Jim Boeheim's Press Conference 3/19

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.

Orange Men Stay Unbeaten with Win over Johns Hopkins

Story and photos by Thomas Zhou 
 

Syracuse, N.Y- The top-ranked Syracuse men's lacrosse team allowed three goals in the first six minutes of the game, but did not let Johns Hopkins score in the game's last 12 minutes and pulled away to win 13-10, at the Carrier Dome Saturday afternoon.

Randy Staats scored four goals for the Orange. Henry Schoonmaker and Nicky Galasso each had two. Kevin Rice contributed one goal and three assists and Syracuse stayed unbeaten at 6-0.

After the Orange scored seven straight goals and led 8-6 at the half, the Blue Jays tied the score at eight in the third quarter, and then at ten in the fourth. Their efforts fell short as the Orange goalie Bobby Wardwell made three of his five saves after the fourth-quarter tie.

"I thought he played well," SU head coach John Desko said. "I thought he saw the ball well especially going down the stretch."



First Half: Syracuse shifts momentum to lead

Hopkins took an early 3-0 lead thanks to Kieran Eissler, Ryan Brown, and Connor Reed's goals. After Hakeem Lecky scored Syracuse's first goal, Hopkins' Brown and John Crawley answered. The Orange found itself down 5-1 at the 4:23 mark in the first quarter.

However, Syracuse shifted the momentum with the seven consecutive goals. Rice scored the first running from behind the cage. Schoonmaker the second firing from distance. Staats the third, ambushing near the post. Tim Barber the equalizer. Galasso found the back of the cage after faking a pass and gave the Orange a 6-5 lead. Rice and Paolo Ciferri then extended the lead to three.

Senior Wells Stanwick scored Hopkins' only goal in the second quarter and Syracuse had an 8-6 lead entering the locker room.

The Orange outshot the Blue Jays, 14-6, in the second quarter, after being outshot, 13-8, in the first.

Second Half: Orange holds off till the end

Hopkins' freshman Shack Stanwick, Wells' younger brother started the third quarter with two goals to tie the score, pumping up the Blue Jays' mini band, which played every time after a Hopkins goal.

Staats launched a shot, recovered the ground ball after Hopkins goalie Eric Schneider saved it, and shot again from the middle. His third goal in the afternoon put the Orange ahead again.

Before the end of the third quarter, Galasso unleashed a shot from up in the air off a Rice pass.

Hopkins tied the score at ten with two straight goals in the beginning of the fourth quarter. Wardwell never allowed a goal again.

Wardwell saved a Brown shot, cleared it and Dylan Donahue put the Orange ahead with a transition goal.

Schoonmaker's second goal and Staats' fourth at an empty cage sealed the win.

After the final whistle, Syracuse players rushed to Wardwell and hugged him near the crease.

"I obviously struggled a little early on," Wardwell said. "Thankfully the defense played really, really well and limited the shots... Toward the end of the game, I was seeing it a little bit better."

Ryan Brown scored eight goals last time he faced the Orange. This time Hopkins' leading scorer had two goals in the first quarter but got locked down and did not score once after that.

"I think No. 27 (Sean Young) did a good job," Brown said. "He really did not let me get away from it and he pretty much locked up with me wherever I went." 

Up next

Syracuse will take on conference foe and two-time defending national champion Duke next Sunday. The game will begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Dome.