Syracuse men’s lacrosse: Spallina, McCool lead Orange to bounce-back, 14-9 win over Virginia

What a difference a week (and a change in playing surface) made for the Syracuse Orange, who returned home on Saturday afternoon and raced past the Virginia Cavaliers, 14-9, in another fast-paced game between the ACC rivals. It wasn’t the highest-scoring affair ever played between the two, but if featured plenty of the traditional hallmarks of the rivalry: tons of up-and-down the field action, transition goals, and quick-strike answers. After a very tightly-contested first half, ‘Cuse took control with three quick goals out of halftime that gave them a four-goal lead.

UVA would fight back to within two later in the quarter, but the second half belonged to the Orange, who eventually emerged with their third straight win over UVA thanks to strong efforts on both ends of the field. Jimmy McCool led the charge for SU, helping the team earn the bounce-back win with an individual bounce-back of his own after getting pulled from the North Carolina loss. Jimmy was the difference maker in this game, coming up with 16 massive saves and a .

640 save percentage while holding one of the nation’s highest-scoring offenses to single-digits. Right from the start, he was seeing the ball well, reading and reacting with energy and quickness. He made an early statement that he was putting last week in the rear-view mirror and never looked back.

On the other end of the field, his counterpart, Jake Marek , came away with only three stops as the goalie battle played a huge role in determining the outcome of this one. Also on the other end, Joey Spallina and the Orange offense had a nice comeback from a lackluster effort last weekend, with Joey leading the way with five points (two goals, three assists) as he moved to within one point of Mike Powell ’s program record of 307 career points. The offensive effort was solid all-around, as SU looked to attack in transition and showed good variety in the half field sets.