With just over a month before its season-opener, Syracuse opened at No. 8 in Inside Lacrosse’s Face-Off Yearbook Top 20 rankings released Tuesday morning. The Orange are ahead of Atlantic Coast Conference opponent North Carolina (No. 11) and behind three conference foes in Notre Dame (No. 7), Duke (No. 6) and Virginia (No. 1). The Orange will also travel to face No. 13 Johns Hopkins and play No. 15 Army at home this season.

In the rankings, Inside Lacrosse noted that the Orange will be “bolstered by a healthy Tucker Dordevic,” who missed all of 2019 with a foot injury. Last season, Syracuse ranked 11th in Inside Lacrosse’s 2019 preseason rankings and finished the year at 10th. The Orange lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season, losing 15-13 to Loyola after compiling a 9-3 regular season record.

Syracuse also boosted its offense by picking up transfer Chase Scanlan from Loyola, and also hired former Princeton offensive coordinator Pat March at the same position in September. Scanlan joins a SU offense led by Dordevic and complemented by Jacob Buttermore, Jamie Trimboli and Brendan Curry, among others.

The Orange open their 2020 season at home against unranked Colgate on Feb. 7, a team Syracuse fell 12-9 against in their season’s opener last season.