2026 NCAA Lacrosse Championship Weekend

Welcome to the 2026 NCAA Lacrosse Championship Weekend. The games this year will be down in Charlottesville, VA. The final weekend of the lacrosse season is here with two matchups that I couldn’t be more excited for. Let’s quickly recap the four teams who made it through before diving into the matchups on Saturday.

#1 Princeton made it to the Final Four after cruising through Marist and Penn State, finding their offensive groove in the second half of both games. The Tigers are the most complete team this year and have shown through two games why they are the favorite to win it.

#2 Notre Dame comes in just behind Princeton as their top threat. They have wins over Jacksonville and Hopkins, and have used transition and phenomenal goalie play to wear down opposing offenses.

#6 Syracuse took down North Carolina over the weekend after their tight win over Yale two weeks ago to make their second straight final four. Syracuse is the most experienced team left in the field, with a deep senior class who now knows what it feels like to lose in the Final Four.

Duke barely made it into the tournament field and are now sitting in the mix at championship weekend. They have played their best lacrosse of the season at the perfect time. They took down Richmond and Georgetown on their way to Charlottesville. Michael Ortleib and Liam Kershis have stepped up to help in a big way offensively and with Maguire can put pressure on opposing offensive units.

All four teams have a player who won some sort of “Player of the Year” award. Duke’s Aidan Maguire won the USILA Player of the Year. Joey Spallina broke Syracuse’s point record this season and in the process won the Turnbull Award for Most Outstanding Attackman. Notre Dame’s Shawn Lyght won the Defensive Player of the Year and Princeton’s goalie Ryan Croddick was a co-winner of the Most Outstanding Goalie award.

Charlottesville, VA and Scott Stadium on the University of Virginia will be the host for the Final Four for the second time (1982).

The weather looks brutal for Memorial Day weekend. Saturday is showing rain with a high of 60 degrees. Monday looks like the rain should clear by late morning and cloudy skies should get the temperature into the low 70s for faceoff. A lot of teams are physically worn down by Memorial Day and you see teams with rest advantages and bigger final four wins have more legs on Monday afternoon. This weekend I expect both games to be relatively close but the weather won’t provide the heat factor.

In terms of rematches, Syracuse has played all three other teams and everyone else has just played Syracuse. Results of those games were a Princeton 11-7 win over Cuse, Notre Dame 16-11 win over Cuse and a Cuse 16-15 win over Duke.

Duke is the first unseeded team to make the Final Four since Towson in 2017. They are one of 11 unseeded teams to make the Semifinals, and could join 7 other unseeded teams with Final appearances. North Carolina in 2016 was the first and only unseeded team to win the National Championship. On the other side, 36 number one seeds have advanced to the National Championship game since 1971 and 22 of them ended up on the winning end. So Duke will have their hands full on Saturday.

Duke vs Princeton (-1.5) – Saturday, 12pm

If Duke wants to have a shot in this one they are going to have to rely on their defense to make stops. A tall task against a Princeton offense that has weapons all over the offensive side of the field. Palumbo and Kabiri are two of the best attackmen in the game and Tucker Wade is the most versatile offensive midfielder to provide offense off the dodge up top.

Numbers wise, the comparison between these two teams is as even as could be. Both score about 14 goals a game and give up 8-9. Both teams faceoff very well so I could see the X not providing an advantage either way. The edge will lie with each teams’ role players to see who can provide a spark. Neither team wants to see the opposing second midfield unit get on the board.

I see this game a bit lower scoring than these teams like to play simply because of the stakes and both teams wanting to value each possession. I think Princeton’s firepower offensively will give them the upper hand in a one goal win. Princeton 11, Duke 10.

Syracuse vs Notre Dame (-2.5) – Saturday, 2:30pm

The Orange sitting at a 2.5 goal underdog on Saturday afternoon may be due to their 16-11 loss just about one month ago. It also could be because Syracuse loves to improvise in the middle of the field, often getting themselves into sticky situations. If they do that on Saturday, the Irish will feast in the open field and in transition like they have done throughout the tournament.

The Notre Dame offense is so well balanced and they really don’t have 1 or 2 guys to slow down. Their midfielders are small but mighty, quick in transition and will make you pay for mistakes. For Syracuse to have success, they need to avoid Notre Dame runs by possessing the ball, staying even at the faceoff x and avoiding turnovers into transition opportunities for ND.

Unless the goalies play out of their minds I don’t see this game settling down like the Duke/Princeton game might. Run and gun is both of these teams’ identities. Like I said earlier, the Syracuse senior class knows what it feels like to lose these games. I am going to stick with my guns from the preseason and go with the Orange. Syracuse 15, Notre Dame 13.

That would make Monday’s National Championship game between Syracuse and Princeton, two of the teams who were thought of as preseason championship contenders. To stick with my gut from January I would be a Cuse fan on Monday, but it will take everything they have to knock off the two hottest teams back to back for their 11th National Championship. Enjoy the last weekend of college lacrosse in 2026!