The first round of the 2025 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament have come and gone, and what a weekend of action it was. From comebacks to blowouts and everything in between, there was something for every lacrosse fan.
I had plenty of thoughts after the games. Let’s get right into it.
1. Unseeded Teams Win, But Were They Upsets?
Last year’s tournament was unusual in that no unseeded teams won in the first round, meaning the favourites won each of the eight games. This year, three unseeded teams won, with Georgetown, Richmond, and Notre Dame all coming away victorious.
But were they upsets? UNC and Richmond was a game that could have been played at Richmond. The teams were separated by just one spot in the RPI rankings and many would have argued that Richmond was the better team going in. On the broadcast, they mentioned that UNC Coach Joe Breschi was using that fact as motivation for his team.
So it wasn’t overly surprising to see the Spiders take care of business, despite what the seeds say.
Slightly more surprising was the upset by Georgetown over Duke. Specifically, I was very impressed by the Georgetown offence, a group that scored 3 goals in a game this year. Their spacing was incredible and their passing was elite. They managed the game incredibly well (until the last five minutes) and were the better team for all 60 minutes.
Then Notre Dame went on the road and crushed an outstanding Ohio State team. Statistically, it was a reasonable upset. But when you factor in the experience and eye tests, it doesn’t seem like an upset at all. More on the Irish later.
Cornell, Maryland, and Princeton all cruised to the second round without much of a worry, although Albany held it close with Cornell for a while. But the top seeds looked good on the weekend.
2. Scoring is Down, But Doesn’t Feel Like It
My biggest surprise this weekend was how much success the offences had, especially Richmond, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. Not that those teams don’t have elite offences, but I thought the respective defences would fare better.
For Richmond, I was impressed by the outside shooting. They repeatedly pounded high corners on Michael Gianforcaro. In the end, I thought that was the most significant difference in the game, as UNC was unable, and eventually unwilling, to beat Zach Vigue from outside 10 yards. It’s simply too difficult to beat good teams when the offensive zone is that small.
The same is true for Georgetown, who used long possessions to further emphasize their sizeable faceoff advantage and win a war of attrition against the Blue Devils. I liked two specific things from the Hoyas, which will sound diametrically opposed to each other.
The first was obviously the play of Aidan Carroll. He was the outstanding player of the weekend without a doubt, and repeatedly beat his man off the dodge for goals, something very few teams have done against Duke this year.
But the second was the depth, most notably the second line midfield headlined by Lucas Dudemaine. I am biased (he went to my high school) but it was great to see Dudemaine and his line mates out there playing significant minutes. I think Georgetown had a plan to wear down the talented Duke SSDM unit, which relies on Aidan Maguire and Jack Gray to play the majority of possessions. On one possession in the first quarter, the Hoyas earned a reset and immediately subbed their middies, giving fresh legs to keep attacking.
This is a notable difference from last year, when the Hoyas played essentially seven guys on offence. Those included mega-talented guys like Graham Bundy and my now-teammate Alex Vardaro, but they ran out of gas late in the year. This Georgetown team is deep and had fresher legs than the Devils.
But nothing from week one surprised me more than Notre Dame putting up 15 goals on Ohio State. It will be lost in history a bit, but this Ohio State defence was nasty. Led by a First-Team All-American goaltender, First-Team All-American defender, one of the best LSM’s in the country and an underrated ROPE unit, there were very few holes.
Caleb Fyock was again solid in this one, making 15 saves. It’s hard to believe, but Notre Dame put more shots on goal (30) than Ohio State took in total (28). Thomas Riccardelli had one of his best games of the season, matching saves with Fyock (15) while allowing 9 fewer goals.
I wrote last week that whoever won the unassisted goal column would win the game. Notre Dame dominated 7-2, getting goals from 10(!) different players. Add in a few momentum goals, and you see how ND got to 15.
With that all being said, scoring was actually down this year in the first round compared to last year. In total, 207 goals were scored in the first round last year, compared to just 194 this year. We saw dominant defensive efforts from Notre Dame, Maryland and Cornell that helped keep the totals down.
It felt like a wild weekend, but at least in the goal column that was not the case.
3. You Have to Play 60+!
Let’s talk about the Syracuse game.
The Orange did everything they could to throw this one away, repeatedly turning the ball over and making mental mistakes that cost them.
But this was a total collapse by Harvard in the fourth quarter.
They lost the faceoff battle 10-1 in the fourth quarter alone (and 25-4 overall) and took a disastrous full time penalty where they gave up three goals to the Orange that basically eliminated the deficit.
Give it to Harvard, they had an incredible season and were that close to the quarterfinals. The fact that they made it that far with the faceoff differential being what it was is remarkable in its own right. But the Crimson will look back on this one for years and wonder about the one that slipped away.
With Sam King graduating, the Crimson will have to reinvent themselves. Two tournament trips in the firs three full years of Gerry Byrne means the program is heading in the right direction.
For the Orange, they get a second lease on life heading into the quarterfinals. They survived a game in which they committed 20 turnovers, got just 5 saves, and were trailing by 5 goals with just more than 10 minutes to play. Johnny Mullen was easily the player of the game for Syracuse, and Luke Rhoa kept them afloat with 4 goals.
The faceoff advantage could be similar against Princeton, but the Orange will need to execute much better than they did on Sunday to have a chance against a more-talented Ivy League team than Harvard.
But you don’t often get a chance at redemption when you play that bad. Cuse will feel lucky this week, and should take that enthusiasm into the game Saturday.
4. Dominance at the X
If there was a major schematic theme of the weekend, it was dominance at the faceoff X. Of the eight winning teams, only Richmond won less than 50% of the draws. The others didn’t just win, but they dominated. The seven other teams all won 60% or more of the faceoffs in the game.
| Team | Faceoff Percentage in Round 1 |
| Notre Dame | 72% |
| Maryland | 63% |
| Syracuse | 86% |
| Cornell | 60% |
| Richmond | 38% |
| Princeton | 61% |
| Penn State | 75% |
| Georgetown | 68% |
This was particularly important for Princeton, who has been in the lower third for faceoffs all year. Andrew McMeekin was outstanding against Towson, which allowed their offence to find a rhythm and show how scary they can be.
Penn State had the second highest differential of the weekend, winning 75% of their faceoffs. An under-rated story has been the play of Reid Gills, who has taken over for Colby Baldwin in his absence. He has now won 63 of 88 draws this year (72%) and looks to be a late-season revelation for the Nittany Lions.
This next round should be way closer in most of these games, but if not we will see more wins for the dominant side. In a tightly packed field, I don’t see how any team could overcome a 70%+ disparity.
5. Okay, Let’s Talk About the Three-Peat
Last week, I wrote that I was going to wait to see Notre Dame win before discussing the three-peat. Well, here we are.
My thought watching the game was that Chris Kavanagh is perhaps the greatest post season performer in my time watching lacrosse. I thought the only way Notre Dame could win was for Chris to go nuts, and that’s exactly what he did.
Chris is now in the top 25 all-time for goals scored in the NCAA tournament with 25, and has only played 9 career tournament games. He will leapfrog several more with a good day against Penn State and a possible run to the Final Four. And that’s just goals, as Chris has added 10 career assists in the tournament as well.
Jake Taylor is not far behind, with 23 goals of his own in tournament play.
They are looking to become the first group to three-peat since the Princeton Tigers did it from 1996-1998. Before that, the legendary Syracuse teams did it from 1988-1990 (although the 1990 tournament was vacated due to NCAA infractions). Only one other team, the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, have accomplished the feat, winning in 1978, 1979 and 1980.
The Irish have a long way to go. But playoff mode is activated right now, especially for their two biggest stars at attack. Look out.
Stay tuned to LCD this week for more coverage of the 2025 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament!
Whether hockey or lacrosse, the faceoff percentage is often an over looked stat, and maybe the most important one of all. It’s a turnover if you don’t get it, and a steal if you do. It’s an extra possession, and an extra chance to score. If you have possession 60% to 40%, and you get 50% more shots that is almost insurmountable.