These Spiders have great expectations for the 2026 season

Men’s lacrosse entered the 2026 season with a No. 9 national ranking, high hopes, and big challenges, notably No. 1 Maryland on its schedule. Other opponents include Virginia, Georgetown, Cornell, and Notre Dame. USA Lacrosse Magazine called the team’s nonconference schedule “typically ambitious.”   

Last season, the program happily shed a superlative it didn’t ask for: the best men’s lacrosse program in recent years without an NCAA tournament victory. After upsetting the North Carolina Tarheels in the opening round, the team led midway in the fourth quarter against Cornell in the quarterfinal before falling 12-13. Cornell went on to win the national championship.

Head coach Dan Chemotti knows that despite 2025’s success, this season started with a clean slate. “You don’t pick up where you left off,” Chemotti told USA Lacrosse during the preseason. “You get a brand-new team, and you have to sort through, ‘What’s the personality of this team? What are they going to make of their identity?’ because it’s different. It’s going to be different than last year’s team.”

USA Lacrosse named four Spider senior team captains as preseason All-Americans: defenseman Hunter Smith, midfielders Jack Pilling and Joe Sheridan, and attacker Aidan O’Neil.

At press time in mid-February, the team was 3-0, with early season wins over No. 13 Virginia, Robert Morris, and Mercer. Read the latest team updates here.