Inside Lacrosse names Maryland men's lacrosse's transfer portal class top in NCAA

John Gugs
6 days ago
2 min read

For the second year in a row, Maryland men’s lacrosse fell on Memorial Day to the top-seeded team in the country. And again for the second year in a row, the Terps have followed their title game loss with the top-ranked transfer portal class, according to Matt Kinnear of Inside Lacrosse.

While this year’s transfer class is not as large or as deep as last year’s class, head coach John Tillman and the rest of his staff have built a very star-powered five-man transfer class heading into the 2026 season. This year's transfer class got a head start in the fall when the attackman pair of Leo Johnson and Chris Lyons out of Yale committed to keep playing together in College Park for one more season. After Memorial Day, Tillman and Co hit the ground running in the portal landing three more commitments from Mikey Alexander from Yale, Trey Fleece from UMBC, and Henry Dodge from Vermont.

“It’s not just the star power, but the depth of contributors that Maryland brings in. It breeds an atmosphere of competition for every roster spot year in and year out. Maryland has three of IL’s Top 5 transfers” said Kinnear about the Terps 2026 portal class. “Leo Johnson and Chris Lyons are linked from their chemistry at Yale; Johnson the lefty who can facilitate with Lyons the big righty. Their production from two seasons ago was staggering, and with Eric Spanos, Braden Erksa and others back it’s sure that John Tillman and Michael Phipps will be able to create some magic. Mikey Alexander brings tremendous experience to a unit that needs to replace two starters, and Henry Dodge is one of the biggest prizes of the Transfer Portal: A game-changing face-off guy (71.3% last year) is always in demand”.

Some other notable teams in Kinnear’s portal class rankings are Johns Hopkins at nine, Virginia at eight, Michigan at seven, Notre Dame at six, Penn State at five, and Ohio State at three. Five of the six Big Ten teams being in the top ten will make for another exciting and extremely competitive season.

Along with stars like Will Schaller, Eric Spanos, and Braden Erksa returning in 2026, and a top five incoming freshman class, this portal class solidifies the Terps having one of the best if not the best roster in the country for the 2026 season. The Terps will be looking to make it to their third straight national championship game, but this time with a better result in the end.

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