No. 6/5 SU Women's LAX Extends Winning Streak to Three

by Jessica Eley

©Jiayang Zhang

 

Syracuse, N.Y. -- No. 6/5 Syracuse defeated its upstate rival Cornell 14-8 at the Carrier Dome Tuesday night. SU’s strong start propelled the Orange past the Big Red.

“It was really nice today to just come out strong and fine like I know we can," senior defense Mallory Vehar said. "We’re just finding how to gel together. So, we’re just growing from here."

Halle Majorana finished with three goals, while Kailah Kempney, Loren Ziegler, Gabby Jaquith and Kayla Treanor collected two each.

Dynamic Start

The Orange came out on fire from the beginning with a quick goal from Kempney early in the first half. This was followed by another SU goal from Taylor Gait.

Cornell responded with a goal by Sarah Hefner. Cornell's goal was followed by a goal from Majorana to make it 3-1.

"We ran transition, we made plays and scored on our shots."

Cornell didn't have an answer for SU's quick offense. 

The Orange went on to make six more goals in the half, scoring on 50 percent of its shots in the first period.

“I think it was a good win,"Treanor said. "I thought the offense played well. Overall it was a team win though,”

The Orange left the field at halftime leading 9-3.

 

Orange Defense

The Orange provided a lot of pressure keeping Cornell to the outside, making it difficult  to even attempt any shots.

“I feel really good about how the defense played today,"Vehar said. We were getting a lot of good pressure on the ball and causing a lot of turnovers.

SU held the Big Red to one point for a majority of the first half. A goal from Kristy Gilbert put Cornell on the board again with under three minutes left in the first half.

Cornell's Lindsey Toppe scored the Big Red's final goal of the first period with a little more than two minutes left to play.
 

Second Half

SU got off to another strong start in the second half. Three goals in the first six minutes of the half gave the Orange a nine-point advantage. 

But Syracuse didn't make many more goals after that point and shot only 30 percent from during this half.

"First half shooting was great, second half shooting was not great," head coach Gary Gait said. "That's just your mental focus and thinking it's going to come easier than it really goes."

Gait said his team was forcing shots in the second half which was causing bad shots.

"We weren't getting the looks, we weren't taking our time that we were when it was coming easy."

Cornell attempted to capitalize on SU's drought in scoring.The Big Red got within five points with under five minutes on the clock, but that's the closest they would get to closing the gap.
 

Up Next

Syracuse will face No. 7/6 Northwestern in Evanston, IL this Sunday.
 

"Northwestern is a very good team, we need to play even sharper than we did today," Gait said.