#3 Orange Women Rein In the #1 Tar Heels

by Norman Seawright III (Newhouse Sports Media Center)-- When two women's lacrosse teams with the nation's best offenses face off against each other, you don't expect the final score to be 12-9.

With a weapon like Kayla Treanor in the Orange arsenal, however... you do expect her to score early and often. Her seven goals were a career high; she was supported by Amy Cross' two goals and one each from Alyssa Murray, Gabby Jaquith, and Katie Webster.

Saturday's doubleheader at the Carrier Dome began with a clash of two top-ranked teams. The Syracuse women, ranked #3 in the nation hosted the #1 North Carolina Tar Heels.

Orange owned the first half

The shootout-that-wasn't began with Treanor's unassisted goal with 24 minutes on the clock in the first half.

Abbey Friend quickly equalized the score for the Tar Heels, and the teams traded goals for the next ten minutes.

Then, for seven minutes... nothing.

Syracuse held a 3-2 lead, and nobody found the net for a full seven minutes, until Treanor's third goal to give her a hat trick ended the scoring lull. Then she and Jaquith led a 3-0 scoring run to give the Orange a commanding 6-2 lead.

As the clock began to wind down, Molly Hendrick scored for the Tar Heels and ended the first half's struggle with UNC trailing 6-3.

The Orange dominated the draw as well, winning seven to North Carolina's three.

Don't call it a comeback

Although Katie Webster pushed the Orange lead to four early in the second half, a revitalized Tar Heel team went on a pair of three-point scoring runs—interrupted by Cross and Treanor.

Aly Messinger, Sydney Holman, and Taylor George brought the score to 7-6 before the Orange jumped back to 9-6.

UNC had more chances to score, winning seven draws to Syracuse's five.

Friend's two goals and Carly Reed's one tied the score for the first time since the first half, and with 12 minutes to play, North Carolina had outscored Syracuse in the second half. At 9-9, it looked like the game could go either way.

Then the Kayla Treanor–Amy Cross one-two punch happened—again. Two from Treanor and one from Cross gave the Orange the lead once again. Syracuse never led by more than three after Webster's goal in the second half, but with three minutes left on the clock, SU Head Coach Gary Gait was content with it, giving the order to run the clock and frustrate UNC.

The first regular season meeting between these two teams ended with the Orange winning 12-9.

Postgame

For the best offenses in the country (UNC at #1 and Syracuse at #2), the idea was to find ways to shut down scoring opportunities.

"To hold the highest scoring team to 16 shots was, I thought, an awesome job by our defense," Gait said.

The Orange accomplished that goal, holding the Tar Heels to eight shots per half, while they took 18 of their own in the first and 13 in the second; this is partially why Syracuse only made one save in each half while North Carolina had to make eight in the first half and five in the second.

For her record night, Treanor was praised by both her own coach and UNC Head Coach Jenny Levy, who noted the exceptional partnership Treanor and Murray share on the field.

"They make the other kids around them better," Levy said. "You have to be careful. If you hone in too much on her, then she ends up having six assists."

Neither coach was pleased with the officiating. Gait laughed and chose to withhold his comments, noting that they'd gotten him into trouble before. Levy said it was "awful" on both sides.

"It didn't affect winning or losing," she said. "You just don't want the officials to be inserted as part of the game. You want them to be just there and making sure the game is managed."

Syracuse was charged with 37 fouls, while North Carolina was called for 25. With a matchup of two the country's best teams, though, a minor blemish on an otherwise exciting game.

"It's a big win, no question," Gait said. "It's why we play the schedule we do, so that we have opportunities to play the best of the best."

The Orange can't celebrate beating #1 for long. The team goes to Ithaca on Tuesday to square off with Cornell.

Watch the story here:

UNC postgame conference
SU postgame conference
Video report