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At the start of the second half, Virginia Tech worked its way deeper and deeper into SU’s end. The Hokies had scored seven goals on the Orange defense, with the majority coming from goals late in the shot clock. But this time, No. 2 Syracuse capitalized. 

Goalie Asa Goldstock intercepted a high pass and, with pressure in her face, launched a long pass to midfield. Emma Ward caught it, charged across the left side of the field and stopped on a dime. She spun back to the middle to take out two Virginia Tech defenders and found Sam Swart sprinting down the right sideline past the Hokies’ defense. 

Swart scored, and in two passes, the Orange had stretched their lead to 10-7.

“We knew that first half wasn’t Syracuse lacrosse, it’s not what we’re about,” Meaghan Tyrrell said postgame. “We took that energy and pushed each other in the second half.”

Against their first unranked opponent of the season, the No. 2 Orange (6-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) coasted past Virginia Tech 3-6, 0-4) courtesy of a 7-0 second-half run. The score was tied 7-7 at halftime, but the Orange’s offense exploded after the break to secure a 17-10 win via six goals from Megan Carney and four from Tyrrell. It marked SU’s 12th straight win, a stretch that dates back to the 2020 season.

The Orange offense started quick with a goal a minute-and-a-half into the game after Emily Ehle delivered a pass to a cutting Carney, who scored from the left side of the 8-meter. Less than a minute later, the Orange scored in similar fashion when Emma Tyrrell connected with Meaghan Tyrrell slashing down the same sideline. 

Syracuse’s early lead didn’t last long, however, when Virginia Tech’s Paige Petty cut down the middle of SU’s defense and score off a pump fake. Two minutes later, Sarah Cooper committed a foul, the Orange’s third of 42, and the Hokies scored again. Syracuse’s defense, which is the 13th best unit in the country, struggled to defend deep into the shot clock. 

After a shooting space violation on Sarah Cooper with 17 minutes left in the first half, Goldstock’s save, one of eight, prevented the Hokies from tying the game. But immediately after, Bianca Chevarie was called for another foul after putting her stick on a VT player, and SU surrendered its lead. 

The Hokies scored two of their next three goals on free-position shots after multiple shooting space violation calls on the Orange, and SU trailed 7-5 with less than three minutes in the first half.

Beyond unnecessary penalties, head coach Gary Gait said Syracuse wasn’t playing “on all cylinders” in the first half. 

Gait said that individual players for the Orange didn’t have a 50% shooting percentage, something they aim to achieve each game — SU finished with a 41.4% shooting percentage, with 17 goals on 41 shots.

“It was one of our poor performances in shooting. We had a lot of free shots,” Gait said. “We were shooting a lot of time stick-side high. I hope we execute to get back and get better with shooting.”

Tyrrell said the Orange “couldn’t play a full 60 minutes” on offense, something that they haven’t been able to do this season, either. To win games against elite teams like No.1 North Carolina — SU’s next opponent — that has to change, Tyrrell said.

“Whether it’s time out of practice, time in practice, getting those full 60 minutes is something we’re really going to focus on,” Tyrrell said.

Defensively, the unit conceded too many shooting opportunities, Gait said postgame. Initially, they were “kind of sluggish” and allowed VT to get a number of chances from near the 8-meter arc, Gait said. SU adjusted its pressure for the second half, though, which helped fuel the 7-0 run on the offensive end. 

The first goal of the run came from Sierra Cockerille, who scored after drawing a foul less than two minutes in the first half to give SU an 8-7 lead, its first in nearly 10 minutes of game play. After Cockerille’s goal, the Orange went on a 6-0 run in the next 15 minutes to extend their lead to 14-7 midway through the second half. 

Virginia Tech scored back-to-back goals with just over 10 minutes remaining to decrease Syracuse’s lead to six goals, and it won the draw control for the 10th time as it tried to push the pace on offense. But the Hokies turned the ball over, and Allyson Trice picked up a ground ball to kickstart SU’s offense. 

The ball made its way from Trice on the right to Cockerille in the middle. She sprinted ahead and found Carney cutting from the right side, who scored in the bottom-right corner. Syracuse shutdown Virginia Tech’s only momentum of the second half, outscoring the Hokies 10-3 in the final 30 minutes.

Published on March 27, 2021 at 7:33 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu