John Desko doesn’t want to get caught up in all this mid-season talk about polls.

‘I really only care about being No. 1 after your last game,’ the Syracuse men’s lacrosse coach said Saturday. ‘I don’t look at it too much. I guess, you know, it’s maybe a little bit of a reward for the guys playing well and winning. But as soon you start focusing on your rankings, you can get in a little bit of trouble.’

Well, he and his team will have to start thinking about that now. Or, at the very least, answer plenty of questions about it.

Syracuse (7-1) was ranked No. 1 in both the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll and the USILA Coaches poll Monday. It’s the first time the Orange has held the top spot since 2004, when Mikey Powell led SU to 14-13 comeback victory against Navy in the national championship game.

The Orange received nine first place votes and 347 total points in Monday’s poll. Duke came in a hair behind, with 342 points and eight first place votes. Maryland, which beat the previous No. 1 Virginia Saturday, came in third with one first place vote.

Syracuse also received eight of the 11 first-place votes in the coaches poll.

The last time SU was the top-ranked team during the regular season was more than five years ago, in the second week of the 2003 season.

Syracuse has been in the top five since its 14-13 overtime loss to Virginia at the Face-Off Classic in Baltimore on March 1. The team moved into second place last week after a 16-2 win against Binghamton.

For a group searching for redemption after last year’s 5-8 record, being No. 1 now is a step in the right direction. But just a step.

When asked about the prospect of being ranked No. 1 Saturday following a 13-8 win over Loyola, Syracuse’s fifth in a row, Desko downplayed the issue. His players followed suit.

Senior attack Mike Leveille arrived at SU in 2005, to a program saddled with the burden of replacing a superstar like Powell and remaining a national contender. This is his first taste of No. 1, but he won’t savor it just yet.

‘It’s exciting,’ the tri-captain said Saturday. ‘But at the same time, we’re more satisfied just being 7-1, working hard, feeling like every game we go out there we can win. We just want to keep that going.

‘Like I said, we aren’t satisfied here. We aren’t done yet.’

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on March 31, 2008 at 12:00 pm