Item: As pronounced in his official university biography, “Widely considered to be the greatest player in lacrosse history,” matching a career of winning at every level from Syracuse dominating to three consecutive NCAA titles between 1988-1990, to subsequently 11 professional league or world championship titles, to seven straight NCAA championships as a Maryland women’s assistant, the only missing resume piece for Gary Gait is guiding his own Syracuse program as head coach to a championship (Gait did lead the Colorado Mammoth to the National Lacrosse League title in 2006). While he came close with the SU women’s teams reaching three NCAA championship games, now its Gait’s 2025 Orange men’s team that is two wins away from accomplishing that remarkable achievement.

Back in the afterglow of winning the ACC title May 4 over Duke in Charlotte, as the victorious Syracuse players waited for the trophy presentation and media interviews on the field, we mentioned to attackman Joey Spallina that we had a fun story to share about his head coach following the final game of his freshman season under the legendary Roy Simmons, Jr.

Interested to hear more, we explained to Spallina that after SU fell to Cornell 18-15 in the 1987 NCAA semifinals at Rutgers, a game in which the frosh scored five goals, an obviously frustrated Gait told us afterwards, “we’re not going to lose another game while I’m here.”

Well, we mentioned to Spallina, Gait was off by just one game, a 14-13 loss to Johns Hopkins in the 1989 season opener in Baltimore, a defeat that SU avenged in the title game that season 13-12 in a classic at College Park, Md. In all, the ‘Cuse went an astonishing 42-1 over that three-season period, and Spallina was certainly impressed.

Now he and his teammates must avenge a February 15 regular season loss (11-7) to a Maryland program this Saturday afternoon (2:30 p.m. ET / ESPN2), that, quite frankly, has had the Orange’s number dating back to 2009, the last SU win 11-6 in an NCAA quarterfinal game at Hempstead, N.Y.,

And, it is only the first step in an arduous process in Foxborough, with Cornell or Penn State awaiting if victorious.

As he has watched the ups and downs of a 13-5 season ending with a postseason run, Gait has seen the transformation of his players beating the likes of Notre Dame, Duke, and Princeton. There’s total respect for the Terps, but at this point in the season it is outweighed by what the Orange staff and players know about themselves.

“The idea of them (Maryland) having a run against us doesn’t really phase us,” Gait said Tuesday in an NCAA media video call with reporters.

“It’s another game, another opportunity. A chance to make some adjustments which we’ve done (beating ND and Duke). We’ve been one of the more successful offenses against them the last few years, and I think (offensive coordinator) Coach March has been tweaking things to get ready, and hopefully we can have more success.”

The four-year journey under Gait has brought the program back to relevancy, and this weekend has a chance to add to his and the school’s legendary status.

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