(Photo by: Jillian Thaw)
By: Chelsea Brobst
The
Syracuse women’s lacrosse team started the second half of the regular season
with an easy win over Harvard at the Carrier Dome Tuesday night. It was the fourth straight game at home and with a
score of 17-4, No. 3 Syracuse showed why it has been one of the top-ranked teams
this entire season.
Just like
the last time these two teams met in 2012, Alyssa Murray, now a senior, contributed
five points, this time on two goals and three assists. Murray started the
scoring with less than three minutes gone in the first half. The Orange would
go on to score another four straight in the following four minutes. In total,
12 different Syracuse players scored in the win.
The Ivy
League Defensive Player of the week, Kelly Weis made 12 saves in goal for Harvard. But even she
could not stop the number of threats on the Syracuse offense. The depth of the
scoring ability did not go unnoticed by Murray. “People finding success all
over the field between the midfield and attack, it’s going to help us in the
long run.”
Junior
Devon Collins agreed with Murray about the need for scoring depth. “We’re
trying to get everybody involved more now and it’s kind of harder of now for
the defenses to keep focus when there are threats coming from all over instead
of just a couple of players, they have to pay a lot more attention.”
Coach Gary
Gait was proud of the way his attack unit competed. “Our attack picked it up a
little bit,” Gait said. “I thought the effort level on the attack was better
and I think that was the key, the defense and the offensive players willing to
work as hard as the defensive players.”
The
Syracuse defense once again shut down the opposing team. Alyssa Costantino, the
ACC Co-Defensive player of the week, and Kelsey Richardson split time in the
cage. Richardson made five saves in the second half. Harvard freshman, Marisa
Romeo who leads the Crimson with 20 points, was held to a single assist. Freshman
Megan Hennessey, second leading points scorer, was limited to only two goals.
The game
also marked the return of Lisa Miller, former Syracuse Head Coach and current
coach at Harvard. Gait credits Miller with the current success of the Syracuse
program. “She did a great job building this program and taking it to a very
competitive level. We are just trying to build off what she started. She’s a
great coach and I just appreciate everything she did for the Syracuse program
when I took over.”
With the
loss, Harvard now falls to a record of 3-3 on the year and will look to get
back above .500 when it takes on Yale this Saturday. The Syracuse women, now 8-1, will
begin to prep for Northwestern, the team that defeated them in the
National Championship game two years ago. Northwestern has won ten in a row
against Syracuse and lead the series 11-1.
Syracuse split a pair of home games against Top Five teams over spring break, losing to No 2 Maryland 12-10 and beating No.4 Florida 17-12..
Syracuse split a pair of home games against Top Five teams over spring break, losing to No 2 Maryland 12-10 and beating No.4 Florida 17-12..
Murray
hopes to use the momentum from the Harvard game against a very tough
Northwestern defense. “I think today is a good start and a good way to prep for
Northwestern, because in the past they’ve played a high pressure defense which
really makes you have to focus and not make mental errors.”
The
No. 7 Wildcats come to the Carrier Dome this Sunday for a 1 p.m. start time.
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