After the Syracuse Orange football team lost to the Connecticut Huskies football team on Saturday, there was a strange feeling that things were out of sorts. That's not what was supposed to happen.

The lesson remains, as always, never send a football team to do a field hockey team's job.

The Syracuse field hockey team (18-3) captured its second straight BIG EAST Championship title on Sunday with a 3-2 victory against top-seeded Connecticut at J.S. Coyne Stadium. The Orange took an early 3-0 lead in the first 19 minutes of play before Connecticut answered with two goals late in the first half.

The Orange, which earns an automatic bid into the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Tournament, will await its fate with the NCAA Selection Show on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. on NCAA.com. The tournament begins next Saturday, Nov. 12.

Big ups tp Lauren Brooks who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after scoring two goals over the weekend. Liz McInerney, Iona Holloway and Leann Stiver joined Brooks on the All-Tournament Team.

The team finished the regular season with an 18-3 record (13-0 at home). It should be noted that they defeated Georgetown 11-1 earlier in the season, an accomplishment I apologize for overlooking.

The season began with a National-Title-Or-Bust mentality after making it to the NCAA Quarters last season, losing 3-2 to Ohio State. They'll have the chance to take that next step this year. G'Orange.

Read about more Real Orange Heroes here.

You can't talk about Syracuse Orange volleyball without talking about Jing Pu.

Syracuse's head coach since 1995, Pu is the two-time Big East Coach of the Year (‘96, ‘04), has over 400 career victories, has coached two All-Americans and has fifteen winning seasons in sixteen years.

This past Friday, the volleyball squad topped Villanova (25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 28-26) as Pu earned his 100th-career Big East victory.

Andrea Fisher, Sam Hinz, Noemie Lefebvre and Nicolette Serratore each had at least 10 kills, while Lefebvre, Laura Homann, Julia Mindlina and Ashley Williams had double-digit digs.

His overall record heading into this season was 465-257 and his SU record was 326-207. With a 13-6 season so far, those numbers just continue to climb. I credit his stretching techniques.

DOC Gross gets all the credit for making Syracuse into New York's College Team. Coach Pu actually puts that into practice:

"Jing has this thing where we need to beat all the New York state teams, so he sort of pushes us to make sure we beat them," middle blocker Sam Hinz said.

In the midst of a four-match wining streak, the Orange host Georgetown this Sunday at the Women’s Building at 2 p.m. Be there.

See also: Revolutionary road: Pu overcomes cultural differences to lead SU volleyball program

Read about more Real Orange Heroes here.

If you've ever walked across the Quad and ducked out of the way of a rogue Frisbee, chances are the Syracuse Men's Ultimate Team was involved.

Every year, Scooby Doom (The Juice points out the name is "a combination of Scooby Doo and Dr. Doom") travels to 3-4 tournaments a year. This year, they've been to Atlantic City, Georgia, Rochester, and Buffalo. 

This past weekend, they attended the Northeastern Sectionals in Youngstown and emerged in third place, qualifying for the Northeastern Regionals for the first time in five years.

The Regionals include the 16 top teams in the area, meeting April 30-May 1 in Princeton, NJ. The team that emerges from the Regionals will head to the College Championships.

FYI, Doom's biggest rival is SUNY Buffalo, whom we split the season series with 1-1 and may just see again in Regionals. 

Good luck to the Doomers in Regionals. If you're still in Princeton from the lacrosse game, stick around a few weeks longer and root them on.

Follow the team on Facebook here and read about more Real Orange Heroes here.

We reach back into the archives to remember the dark days when DOCTOR Gross announced that he was shuttering the Syracuse Swimming & Diving Programs. Gross and the administration cited the need for new facilities that the University just wasn't ready to invest in as the main reason for the move. It was a decision that saw the Executive Director of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America calling for Gross' head.

Eventually it became clear that the decision was final. The one saving grace was that current swimmers would be able to finish out their careers with the university. The final home meet took place Feb. 4-5 against Villanova and Providence and the school's final participation in Big East championships takes place this weekend. After that, there's an outside chance team member Kuba Kotynia has a chance to compete in the NCAA championships in March. If he doesn't qualify, that will be that for Syracuse.

Like many successful programs at Syracuse, the swimming & diving programs have been under the stewardship of one of our own. Lou Walker was a two-time team captain who set seven school records during his time here in the early-mid 70's. He soon took over as the head coach shortly thereafter and has overseen things since. In that time, most of Syracuse's best all-time swimmers have been breaking records and winning accolades.

Walker is the one who has to lock the door for a final time. He didn't get a fair shake but he's leaving Syracuse with the knowledge that he carried on a great tradition and represented the school extremely well.

"This pool has had a lot of memorable moments," Walker said. "And we've had a lot of great people come through this program. That's what I'll remember most."

Good work, Coach Walker. And good work to all the swimmers & divers. We salute you.

Syracuse softball headed south to start the 2011 season, playing in the Georgia State First Pitch Classic. They leave the tournament as vanquishing champions off to their best start in program history. The Orange not only defeated Tennessee Tech, Morehead State (twice) and Georgia State to win the Classic and start the year 4-0, but they did so with a combined score of 33-3.

Junior pitcher Jenna Caira allowed two earned runs in 23 innings en route to four wins. She threw two complete games and struck out 17 on the weekend.

The Orange now move on to Bama Bash, a tournament hosted by Alabama and also featuring defending Big East champion Louisville. The tourney begins Friday, February 18 in Tuscaloosa.

Meanwhile, Syracuse junior Lauren Penney spent her Valentine's weekend crushing the heart of the former SU mile race record holder. Penney broke the school mile record with a personal-best time of 4:41.34, good for third-place in the event. That bested Heather Stevens, who ran a 4.47.17 last year. Stephens also ran in this race, finishing eighth overall with a time of 4:48.17.

Penney vs. Stephens. You'll read about this game of oneupswomanship for years to come.

Read about more Real Orange Heroes here.

Sometimes we lose track of what's important in life. We get focused on the minutia and lose sight of the picture. Seeing forests for trees and whatnot.

We've been focused on this whole Georgetown ticket kerfuffle for so long we've forgotten the basic tenets that life as we know is predicated upon.

Georgetown is evil, Syracuse is good and DePaul is just kinda there.

Doesn't matter if we're talking about basketball games in DC, basketball games in Syracuse or even if it involved basketball games at all.

For instance, the basic tenets also apply to, say...tennis.

The Syracuse Women's Tennis team defeated Georgetown 5-2 on Sunday in their Big East opener. That in an of itself is a great accomplishment. But to merely mention that would be to sell them short.

Sunday's victory meant the extension of a winning streak against the Hoyas that stretches back 30 years. THIRTY. YEARS.

Never let it be said that these ladies aren't pulling their weight around here. Especially fine work done by Emily Harman, Eva Raszkiewicz and Simone Kalhorn for their straight-set singles wins.

The Orange are well on their way to repeating last year's dominating conference performance last season, in which they compiled a 7-0 record.

Read about more Real Orange Heroes here.

Last week, we recognized Kayla Alexander as a Real Orange Hero, leading the Syracuse women's basketball team to a 7-0 start.

Early on in this weekend's game against No. 6 Ohio State, however, Alexander found herself with two quick fouls and a one-way ticket to the bench. Suddenly, the Orange were going up against one of the best teams in the nation without the reigning Big East Player of the Week and their top scoring threat.

Enter Erica Morrow.

As the final eight seconds ticked off the scoreboard, Erica Morrow stood at the opposite end of the court from her team, holding the ball with two hands. She didn't move at all, for fear of a referee's whistle, a travel, anything that could take away the moment.

And it was most fitting that it ended with the ball in Morrow's hands. She was everything she needed to be as the leader of Syracuse Saturday, scoring 27 points as the Orange upset No. 6 Ohio State 75-66 in front of 2,742 in the Carrier Dome. Morrow shot 10-of-18 from the field, including four 3-pointers. She hit shot after shot throughout the game as SU (8-0) staved off multiple comeback attempts by the Buckeyes (7-1).

It was the first home win against a ranked opponent for the Orange since last year's 67-48 win over then-No. 7 West Virginia and the 36th consecutive non-conference home victory for SU.

For the senior Morrow, it was also a chance a redemption. She scored 23 points against Ohio State two years ago but the Orange lost that game. This time, she made her shots count and controlled the tempo en route to victory. She also moved into fourth all-time on the Syracuse scoring charts with 1,415 career points.

Here's to you, Erica Morrow. A Real Orange Hero.

With this hubbub over the Syracuse men's basketball team, it's important to remember that we also happen to have a pretty good women's team as well. That gets lost in the shuffle. From time to time, however, a hero reminds us of what we have.

Enter Kayla Alexander. She had a pretty nice week. Over the course of three games, she averaged 20.0 points, 5.7 blocks and 2.3 steals. She scored a career-high twenty-four points against New Hampshire to kick the week off. She followed that up by setting a new career-high of twenty-seven the following game against Maryland Eastern Shore .She followed that up by coming within a shade of a triple-double (nine blocks, nine points, eight rebounds and three steals) against Delaware State.

By the way, Syracuse's scores in those games? 87-46, 73-50 and 87-17. EIGHTY-SEVEN TO SEVENTEEN!

Alexander was named Big East Player of the Week, her first-such nod. She's no one-week wonder, though. Monday night she kept it going with fifteen points, nineteen rebounds and four blocks. Between Rick Jackson and Kayla Alexander, Syracuse is responsible for 87% of all rebounds grabbed this season.*

*possibly untrue

Meanwhile, the Orange are 7-0 and are currently riding a 35 game non-conference home winning streak.

Here's to you, Kayla Alexander. A Real Orange Hero.