The Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse team grabbed a massive non-conference win with their takedown of the previously unbeaten Loyola Greyhounds16-13, in a back-and-forth game of runs on Wednesday afternoon in the JMA Dome.
The win was the Orange’s fifth straight after splitting their first six games to improve to 8-3 on the season, and it’s a big resume booster since Loyola came into the game No. 1 in the RPI rankings. It’s also their fourth win against a Top 10 opponent.
As expected, it was a tightly contested game in which the teams took turns controlling the momentum and the scoreboard.
The first half saw each team go on their own 3-0 run and play to a narrow, 8-7 Orange halftime lead. After Loyola opened the second half with a goal to tie it at eight, SU took control of the game with a 6-0 run to take a 14-8 lead early in the fourth. Loyola closed the game on a 5-2 run, but never got closer than the final margin of 16-13.
This was an interesting game for the ‘Cuse offense, which needed a very specific plan of attack against the Greyhounds’ aggressive style of man defense. The Orange spent most the game attempting to attack Loyola on individual dodges from all over the field, and it worked quite well. The result was a game in which SU only recorded three assists, but when you’re putting up 16 goals, who cares?
It was an Emma kind of a day for the Orange, as Emma Tyrrell (6G) lead with a sock trick and Emma Ward (4G, 2A) matched with six points of her own. The pair combined to tally 10 of ‘Cuse’s 16 goals and 12 of 19 points for the game.
Tyrrell found the back of the net all game thanks to some very smart movement when she didn’t have the ball and a quick first step and superior athleticism when she did. A number of times, her shot of her was just a simple flick of the wrist after she had already done the work and put herself in a position to score.
Ward, meanwhile, was absolutely phenomenal attacking from X all day. Every one of her goals di lei came from a dodge that started below GLE, as well as both of her assists di lei. She also had the play of the game as she did her best impression of her head coach, coming up from X and throwing a Sportscenter-Top-10-worthy BTB shot to the outside as her defender tried to cheat to her inside her:
Savannah Sweitzer (3G) had her best game of the season with a hat trick, including an outstanding free position goal in which her face-mask got pushed down over her eyes and she scored anyway.
The draw control unit was all over the place against one of the best draw teams in the country. Loyola won the overall battle, 19-12, but just like the score was a game of runs, so it was the draw circle. The Greyhounds both started and ended the game winning seven of eight draws, but in the middle of the game the Orange were able to win 10-of-15.
The defense had a strong game, especially given how much possession time they had to go against given Loyola’s draw advantage. Additionally, the Greyhounds spent the whole day going deep into the shot clock as they struggled to figure out how to quickly attack the Orange zone. Even late in the fourth quarter, when they had chances to bring it down to less than a three-score game, they continued to let the clock slip away. Despite scoring some late goals, any hope of a comeback was dashed given how long it took them to score those goals. They simply ran out of time while failing to strike quickly.
Overall, the ‘Cuse defense had 10 caused turnovers, a huge part of the 18 total turnovers that Loyola committed. As a result, the Greyhounds only managed 26 total shots, 12 fewer than SU’s 38.
Bianca Chevarie (3GB, 2CT) led the way with a pair of big-time fourth quarter caused turnovers, and she was joined in the multiple CT department by Katie Goodale (1GB, 2CT, 4DC) and Coco Vandiver (2GB, 2CT).
The Orange will be back in action this weekend for their penultimate home game and their final Dome game of the season when they host the Louisville Cardinals on Senior Day this Saturday, March 30 at 12 PM on ACC Network Extra.
