#8 Orange Host #3 Great Danes in Early-Season Showdown

Saturday, February 17

Syracuse, N.Y.

2 PM

Syracuse University

Albany

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Photo by: SU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

#8 Orange Host #3 Great Danes in Early-Season Showdown

2/16/2018 9:10:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

Desko Presser Bomberry Interview Mellen Interview

'Cuse faces top-three test in week two

#8 Syracuse vs. #3 Albany
Game Details	Saturday, Feb. 17 \| Carrier Dome \| 2 p.m.
Game Coverage	Live Coverage: Stats Watch: ACC Network Extra Listen: Cuse.com \| ESPN97.7 \| Syracuse IMG Sports Network \| WAER Tickets: Season ($65, best value) \| Single Game ($15) Walk-ups also welcomed Twitter: @CuseMLAX Instagram: @CuseMLAX Facebook: /CuseMLAX
Syracuse Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Game Notes
Albany Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Game Notes

THE GAME
- Syracuse looks to follow up its dominant season-opening victory with a win over No. 3 Albany on Saturday.
- The game will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra, with Evan Stockton and Sean Salisbury on the call. Brian Higgins and Kyle Fetterly will carry the game on TK99/105 and Tyler Aki, Dana Grey and Chris Lucey will broadcast the game for WAER.

THE ALBANY SERIES
- Syracuse and Albany have squared off annually since 2004, with each matchup taking place in the Carrier Dome, including 2004 and 2016 NCAA Tournament matchups.
- The Orange control the series 15-1, including a five-game winning streak. The games have been consistently close, with four of the last-six games being decided by two goals or less, three by one goal and two in overtime.
- Syracuse won last year's contest 10-9 after overcoming a five-goal deficit in the second quarter. Brendan Bomberry led the way with four points, while Tyson Bomberry, Matt Lane, Bradley Voigt, Jamie Trimboli, Pat Carlin and Austin Fusco all scored in the win.

EFFICIENT ORANGE
- 'Cuse scored 21 goals on 41 offensive possessions in Saturday's season-opening win. The 21 goals were the largest offensive output since the 2015 season opener and largest margin of victory since the 2009 season opener.
- According to Patrick McEwen's (@LaxFilmRoom) research, scoring on 50-percent of possessions or better has only happened five other times since the start of the 2017 season.
- 'Cuse currently has the third-best adjusted offense nationally according to his formulas, which is a way of comparing teams offenses against the mathematical 'average' defense. Syracuse has finished in the top-four of adjusted offense in three of the last-four seasons.

'CUSE CLOSING IN ON 900 WINS
- Syracuse enters the Saturday's game with 896 wins, looking to become the second program in NCAA DI lacrosse history to reach 900 wins.
- Johns Hopkins (972), Syracuse (896) and Maryland (810) are the only three programs with 800 or more wins. Navy is 11 from the plateau and Army is 18.
- There are six other programs in the 700 win club, Johns Hopkins (972), Maryland (810), Navy (789), Army (782), Hobart (763) and Cornell (747). All but the Terps appear on the Orange's 2018 schedule.

NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
- Syracuse finished the 2017 season 9-2 against the non-conference slate and opened this year 1-0 after a win over Binghamton.
- Since joining the ACC, the Orange is 35-7 versus non-conference opponents, including a 32-3 mark in regular-season, non-league contests.

AGAINST THE AMERICA EAST
- Syracuse is 24-6 all-time against the seven current members of the America East Conference.
- Syracuse will open with back-to-back games against America East foes after taking on Binghamton and Albany to start 2018.
- 'Cuse boasts a 7-0 mark against Binghamton, 15-1 record against Albany and a 2-5 record vs. UMBC. Syracuse has not played Stony Brook, Vermont, UMass Lowell or Hartford in an in-season contest to date. The Orange did scrimmage Vermont this fall.

A WIN AGAINST ALBANY WOULD...
- Be the program's 897th victory, second all-time behind Johns Hopkins.
- Improve SU's record to 51-16 since the start of the 2014 season
- Give John Desko his 238th career coaching win, fifth among active Division I coaches.

TEN BELOW
- Syracuse has won 49-straight games when holding opponents to under 10 goals in a game.
- In 2016, the Orange held 11 opponents under that mark.
- Last season, Syracuse has held Siena (6), Albany (9), St. John's (9), Johns Hopkins (7), Cornell (8), Binghamton (8) and Colgate (9) under that mark. Syracuse won its 2018 opener when holding Binghamton to four goals on Saturday.
- The last time Syracuse failed to win when keeping its foe to single digits was on April 28, 2012, when the Orange fell at Notre Dame, 8-6.

X-FACTOR
- Syracuse won 24-of-29 faceoffs in the season opener and leads the nation with a .828 faceoff percentage.
- Danny Varello won 15-of-17 restarts and earned a spot on the USILA Team of the Week for his performance.
- Syracuse's all-time leader Ben Williams never posted a win percentage of .882 or higher in his career at Syracuse, despite earning three-time All-American status with the Orange. Williams won .850 in his first game at SU (17-of-20) in 2015.

GROUND BALL BATTLE
- 'Cuse also leads the nation in ground balls after week one, with the Orange collecting 43, while limiting Binghamton to just 13.
- Danny Varello won nine of those on his own, to lead the Orange to a dominant performance on the ground.

RARE FEAT
- Tucker Dordevic accomplished the rare feat of starting his first game as a true freshman at Syracuse.
- Dordevic is the first offensive true freshman to start a season opener since Mike Leveille in 2005.
- Leveille would later go on to win the Tewaaraton Award in 2008.

DOME-INATION
- Syracuse is 233-34 (.872) in the Carrier Dome since it began playing the majority of its home games there in 1981, including 6-1 this year.-
- The Orange finished 9-0 at the Dome in 2015, the 16th time since 1981 (the lacrosse team's first year there) that SU was perfect at home.
- The Orange has won 30 of its last-33 home games.

IN THE CLEAR
- The Orange enter Saturday's game leading the nation in clearing percentage, with a perfect 20-for-20 effort in the opener.
- Syracuse posted its best clearing percentage in program history in 2017, its third-straight year in the top-eight nationally.
- Syracuse cleared the ball at a 91.9% sucess rate last season, which was tops in the nation.
- According to research done by the Virginia Athletic Media Relations Office, there have been 35 seasons in which a Division I team has cleared the ball at 90 percent or better, including five by SU.