No. 4 Syracuse women’s lacrosse overcomes slow start, beats up Cornell, 20-9

The Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse team had a rough start on Tuesday night on the road in Ithaca, but finished with a flourish in an eventual 20-9 romp over the host Cornell Big Red.

Someone who had no trouble getting going on the night was Emily Hawryschuk, who had the most productive game of her career in recording a career-high 11 points on seven goals and four assists. It was the most points by a Syracuse player in a single game since current head coach Kayla Treanor scored 11 against Jacksonville in 2014.

The 11 points ties Emily for second-most points and second-most goals in a game in program history behind Katie Rowan’s 13 and Alyssa Murray’s eight, respectively. Finally, Emily’s seven goals moved her past Christina Dove into second place on the Syracuse all-time goals list with 253 for her career. She is now eight goals shy of breaking Kayla’s program record of 260 goals.

For much of the first half on Tuesday, it appeared that Syracuse was feeling a serious hangover from the emotional energy expended during the North Carolina game over the weekend.

In the early going, SU was low on energy and high on mistakes. They turned the ball over five times in the opening quarter and were struggling to match Cornell’s levels as the Big Red went on a 5-0 scoring run from the first quarter into the second.

With just five minutes to go before halftime, the Orange had only scored three goals and were shockingly down to the host by a score of 6-3.

The end of the first half is where the team finally woke up and put the hammer down on Cornell. After only scoring three goals in the first 25 minutes, they closed the game’s final 35 minutes by scoring 17 goals and going on a 17-3 run to finish more than doubling-up the Big Red.

When you combine a Senior Day game against the No. 1 team in the country just three days prior, I really think you chalk the early struggles in this game up to that emotional hangover. It took them a little longer than we would have liked to get going, but the fact that they averaged a goal every two minutes in the final half plus of this game proves that they just needed time to pull themselves back into the present and take care of business.

In addition to Emily’s incredible 11 points, the Orange had a trio of players record hat tricks. Meaghan Tyrrell was slow to get on the board, but ended up with six points (3G, 3A). Natalie Smith recorded her second straight hat trick as her playing time increases in the aftermath of Emma Tyrrell’s injury, and true freshman Payton Rowley got her first extended playing time of the season and scored her first career hat trick in the process.

Olivia Adamson added a career-high five points (1G, 4A), while Sam Swart scored a pair of goals. Savannah Sweitzer only had one goal, but it was a spectacular, behind-the-back finish on the run that’s a nominee for goal of the year by the women’s team:

The specialists had solid games as Kate Mashewske finished with 11 draw controls and Kimber Hower made nine saves while only giving up eight goals before being pulled for a .529 save percentage.

They say lacrosse is a game of runs, and that notion was on full display in this game.

After Cornell scored the first goal of the game, Syracuse scored the next three to take a 3-1 lead. Then, the Big Red went on their big 5-0 run to take a 6-3 lead midway through the second as the Orange struggled to find their rhythm and their energy.

Late in the second quarter, SU finally got in a groove and gained the separation that they’d never surrender. They went on a 9-0 run that gave them a 12-6 lead late in the third. Cornell went on a quick 2-0 run at the end of the quarter to bring it back to a four-goal deficit, but the Orange would answer back with authority, going on another definitive, 8-0 run to get up by double-digits and start the running clock.

Just for the symmetry, Cornell scored the final goal of the game to bookend the evening of runs.

The Orange will return to ACC play this weekend when they host Louisville in a game that’s going to be played at Christian Brothers Academy on Saturday, April 16 at 12 PM.