Postseason lacrosse got off to a fast start for the Syracuse Orange on Wednesday morning with their opening game of the ACC Tournament down in Charlotte.
Playing the first of a quarterfinal quadruple-header, the Orange dispatched of the Louisville Cardinals with a nine-goal win, 17-8, to move on to the ACC Semifinals on Friday against Virginia.
‘Cuse started fast in this game and never really looked back. After scoring on the opening two possessions of the game, SU hit a mini speed bump as they allowed the Cardinals to go on a three-goal run to take a brief 3-2 lead midway through the first quarter.
Louisville’s joy was short-lived, as the Orange stormed the gates with a 6-0 run in a span of six minutes to close the first quarter with an 8-3 advantage they would never relinquish as the Cards never got closer than four goals the rest of the way.
The teams traded goals through most of the middle portion of the game, going back-and-forth from the start of the second until midway through the third. Each team scored four goals a piece during that time to bring it to 12-7.
SU’s final goal of that stretch was the play of the game as Emma Ward drew a double team out on the wing and flipped a BTB pass to a cutting Emma Tyrrellwho immediately switched hands and finished smoothly for the phenomenal teamwork goal:
The Orange had another run in them to really stretch the game out with a 5-0 run that briefly started the running clock late in the fourth quarter before Louisville tacked on the final goal of the game to bring us to the final of 17-8 .
The offense spent the day primarily attacking on clear-out dodges that placed a single ball carrier alone in one part of the field, and allowed them to operate in one-on-one fashion in open space. Knowing they have the superior athletes, the ‘Cuse offense played to that strength and scored the majority of their goals on individual dodges from all over the field. By the time Louisville decided to start sending slides to help, the outcome was no longer in doubt.
There were definitely a few things to clean up for the offense looking ahead to Friday’s semifinal. It wasn’t their best shooting game (17-of-37, .459), but the bigger issues were subpar days on free position opportunities (1-of-4) and the power play.
The Orange had at least three failed man-up chances in this game, one of which came when they had a 7-on-5 advantage. They did score a pair of power play goals, as well, but three failed man-up opportunities and 25 percent on free positions definitely need to get cleaned up for the next game.
Nine different Orange players found the back of the net in this one, and five scored multiple goals. The Emma’s led the charge, combining for seven goals and 10 points. Emma Tyrrell (4G, 2A) led all scorers with four goals and six points, while Emma Ward (3G, 1A) finished with a hat trick and four points.
Savannah Sweitzer (2G, 1A), continuing to play more aggressively with the ball in her stick, scored a pair of goals and three points, as did Natalie Smith (2G, 1A). Emma Muchnick (2G) rounded out the players with multiple goals.
Kate Mashewske (15DC) was once again completely dominant, as she won 15 of SU’s 18 draws to herself as she helped the Orange to an 18-11 advantage on restarts. Late in the game, Kate recorded the 500th draw win of her career, making her just the ninth player in Division I history to reach that illustrious mark.
The defense had a similar day to the offense in that they put up some good numbers but also had some issues to clean up.
They did well in holding Louisville to eight goals and 32 percent shooting, as well as causing 12 of their 16 turnovers, but they did have some issues losing track of cutters through the middle of the zone. That was especially the case early when the Cards went on their 3-0 run to take the lead, but they did better with it as the game went on.
Katie Goodale (4GB, 5CT) and Bianca Chevarie (4GB, 4CT) had spectacular games leading the defense combining for eight GBs and nine CTs. Katie’s five of her caused turnovers tied her career high and gave her 40 for the year, which is a new SU record for CTs in a single season.
Delaney Sweitzer (6SV, 3GB) finished with six saves, three ground balls and .429 save percentage.
The Orange will meet the No. 5 seed Virginia Cavaliers in the ACC Semifinals this Friday at 5 PM on ACC Network.
