The misery continues for the Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse team against the Boston College Eagles.
On a rainy Thursday evening at BC’s Alumni Stadium, the Orange came up on the short end of a terrific game of ACC lacrosse as they fell in overtime to the Eagles, 11-10, ending their nine-game winning streak and their perfect ACC record in the process.
‘Cuse has now lost five straight games to BC, and in the last three, they’ve held a lead entering the fourth quarter. They’ve also been unable to figure out their overtime conundrum, as they dropped to 0-3 in overtime games this year (the SU men and women are a combined 0-6 in OT in 2024).
The back-and-forth game was close the entire way through, the kind of game that’s tremendous if you’re a neutral fan and agonizing if you have a rooting interest. Twice the Orange held a two-goal lead, and other than that it was either a one-goal lead or tied the majority of the night. The game featured eight ties and nine lead changes. Unfortunately, BC had the last of both.
SU was up 3-2 after the first, 5-3 at halftime, and 7-6 after the third. In the fourth, BC scored two quick goals to grab an 8-7 lead just over two minutes into the final frame. ‘Cuse fired back with a nice two-man, pick-and-roll goal as Emma Tyrrell fed Olivia Adamson to tie it at eight with 11:33 remaining.
From there, it looked like Savannah Sweitzer was going to have her hero moment, as she scored a pair of goals off the dodge to give SU the lead twice with 8:40 and 3:42 remaining. The latter goal was a beautiful effort during which she tip-toed the crease for three steps while throwing it past BC goalie Shea Sweet.
But the heroics went the way of the Eagles, as Rachel Clarkwho had been held scoreless through the first three quarters, scored the third of her fourth quarter hat trick with 1:27 left to push the game to overtime.
OT went exactly as ‘Cuse would have wanted to draw it up (to start). They won the opening draw on a BC violation, and then worked the ball around looking for a weakness in the BC defense. Savannah Sweitzer found it when she drew a double-team on the wing thanks to her two fourth quarter goals, and a nice pass out of it found Natalie Smith wide open from five yards out directly in front of cage.
It was the perfect setup for a well-executed game-winner to dramatically end a great regular season, but Natalie’s shot went straight into Shea Dolce’s stick, and BC took it the other way for the actual game-winner with four seconds left on their ensuing shot clock.
And thus, both the BC and the overtime conundrums roll on for the Orange.
This game was lost in the ground ball and turnover departments. Kate Mashewske‘s (8DC) eight draw controls helped guide SU to a 14-11 advantage on restarts, but they were outshot for the game, 29-26 and 21-16 on-goal, due to committing 15 turnovers as BC’s pressure defense got to them.
The Eagles also dominated on ground balls, 17-7, as they earned extra possessions or retained possessions for themselves due to their superior efforts in going after loose balls. In an extremely tight contest, a minus-10 disadvantage on ground balls was a brutal setback for SU.
The Orange zone defense had themselves a strong game, overall, holding the No. 3 scoring offense in the country to six goals below their season average. They also held them to 38 percent shooting, 12 percent below their sparkling 50 percent for the season.
BC attacks the ‘Cuse zone in a unique way, routinely putting multiple players below goal-line extended and using constant movement above GLE to try and confuse Hallie Simkins and the middle of the zone in an attempt to get open looks right out in front of cage. It worked a few times on the night, but for the most part the Orange zone did their job. If there’s one main criticism of them, I’d say it goes back to the ground ball department, where they failed to pick up multiple loose balls the would have led to more BC turnovers.
Delaney Sweitzer (10SV, 2CT) had probably her best game of the year in this one, looking like last year’s version of herself as she made 10 big saves to turn away BC shooters and give her team a chance. If this is the Delaney we’re going to get down the stretch, that’s a whole new dimension for the 2024 Orange.
The ‘Cuse offense had their most uneven day since early in the season, struggling to 10 goals against a very good BC defense. The Eagles play a high-pressure, high-intensity man defense that pressed out and made it difficult for SU to even complete simple passes around the perimeter. At times, they were bullying ‘Cuse into playing a defensive brand of offense that led to some shot clock violations and too many turnovers.
There were moments when they executed beautifully, but they came too few and far between as the Orange struggled to get the ball in the best places to have success. For example, Emma Ward had success on the night dodging from X, as she usually does. But BC face-guarded her at times and SU simply couldn’t get her the ball enough on a night when it looked like she was going to make some things happen. She did, but the offense was simply too inconsistent in a tough matchup.
Olivia Adamson (3G) led the way as she reminded everyone what a lethal shooter she is when her teammates find her in front of cage for some smooth finishes:
Emma Ward (2G, 1A) matched her for the team lead with three points, while Nat Smith (2G) and Savannah Sweitzer (2G) each had a pair of goals. Emma Tyrrell (1G, 1A) had two points, while Emma Muchnick (1A) and Payton Rowley (1A) each had an assist to round out the scoring.
The Orange will be back in action next week down in Charlotte for the ACC Tournament. They’ll take on the winner of the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Louisville Cardinals, who’ll play in the 8-9 game on Sunday. ‘Cuse’s quarterfinal game will be Wednesday, April 24 at 11 AM on ACC Network.
Tags: Syracuse Orange womens lacrosse drops overtime heartbreaker Boston College
