is their lack of spacing, especially as it relates to handedness. The Irish are one of the only teams in the country that don’t play a left-handed attackmen. When their second line is in the game, they are playing with six right-handed players on the field.
Of course, they won both of their titles without a lefty, but Pat Kavanagh was a) one of the best players of all-time and b) had a very good left hand. After experimenting with a few younger players, the Irish settled on veteran Devon McLane at attack, giving them savvy and experience but no lefties.
The scary injury to (ACC Freshmen of the Year!) Matt Jeffery against Penn means that the Irish are likely to have no lefties in their offensive rotation for the ACC tournament. I certainly send my best to Matt and his family, and hope for a speedy recovery.
The other issue for the Irish is that they haven’t been able to find Jake Taylor recently. He has just 5 goals in his last 4 games, and went down with an apparent shoulder injury against Penn. He returned quickly to the game, but the injuries are stacking up. Taylor is also a bellwether for the Irish offence. If the Irish can find him inside early, they will be in business.
Duke – Offensive Urgency
If you listen to the College Lacrosse Show, you will know I haven’t been a fan of Duke’s play on offence recently. I was a fan however of the way they started against UVA, as they played with extreme urgency and aggressiveness, leading to easy goals.
I love this faceoff play from Luke Engelke, who wins the faceoff, whips it to McAdorey at full speed, sets a pick and gets it back. McAdorey is one of the best athletes in the country, and is a challenge to deal with when he is going downhill.
Here is another example of the good from Duke, where Mac Christmas tries an outside shot but misses the net. Liam Kershis picks up the ball on the end line, goes right at his short-stick defender and scores. It’s a 3v5 scenario for the Blue Devils, but it leads to a goal.
Compare that with the following possession, where they spend nearly 30 seconds waiting to sub, never get the ball below GLE, and turn it over after just two total passes.
If Duke plays with urgency, they have the talent to beat UNC. But if they walk into dodges, they will score 7 goals just like they did in Durham for the last meeting.
Syracuse – Clears, Starts, and Fouls
Cuse enters the tournament with three straight losses, so there hasn’t been a lot of excitement recently Upstate. Lets break down some of the issues one by one.
Syracuse has struggled mightily to clear the ball in recent weeks. Last week, they successfully cleared just 10 of 17 possible attempts, for a staggering 7 failed clears. They failed three each against Duke and Cornell as well. They have been good in the ride, but the clears are absolutely killing them, and need to be improved.
The second is their starts to the game. Against Cornell, Syracuse trailed 5-2 after one quarter and 9-5 at half. Against Duke, they trailed 3-0 after one quarter and 7-4 at half. Against UNC, it was 2-2 after one and 6-4 Tar Heels at halftime. They even spotted Notre Dame a 3-0 lead in their last victory before going on an epic run of their own. It’s simply too hard to climb out of a whole all the time, they need to start on time.
The last is fouls. Syracuse has fouled 20 more times than their opponents this year. They’ve had three separate games of 8 penalties, and have not had a single game without a penalty this season. This has been particularly damaging in recent weeks. Against Cornell, the Big Red went 5-5 on man-up (the differential in the game was 5 goals), and they gave up another man-up goal against UNC. This cannot continue.
UNC – Midfield Scoring
It’s not overly exciting, but of course this is the biggest key for UNC. My good pal Dan Arestia wrote about this on his own site, but the reality is that Owen Duffy and Dom Pietremala carry way too heavy of a scoring load for UNC. Duffy has 54 points, Pietremala has 46, and the next closest player (James Matan) has just 24.
Spencer Wirtheim and Ty English have been the best UNC middies, and they have talented players. Brevin Wilson, Caden Harshbarger, and Mason Sxewczyk are promising rookies, while Ryan Levy is a senior captain and transfer Nick Dupuis has gotten more playing time of late.
The Heels have 11 players outside of the starting attack who have scored 3 or more goals, a high number for a team that lacks secondary scoring. But the problem seems to be that they never know who exactly it will be to step up.
Against Cuse, the UNC midfield was at their best spreading the Orange defence out, and getting long dodges from the high corners. Here is a good play from Spencer Wirtheim to set up Harshbarger. The Heels will have to hit these shots
And here is one from the other side of the field. This is a good look because other teams don’t want to slide off Duffy, so the reads should be easy for the dodger.
Duke has an elite cover man in Charlie Johnson and incredibly strong SSDM’s. If UNC tries to get cute and dance on Aidan Maguire and others, they will be in trouble. They need to get in space, sprint hard, and make good decisions with the ball.
As always, they have to hit shots.
X Factors
I’ll go fast here since this article has become longer than intended. These are the guys who are going to make the difference this weekend.
Notre Dame – Every SSDM not named Ben Ramsay
The Irish have lost a lot from their dominant rope unit of recent years. They still have Ramsay and LSM Will Donovan, but teams clearly target the other parts of the defence. Go watch the Penn highlights and see how many of the goals were scored directly on the other SSDM’s. These players will need to mitigate these goals against and hold up against a talented Cuse midfield.
Duke – Liam Kershis
Kershis has been a nice addition to the Duke Attack, and will need to give them some added juice. Don’t be surprised to see UNC put a short-stck on the freshman (mostly to cover Max Sloat and Benn Johnston). Kershis needs to punish that strategy.
Syracuse – Joey Spallina
Spallina had his best game of the season against Notre Dame in the Dome. Everyone knows going against Shawn Lyght is an uphill battle, but he found ways to be aggressive in other ways and find the back of the net. He will need to be a major factor if Cuse is going to beat the defending champs again.
UNC – Brady Wambach
The Heels are one of the most mathematically optimized teams in the country, with an elite faceoff unit, elite goaltending and they are one of the best clearing teams in the country. Wambach needs to not just win, but win by a lot to emphasize the possession advantage and help wear down a talented (but relatively thin) Duke defence.
The tournament begins Friday at 5 PM on the ACC Network.