Five weeks into the 2025 college lacrosse season you are able to make more of a judgement of each team. After a good sample size of wins and losses (for Maryland, Army and Fairfield only wins) its easier to get a glimpse into who we expect to see competing in late May and on Memorial Day. But that doesn’t just end there…plenty of teams will still change throughout the next two months to attempt to be one of the four teams being talked about on Memorial Day weekend. Some will fall off, but who? A lot of teams will not play like they are playing now, just as some teams are not who we thought coming into the season.
Since February 9th, plenty of Top 20 teams have taken defeats and plenty of them have even been top-10. #2 Syracuse, #9 Yale, #7 Virginia, #6 Syracuse, #5 Princeton, #3 Hopkins, #7 Duke, #4 North Carolina and finally the two time defending champions and previously #1 Notre Dame took their first defeat of the season this past weekend. The field of teams is deeper than I can remember in previous years.
Week 4 Top 20
- Maryland
- Notre Dame
- Cornell
- Princeton
- Army
- Hopkins
- UNC
- Duke
- Penn St
- Georgetown
- Syracuse
- Richmond
- Harvard
- Colgate
- Denver
- Ohio St
- Michigan
- Fairfield
- Navy
- Delaware
The Terps are the #1 team in the country after taking down the previous top team in Notre Dame in a rematch of last year’s National Championship game. The game was back and forth early before Maryland took a 10-7 lead in the third quarter and relied on their defense to hang on, with Logan McNaney butting the bow on the win with a great kick save late in the game on Chris Kavanagh. Maryland usually relies on their defense to keep them in games, but on Saturday it was the offense that paced the Terps. Kelly and Spanos have been great for the Terps this year offensively. Notre Dame misses Pat Kavanagh who had six assists in the National Championship game last season, and they’ll have to rely on his brother to lead the way into May this year. The Irish only drop to #2 and still may even be considered the favorite to win it all.
The Big Ten is one of the leagues to keep your eye on this spring. More so than in the past they have looked dominant and they have taken down some of the best teams in the nation. With three top-10 teams in the polls and Ohio State & Michigan lurking, I think they will give us some entertaining games throughout the rest of the spring. Its always fun to see the Big Ten defenses beat up on each other.
It is surprising to see the ACC teams combine for 8 losses this early in the season. Ahead of conference play each ACC team has lost a game so far and none of them look as dominant as the league usually looks. Notre Dame and North Carolina both took their first losses this past weekend. The Tar Heels have made a big jump from just a few weeks ago, from the high teens all the way to number 4 before dropping to 7. They are riding two stellar sophomores at attack in Duffy and Pietramala. Gianfocaro in the goal has been a huge get in the transfer portal and Joe Breschi has his best team in Chapel Hill since their championship in 2016. Syracuse recently lost two straight but is back in the win column after getting their offense shut down by the Terps and then suffering a shocker in the dome to Harvard. I still think Cuse is a complete team and are very experienced on all sides of the ball. Virginia, however is still trying to come into form. Led by a trio that has not played together and don’t feature a true dodger at the attack, they have struggled to look like the Virginia that scores with ease. Obviously Shellenberger and Cormier left huge holes in the offense, but sitting at 2-3 I am curious to see their next few games before ACC play.
The Ivy League is the same old story. Teams we expected to be good like Cornell and Princeton have looked really good. Penn and Yale also had high expectations coming into the year but have somewhat fallen flat. #3 Cornell is undefeated and potential player of the year CJ Kirst has been nothing shy of that, scoring 21 goals in four games. Coulter Mackesy is leading the way for Princeton whos only loss is to the #1 Terps. The Tigers just went down south and beat Duke and UNC…a pretty impressive road trip. Expect to see those two duking it out later in the spring for the Ivy.
Army and Navy are a combined 9-1 to start the season, and they will be tested to one of the best Colgate teams we have seen in years in the Patriot League. Army has allowed 24 goals in five games and Sean Byrne has posted a 74% save percentage to start the season. Georgetown and Denver will likely duke it out for the Big East again, as both teams have started the season winning the games they should. It does seem like every year one of the two make a deep postseason run. Both led by talented coaching staffs and fully capable team to pull off an upset or two.
A few games I am looking forward to over the next two weeks include the top-2 Ivy’s in Princeton and Cornell facing off on March 15th. That same weekend Duke heads to a Richmond team that has been playing some of the top teams in the nation tough so far. Duke could be on upset alert. The Terps visit a struggling Virginia team desperate for a win. Hopkins will make the drive to Annapolis to face the Midshipmen. In terms of this coming weekend there are a few games that I have my eye on.
#6 Hopkins @ #11 Syracuse – Sunday, 2pm
A loss for Hopkins would put them as a team not many can trust, especially after seeing Syracuse struggle the past two weeks. Despite beating three ranked teams to start the year, Hopkins doesn’t have many statement wins. Lets see who has the advantage Sunday – an ACC offense vs a Big Ten defense.
#9 Penn State @ #3 Cornell – Saturday, 12pm
A battle of four win teams, Cornell takes their undefeated record against a 1 loss Penn State team who lost to Princeton by 1. This will be the best defense and team that Cornell has played so far this season. CJ Kirst will have to impress against a talented and experienced Penn State defense
Michigan @ #13 Harvard – Saturday, 12pm
Wolverines are on the fringe of the rankings and Harvard is having a hot start paced by Sam King and a very high powered offense.
Towson @ Virginia – Saturday, 1:30pm
This may be the season’s first loser leaves town game. I don’t have much good to say about the start for both of these teams, a loss Saturday would be less than ideal. On the good side neither has started conference play yet.
Ohio St @ Notre Dame – Saturday, 2pm
Besides the week 0 stinker against Utah, Ohio St is 6-0 against Detroit, Cleveland St, Bellarmine, Air Force, Bryant and a slumping Virginia. We finally get to see what Ohio State is made of. I don’t think they wanted to see Notre Dame fresh off their first loss.
Lacrosse Analyst
Sam Kuhn currently is the graduate assistant for the men’s lacrosse program at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio and is working to complete his Masters of Business Administration in 2020. Sam graduated from the College of Wooster in 2018, where he received his Bachelors Degree in English and played lacrosse as well. In his four years, Sam was a two time All-NCAC selection, a first team All-Region selection in 2018, and surpassed 100 goals for his career, one of seven members in program history to do so. Sam has interned with Inside Lacrosse, and wrote for the sports section of The Wooster Voice.