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Syracuse scraped by Vermont 7-5 in its first game of the season, scoring four straight goals in the second period before the Catamounts rattled off four of their own. The final result was the least amount of goals the Orange have allowed since last season’s opener.

SU stays at the JMA Wireless Dome to face UAlbany, which defeated the Orange for the third time ever in 2022. The Great Danes have only scrimmaged Siena so far this season.

Here’s everything to know about UAlbany (0-0, 0-0 America East) before the matchup:

All-time series

Syracuse leads 17-3.

Last time they played

The Orange reached a new low last season when they fell to their first unranked team of the year, losing 14-12 at UAlbany on April 7, 2022. Despite being slated against the Great Danes’ third-string goalie Will Ramos, Syracuse converted on less than 25% of its shots for the third straight game.

“Yeah, it was easy,” head coach Gary Gait said when asked if he knew what went wrong on offense. “We didn’t finish.”

SU’s depth was beat up, starting the rainy game without Griffin Cook, Lucas Quinn and freshman Tyler Cordes. It stayed close but couldn’t cash in when the Great Danes led 13-11, missing on a man-up opportunity before Tucker Dordevic Ramos saved his shot.

“It was just pretty sloppy lacrosse,” Gait said.

The Great Danes report

UAlbany finished last season ranked 50th nationally, according to the NCAA RPI rankings, with its best win coming over the Orange. The Great Danes are returning top scorer Graydon Hogg, who notched a team-high 26 goals. He scored four of those goals against Syracuse, earning America East All-Conference Second Team honors at the end of the season.

Hogg was followed closely in scoring by Corey Yunker, who finished with 32 points in 2022. Yunker recorded at least one point in 12 games, and is an assistant coach for the Great Danes this season.

The Great Danes averaged 9.33 goals per game last year, which was fifth best in the America East. But they weren’t as strong defensively, allowing 14.86 goals per game, which was last in the conference. It’s unclear who will be in the cage for UAlbany, but Tommy Heller, who led the team with 75 saves in 2022, is back this year.

Zak Wolf | Asst. Digital Editor

How Syracuse beats UAlbany

All signs point to the Orange having a genuine presence in goal this season with Will Mark posting 13 saves against Vermont, which was the seventh-most nationally at the Division-I level out of all goalies who played this past weekend. If Syracuse struggles again when the Great Danes start face guarding their best attacks, Mark’s performance in the cage will make or break SU’s escape from another embarrassment.

Johnny Richiusa took all the faceoff attempts for Syracuse, taking over the main role after Jakob Phaup’s departure. He gave Vermont’s Tommy Burke, who won a program record 269 faceoffs last year, a difficult challenge at the faceoff X, though he finished 7-of-16. Richiusa should have the upperhand over UAlbany’s Regan Endres, who couldn’t get the best of Phaup last season.

With Richiusa and Mark providing some stability, Syracuse’s offense needs to step up and at least score in the double digits. Finn Thomson showed how his addition to the offense could possibly be more important than Joey Spallina, since teams are going to do everything in their power to stop Spallina. He’ll need to step up again, feeding the ball to veterans like Owen Hiltz and Jackson Birtwistle.

The Orange won’t deal with any subpar weather conditions this time around as well, so there’s no excuse for turnovers or defensive mishaps late in the game. Instead, like it did on Saturday, SU needs to buckle down defensively and let the young offense do the heavy lifting.

Stat to know: 72.2%

Mark’s 72% save rate against Vermont was the third-best performance in the cage nationally this season. His play earned him Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors and didn’t allow any goals in the second or fourth quarters.

Mark’s success on Saturday wasn’t something that Syracuse saw much of last year, making it even more crucial so early in the year against a team in Vermont that is ranked 30th in the country. His save percentage was also the best outing by an SU goalie since Drake Porter posted a 73.3% success rate against Binghamton on Feb. 14, 2020.

Player to watch: Graydon Hogg, forward, No. 45

Hogg recorded back-to-back seasons with 38 points, though his shot percentage went down last year to 28.9%. Syracuse had an easier task against Vermont, who was without 2022’s scoring leader Thomas McConvey, but it will have to specifically stop Hogg on Saturday if it doesn’t want a repeat of last season.

Published on February 8, 2023 at 10:30 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu