Orange Women's Lacrosse Loses to Notre Dame in Overtime

by Jessica Eley

©Michael Castellano

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Late efforts from the no. 7/6 Syracuse women's lacrosse team weren't enough to overcome no. 13 Notre Dame.

The Orange (9-5, 2-3 ACC) dropped its last conference home game to the Fighting Irish (8-5, 3-3 ACC) 12-11, Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome.

Devon Collins and Taylor Gait led the Orange with three goals each. Halle Majorana and Kayla Treanor had four assists. 

“We had plenty of opportunities to tie games and win games." SU head coach Gary Gait said. "We’re just not making the plays right now,”

Overtime

A goal by Erica Bodt tied the game up at 10 for SU with less than three minutes to play in the second half.

Notre Dame's Alexa Dalton sprinted down the field to make a last second shot, but goalie, Kelsey Richardson, slid to the ground and made the save preventing a repeat of the end of the first half when Alexa Sexton scored as the buzzer went off.


“That goal, she kind of shot it last couple of seconds, noone was really expecting it to go in. It was a good play on their part," SU' senior defense Mallory Vehar said.

Overtime began with aggressive play on both sides. The Fighting Irish scored back to back goals with 42 seconds left in the first overtime.

Collins made a goal to close out the first overtime, but the Orange women missed out on a couple free-position shots that could've helped them top the Fighting Irish in the second half of overtime.

Missed Opportunities

SU had twelve opportunities to score on the free-position, but only converted on two. One in the first half, one in the second half and none in overtime.

 

“It’s just stepping up to that line, knowing what you’re going to do and have confidence in it and we didn’t do that today." Gait said.

Majorana and Taylor Gait, disappointed with the teams' performance, agreed with Coach Gait that the team lacked mental focus and confidence against Notre Dame.

Turnovers

 

The Orange had twelve turnovers in the first half and seven in the second.

“When we go out and we don’t play sharp in the first half and we don’t take advantage of the opportunities we get we tend to turn the ball over on forced plays and errors and we make these game a lot closer," Gait said. "We don’t really give ourselves a chance to  get ahead.” 

Majorana credits the Notre Dame tough defense for SU's turnovers.

"I think they were just pressuring us, they were doing a good job pressuring behind. I know I found myself getting double-teamed behind and turning over the ball," Majorana said.

There were two more crucial turnovers in overtime. The Fighting Irish were able to convert one of those into a goal.

“We got caught off guard not protecting our stick a lot,” Gait said.

Next

SU will head down to Chapel Hill to faceoff against North Carolina this Saturday.