Syracuse, N.Y. -- For the past decade, the Syracuse lacrosse team has often seemed to be looking across quite a chasm between itself and the handful of very best teams in Division I.

But the man whose voice counts the most in that assessment still sees the Orange among the nation’s elite, and he doesn’t have to squint hard before making that pronouncement.

SU athletic director John Wildhack sat down earlier this week to give his overview of Syracuse’s season, which ended with a 9-5 record and a first-round loss to Loyola in the NCAA Tournament.

The stumble added another year to SU’s title drought, which reaches back to the last one in 2009. The Orange has won 10 championships in the sport, more than any other school, but hasn’t reached the final four since 2013.

The Orange’s second-straight first-round exit was particularly historic. The last time SU went two seasons without winning a NCAA Tournament game was 1981-82.

But that was a far different lacrosse landscape ago, a point that program backers like Wildhack and others continue to make.

“Obviously, everybody’s disappointed when you get knocked out of the tournament. That’s our fan base. That’s the staff. That’s all of us. We had a really, really strong regular season, had some great wins,” Wildhack said. "I think we’re still one of the pre-eminent programs in the country. Our strength of schedule is always top two or three. And we’ll continue to do that. Obviously the ACC’s fantastic at lacrosse. And you continue to see the growth of the game, which is dramatic. So lacrosse today is dramatically different than it was 10 years ago. I think we’re a pre-eminent program. At the same time, we all want to go deeper in the tournament. There’s no question about that.

“The game has changed so dramatically. And it’s all for the better. It’s a national sport now. Your recruiting footprint is national. In the glory days, most of the real star players they were kind of from the mid-Atlantic, Baltimore area, Long Island and this area. It’s changed. And I think with that, there’s far more parity across the sport than the there was then. You’ve got programs that have come on board, launched new programs. It’s a deeper pool of talent, it’s more competitive than ever.”

Head coach John Desko has brought home five of those national crowns, and he has Wildhack’s support in continuing to run the program.

“You win five national championships, you have the success that John has had. I think he’s earned a lot of equity. John’s our head coach. We’re consistently one of the best teams in the country," Wildhack said. “A couple years ago we were ranked No. 1 for five, six weeks during the regular season. There’s so much weight put on the postseason. And I get that. Sometimes that can be weighted a little bit too much in your favor, if you go to the final four, 'Oh, that’s a fantastic year.” If you don’t, but you were No. 1 or a top-10 team in the regular season but you lose in the first round, then it’s not a good year. And it’s not unique to lacrosse. There’s so much emphasis in anything that’s weighted on the postseason.”

At the same time, Wildhack said he appreciates the standards of frustrated fans and wants them to keep setting a high bar.

“Fans, they’re entitled to their opinion. And I respect that,” he said. “And they have high expectations and they should have high expectations. We have high expectations too. You want to have high expectations, because if there’s not high expectations it probably means you haven’t been very good in whatever sport.”