Coming off a 1-0 loss in the national championship against Connecticut, Syracuse begins the 2015 season as the No. 4-ranked team with seven first-place votes in the Penn Monto/National Field Hockey Coaches Association Preseason Poll.

The Orange was one of four teams to receive votes for the top spot in the rankings, along with No. 1-ranked Connecticut, No. 2 North Carolina and No. 3 Maryland. At the conclusion of last season, SU also ranked fourth in the country behind the same three teams.

Dating back to the start of the 2008 season, Syracuse has been ranked in the top-20 poll for 77 consecutive weeks and was ranked as the No. 5 team in the country at the start of last season.

The Orange begins its season against No. 6 ranked Stanford, and will play nine teams who qualified for the NCAA tournament last season. In order, the other ranked opponents on SU’s schedule include No. 18 Massachusetts, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 13 Boston College, No. 9 Virginia, No. 20 Boston University, No. 12 Louisville, No. 11 Wake Forest, No. 15 Princeton and No. 5 Duke.