Syracuse women’s lacrosse beats Louisville, 14-7

The No. 4/4 Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse team (8-2, 2-1 ACC) capped a nine-day, three-game road stretch that took them to Maryland, Florida and then Kentucky with a convincing 14-7 win over Louisville (4-7, 0-3 ACC) on Sunday afternoon.

Fatigue might have played a little bit of a factor as SU had a number of early turnovers that could have made the score more lopsided than it was. However, it did not take long for the Orange to get on the scoreboard. Meaghan Tyrell saw Megan Carney roll around her defender to get open right in front of the net. Carney got the pass and had no problems putting the shot away to give Syracuse a 1-0 lead just 75 seconds into the game.

Louisville got on the board nine minutes in following a pair of Emily Hawryschuk goals when Alex McNicholas took a Kayla Marshall feed inside and put it in the upper right of the cage to cut the ‘Cuse lead to 3-1 with 21:13 left in the half. It was the closest that the Cardinals would get for the rest of the game.

Syracuse would score the next nine goals of the game over a stretch of 30 minutes. This included a well timed shot by Tyrrell with just two seconds left in the half. Hawryschuk found the freshman attacker standing just off the right side of the goal and passed it off. Tyrrell took several steps and got it past Louisville goalie Rachel Florek before the defense could react and the Orange took a 7-1 lead into the break.

SU continued their run in the second half, adding five more goals in the first 11 minutes to take a commanding 12-1 lead before Louisville scored again. Tessa Chad fired off a free position shot at the 16:34 mark that managed to barely dribble past Asa Goldstock’s legs, breaking an almost 35 minute scoring drought. Syracuse responded with a pair of goals before they started rotating their reserves in.

Morgan Alexander (who would finish the day with a hat trick) took advantage of a Cardinal yellow card at the 8:52 mark by drilling a shot into the top of the cage from just inside the right part of the fan. That goal gave the Orange a 14-2 lead and would finish their goal output for the day. Louisville’s first team managed to string together a five goal run against SU’s reserves that lasted the last eight minutes of the game to round out the scoring.

Stats

• Shots: Syracuse 27, Louisville 19
• Shots on Goal: Syracuse 20, Louisville 17
• Turnovers: Syracuse 16, Louisville 13
• Clears: Syracuse 17-19, Louisville 18-20
• Ground Balls: Syracuse 19, Louisville 19
• Draw Controls: Syracuse 15, Louisville 6
• Free Positions: Syracuse 3-6, Louisville 1-3

Hawryschuk (5 g, 2 a, 2 gb, 1 ct, 4 dc), Alexander (3 g, 1 gb, 1 ct), Carney (2 g, 1 a, 2 dc), Tyrrell (1 g, 1 a, 1 gb, 1 dc), Mary Rahal (1 g, 1 a), Natalie Wallon (1 g, 2 gb, 1 ct, 3 dc), Nicole Levy (1 g), Sierra Cockerille (2 a, 1 gb), Kerry Defliese & Ella Simkins (3 gb each), Alexa Radziewicz (1 gb, 1 ct), Sam Swart, Vanessa Costantino & Rilea Fusco (1 gb each), Braelie Kempney (3 dc), Grace Fahey & Emily Resnick (1 dc each), Goldstock (2 gb, 1 ct, 9 saves), Bri Stahrr (1 save)

via @CuseWLax

Key Factors

Defense (continuation): Before the reserves started coming in en masse around the 10 minute mark of the second half, the defense held Louisville to just a pair of goals. It doesn’t matter who you play, that’s impressive defense. The Cardinals had a hard time getting inside penetration all day long, but when they did, they had to get past...

Asa Goldstock: The junior goalie finished off one of her best weeks of her career with nine saves against just two goals or an 82% save rate in about 50 minutes of play against Louisville. If the defense heavily limited the Cardinal attack overall, then it was certainly Goldstock who stopped them cold.

Emily Hawryschuk: The junior attacker had another big day on the offensive end with five goals and two assists, which meant that she was involved in some way with half of the Syracuse scoring on Sunday. She also pulled down four draw controls or about a quarter of SU’s overall total.

Morgan Alexander: The redshirt junior had her third hat trick of the season against Louisville. She has 10 goals on the year so far.

Nicole Levy: Her free position goal with 12:51 left in the first half marked her 200th career point in an Orange uniform. She is currently 10th in that category as well as goals (131).

Unforced Errors: Syracuse looked a little sluggish against Louisville and had an uncharacteristic amount of turnovers (16 for the game) that mostly manifested itself in a number of errant passes. Fatigue from a long road trip run could be a factor, but this is something SU needs to clear up by next weekend when they play an undefeated and likely top-15 Notre Dame squad.

Up Next

Syracuse will have another quick turnaround as they head back home to play Harvard (4-3) on Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET in the Dome. The Crimson have played two top-20 teams this year, with losses to No. 1 Boston College and no.11 Denver (both 17-6 defeats). The Orange beat Harvard last year 20-13 in Sparks, Maryland. There is a Syracuse tie with Harvard in assistant coach Becca Block, who was a standout defensive player that included the 2012 championship run.