No. 3 Syracuse women's lacrosse routs No. 15 Louisville, 19-5

In the immortal words of Ron Burgandy, “Boy, that escalated quickly”.

It jumped up a notch, didn't it, Ron?

On Friday afternoon, the No. 3 Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse team absolutely crushed the No. 15 Louisville Cardinals in part one of their weekend series out in the Bluegrass State, by a final score of 19-5. The win improved their season record to 10-1 (6-1).

It didn’t start out so easy, however.

The teams traded goals for much of the first half, and when Louisville’s leading scorer, Ally Hall, scored with 6:39 left before halftime, she made the score 6-5 Syracuse.

That would be the last goal Louisville would score.

The Orange held the Cardinals scoreless for the final 36:39 while scoring 13 straight goals to turn a one-goal lead late in the first half into a 14-goal victory at the end of 60 minutes.

It was both the highest-scoring game of the year for the Orange and the longest scoring drought they’ve held an opponent to this season. So, basically, it was the best game of the year on both ends of the field for this Syracuse team.

As good as Meaghan Tyrrell and Megan Carney have been this season, and they have been spectacular, this was somehow their best performances yet.

The Megs put up identical stat lines: 10, yes 10, points on seven goals and three assists. EACH! Absolutely crazy. The goals and points were both career highs for the pair.

They scored 14 of the 19 goals and had a hand in 16 goals total. You just can’t do more as a dynamic duo than they did in this one.

Syracuse opened the scoring when Emma Tyrrell found Carney making a nice cut through the middle of the Louisville defense, which she turned and fired for the first goal.

After a Louisville goal to tie it, the Orange scored their first of SIX transition goals in the game, a beautiful display of tic-tac-toe passing that Meaghan Tyrrell finished.

More excellent passing put the Orange up 4-2 on a Tyrrell—Emma Ward—Carney connection. After the Cardinals pulled within one, Carney and Tyrrell (obviously) scored back-to-back goals to give ‘Cuse their first three goal lead of the game. It was short-lived, however, as Louisville got two right back to make it 6-5.

And that was all she wrote for the Cards, who would not find the back of the net again against the Syracuse defense.

The Orange offense meanwhile, scored the final four goals of the first half to make it 10-5 at the break.

Carney started the second half scoring with an incredible individual effort, picking off a pass at midfield and taking it all the way to the goal herself to score. A few minutes later, she found Tyrrell for a fantastic low-to-high riser that snuck in just under the crossbar.

There was no let up in the second half. As 27 turnovers (WOW) plagued the Louisville offense, SU made them pay and extended the lead throughout the final 30 minutes.

At the 14:42 mark and up 16-5, sophomore midfielder Bianca Chevarie scored on a remarkable individual effort, splitting two separate double teams on her way to scoring her fourth goal of the season.

Carney followed that with the finishing touch on the Orange’s final transition goal of the day, and it sure was a sight:

To close the day out, junior Jalyn Jimerson scored the first goal of her career with seven seconds remaining to give SU their highest goal total of the season.

The Takeaway

While it started off as a close battle, this turned into arguably the best day of the season for Gary Gait’s group. I mean, it’s tough to argue with the highest goal output of the season (19) combined with the longest opponent goal drought (36:39) and shutting out the opponent in one half for the second straight game, right?

The work of Tyrrell and Carney is just a thing of beauty at this point. As I’ve said after most games this season, the offense as a whole is wonderful when the weave/motion is working. But the Megs are just constantly at the center of the ball movement and, ultimately, the goal scoring. It’s amazing how well they’ve both stepped up to fill the goal scoring shoes of Emily Hawryschuk.

My main area of concern right now for this team is the draw controls, and it’s for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, the injury situation is starting to get out of control. Obviously, Hawryschuk was supposed to be the starter this year. She has been replaced very well by Katelyn Mashewske, who went down in the first half today and didn’t come back. In the Virginia game, Braelie Kempney picked up a second half injury and has not played since.

At the moment, the team is down to Morgan Widner and Kenzie Harris to take the draws. They’re both capable, as they showed for stretches during Friday’s game, but if Mashewske and Kempney can’t come back this year, the Orange will be really hurting for draw control depth. That problem is really going to rear it’s head when SU takes on Boston College’s Charlotte North, and if/when they face UNC or Notre Dame again this year.

For now, we’ll just wait and see.

Record-Setting Day

For Tyrrell and Carney, this was a day to remember. Let’s take a look at what they accomplished on Friday:

Meaghan Tyrrell

• 10 points and 7 goals is a career high
• 3 assists tied a career high
• 10 points ties for 5th place on SU’s single-game points list
• 7 goals ties for 2nd place on single-game goals list
• 100th goal of her career scored against Louisville

Megan Carney

• 10 points and 7 goals is a career high
• 10 points ties for 5th place on SU’s single-game points list
• 7 goals ties for 2nd place on single-game goals list

On top of all that, two teammates scoring 10 points and seven goals in the same game has never happened before in school history, so there’s another notch for them.

In just 11 games so far, Tyrrell has also already set career highs for a season in all three of points (67), goals (45), and assists (22). Likewise, Carney has already set career highs for a season in points (61) and goals (42), and we’ve still got three regular season games plus the postseason to go.

These two are re-writing their own personal record books, and possibly some school ones, too. Stay tuned as these two chase down some of the greatest individual seasons in program history.

The Next Game

These two teams will be back in action on Sunday at 12 PM on ACC Network Extra.

Tune in to see if the team can complete the weekend sweep of the Cardinals and, as always...

Let’s Go Orange!!!