1988 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship


The 1988 tournament championship game was played at Syracuse University in front of 20,148 fans. The Syracuse Orangemen defeated the Cornell Big Red, 13-8 for the first of their three straight NCAA titles.

Tournament overview

The 1988 national champion Syracuse team is notable for being undefeated, 15–0, and for featuring the Gait brothers Paul and Gary Gait, as well as John Zulberti.
This NCAA tournament is also notable for being the tournament where Gary Gait took his famous "Air Gait" shot in a tight semi-final game against University of Pennsylvania. Penn played a tough zone styled defense to try to contain the Gaits and Syracuse. Gary Gait saw a way around the zone, by running directly to the goal from behind, and slam dunking the ball from behind into the goal past the shocked goaltender. At that time, a player was allowed to both touch the goal and land in the crease, provided the ball had first crossed the goal line. Gait scored on two "Air Gait" plays in that game. The NCAA outlawed that type of play a short while later.
Syracuse won that semifinal game against Penn on a goal by Paul Gait with 3 seconds left.
In a 23–5 quarterfinal win over Navy, Gary Gait scored a tournament record of 9 goals.

Tournament results

Tournament boxscores

Tournament Finals
Tournament Semi-Finals
Tournament Quarterfinals