Return Home is Sweet for Orange

By Nick Richardson

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – After three straight games on the road, the No. 4 Syracuse Orange women were clearly happy to be home again as they easily handled the Connecticut Huskies 17-7 Tuesday evening at the Carrier Dome.

At one point the Orange women scored 11 straight goals to pull away from the Huskies. Kayla Treanor (seven points), Halle Majorana (five) and Riley Donahue (four) helped lead the Orange to back-to-back victories after the win over Notre Dame in South Bend last Saturday, improving to 9-3 on the season.  The loss dropped UConn to 7-2.

“We played them tough at the beginning and then we found the gaps in the defense and moved the ball pretty well,” head coach Gary Gait said. “Players started putting the ball in the back of the net.”

Back and Forth Early

The first 15 minutes or so saw a tightly contested game with good play on both ends. Both goalies – Allie Murray for Syracuse and Shannon Nee for UConn – made some great saves to keep the game close.

“We were getting our shots, we were getting our opportunities,” Gait said. “We just needed to relax and settle down.”

The Huskies’ Grace Nolan scored to cut SU’s lead to 4-3 with 13:17 left in the half. But that was as close as the Huskies were going to get.

Treanor and Donahue Spur Big Run

Following Nolan’s goal, the Orange went on an 8-0 run to end the first half with a 12-3 lead. Treanor and Donahue were the main catalysts for this impressive offensive outburst.

“They kept leaving that side of the field [in our] advantage,” Gait said. “It was a good combination there. If we went across the top, Riley would draw the player. If it went down behind, then Treanor would draw the player and the other one would be open, so it worked out pretty well.”

Treanor recorded all of her game-high seven points in the first half, including three goals in less than two minutes and a total of four. Donahue added a hat trick.

“We had a game plan prior to the game about their zone defense and we just stepped up and executed the game plan and found some easy goals,” Treanor said.

Erica Bodt, Kelly Cross and Nicole Levy added tallies of their own to put an exclamation point on the first half.

Cruise Control in Second Half

There was no let up from the Orange once the second half got under way. Syracuse scored three times in the first eight minutes to go up 15-3 and put the game out of reach.

The Orange dominated possession throughout the game, and the story was the same in the second half. Syracuse topped the Huskies 18-7 in draws controlled, 11 of which came from Treanor.

Majorana, Levy, Devon Parker and Taylor Poplawski (twice) provided the second-half scoring for the Orange.

Junior Jacqueline Jordan was the only Husky to finish with more than one point (2).

Up Next

The Orange women will be back in the Carrier Dome on Sunday, April 3 at noon to take on ACC opponent Duke.