Story & Photo By:
Robin Deehan
COLLEGE PARK, MD
- The Syracuse field hockey team knocked off ACC Rival No. 1 North
Carolina, 3-2 in a stroke-off, Friday to advance to its first ever NCAA
title game.
“Speechless,” head coach Ange Bradley said. “I want to thank Maryland for hosting
the Final Four, and Carolina and the ACC, that was an amazing game for both
teams, competitive to the very end and I’m happy we were able to get the result
and advance.”
Junior midfielder Alyssa Manley scored the game-winning goal
during the sudden victory stroke-off after two scoreless 15-minute
overtime periods.
“I just knew that for the team, we just work so hard and
that I just had to get it in,” Manley said.
It was a thrilling end to a game the two powerhouses battled
over for more than 100 minutes in frigid 36-degree weather. UNC had beaten Syracuse 3-0 during the regular season, and the Orange won 3-2 in overtime in the ACC tournament.
“We have similar styles, we had a really great match two
weeks ago and that’s the game, you play high tempo there’s a lot of risk and a
lot of reward, just two teams battling back and forth,” Bradley said.
Regulation
UNC (19-4) got on the board first when Emma Bozek scored off a
penalty corner 15 minutes into the first half.
Syracuse (18-5) evened the score with two
minutes left before halftime when Emma Russell put the ball in from
a rebound off UNC keeper Shannon Johnson's pads.
The Orange women took their first lead of the game after
Alyssa Manley stole the ball from UNC at the top of the Syracuse circle and
sent it to Lieke Visser who buried it.
It looked like the Orange would come away with the 2-1
victory in regulation but with just five minutes remaining in the game, with the Tar Heels' goalie pulled to give them an extra field player UNC’s
Nina Notman scored off a penalty corner to send the game into overtime tied at two.
Overtime
Despite UNC outshooting SU 7-2 in the two 15- minute
overtime periods and having a one-player advantage for five minutes due to
yellow card on Syracuse, the Tar Heels couldn’t put the game away.
“Congratulations to Syracuse I thought that was a tough game
by two really good teams,” UNC head coach Karen Shelton said. “I thought that
Syracuse had the better of the regulation, but I think we kind of dominated the
overtime. So it was a bit
disappointing that we couldn’t get one in the overtime period especially when
we were man up for five minutes”
The Stroke-Off
In a stroke-off each team selects five players to take a moving
stroke, or one-on-one, against the opposing team's goalie.
If the attacking player does not score after eight seconds
or if the ball is knocked out of the circle or out of bounds by the goalkeeper,
the play is over.
If the score is still tied after all five players take their
moving stroke, the game goes into a sudden victory stroke-off.
Both the Orange and the Tar Heels had three players convert
their moving strokes to goals.
And when SU forward Emma Russell couldn’t convert on hers to
give the Orange the 4-3 advantage, the stroke-off went into sudden victory.
Sudden Victory
Stroke-Off
UNC went first, and was denied when SU goalkeeper Jess Jecko
blocked Emily Wold’s attempt.
SU’s Alyssa Manley was up next and with some tricky stick
work, forced the UNC keeper to go right, she pulled left, buried it, and cemented
SU’s spot in the title game.
“She’s smart and I think she’s an elite player and to be
able to score on the running strokes twice in overtime was pretty special,”
Bradley.
SU keeper Jecko finished with five saves on the day
including the game changer against Wold.
“In the overtime she had some spectacular saves and her
running strokes were fabulous we’ve been practicing that quite a bit the last
two weeks,” Bradley said.
Syracuse and North Carolina each had seven penalty corners
and the Orange only outshot the Tar Heels 17-16.
“I knew today was going to be a really tough game but when
you get to this stage of the competition it’s always going to be a really tough
game no matter who you’re playing,” Russell said. “UNC is a fantastic team and it was a huge day for us today
and obviously we are excited but we’re not satisfied yet and I think that’s
really important that we realize that yes, we’ve made history but we want to
keep going.”
The Title Game
Syracuse will battle former Big East rival and defending National
Champion No. 3 Connecticut (19-3) Sunday in College Park, Md. at 1 p..m.
UConn defeated No. 12 Albany (20-3), 1-0 to advance to the title game.
“I think it’s great to resume the matchup, and we have great
respect for Syracuse” UCONN coach Nancy Stevens said.
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