Welcome To The 2015-2016 Orange Eagle Trophy Preview

Hello again Boston College Eagles and Syracuse Orange fans!  The editors of BC Interruption and Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician welcome you back for another year of competition between the Northeast's premier athletic programs.  The 2014-2015 season brought us a nail biting finish that hinged on a thrilling ACC women's lacrosse tournament contest which went into overtime.  Syracuse eked out the win, and retained the Orange Eagle Trophy for another year.  We expect 2015-2016 to be no different as both schools field competitive and comparative programs in the majority of the sports being contested.

Heading into the third year of the competition, Syracuse has already grabbed an early 9-0 lead (more on that later), but there is still plenty of time for BC to storm right back during the fall-half of the schedule.

Before we dive into the early contests, we wanted to provide you with the schedule of events so far and introduce you to some changes to the competition that we feel will lead to more scoring balance, as well as include more sports into the mix.

New Sports Added in 2015-2016

The editorial teams from BCI and TNIAAM wanted to expand the competition to all sports where SU and BC have some form of competition, so for 2015-2016, both women's rowing and track and field will be added.  Scoring for women's rowing will be based on the overall point totals accumulated during the ACC Women's Rowing Championship in the Spring.  Scoring for track and field will be based on total accumulated points earned by SU and BC in the ACC outdoor track and field championship for those events where BC and SU have athletes entered (if only one school is represented in an event, then that event will not count in the overall point total accumulation).

New scoring system for non-head-to-head match ups, and revised point totals for men's basketball

For sports that are not true head-to-head match ups (X-Country, Rowing, Track and Field), we are reducing the available points for those sports from 6 to 3.  All head-to-head sports will receive 6 points, with the exception of football (12 points), and men's basketball (9 points).

Maximum point totals per sport

Each sport will accumulate a maximum point total over the course of a season, meaning that if multiple contests are played between the schools, the share of points will be divided, rather than accumulating points (as was the case in women's lacrosse, for example).  Point totals for the 2015-2016 year are as follows:

• Football:  12 points
• Men's basketball:  9 points
• Field Hockey, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer (if played), Women's Ice Hockey, Volleyball, Softball, Tennis, Women's Basketball, Women's Lacrosse:  6 points
• Track and Field (outdoor), Cross-Country, Women's Rowing:  3 points

Bonus point totals will remain the same (6 bonus points for an ACC Championship, 10 for an NCAA championship), and Syracuse Men's Lacrosse and BC Men's Hockey can secure a 10 point bonus for their school if they win the NCAA championship in their sport.

Syracuse grabs an early 9-0 lead in the Orange Eagle Competition

Comeback victories in Field Hockey and Volleyball allowed Syracuse to take the season's first two contests and jump out into an early 9-0 Orange Eagle Trophy lead.  The OET kicked off on September 19th in Chestnut Hill with the nationally ranked SU and BC women's teams going right after each other from the outset.  The Eagles took command of the game early with Emily McCoy and Lucy Lytle scoring for BC within the game's first 25 minutes.  BC looked to take the 2-0 advantage into halftime, but SU's All-American forward Emma Russell grabbed a goal with less than two minutes remaining to bring The Orange within a goal at the break.

The game remained at 2-1 through most of a tense second half until Syracuse knotted the score thru Alma Fenne's deflection into the BC net.  Syracuse completed the comeback and broke Eagle hearts with only 30 seconds remaining in regulation when Junior Emma Lamison scored on the left hand side past BC goalie Leah Settipane.

The schools faced off six days later in Syracuse, where BC once again jumped into an early lead only to have SU come back strong to take the game and the points.  Indeed, BC and SU were evenly matched in the first set, with both sides tying the score 17 different times.  Julia Topor gave The Eagles a 25-24 lead before an SU attack error handed the first set to BC.

BC continued it's strong play until halfway through the second set, when SU used a 9-2 run to take the lead and hold on 25-21with Nicolette Serratore featuring prominently in the set.  From that point on, Syracuse dominated, with Santita Ebangwese forming a one-woman human wall to block no fewer than 6 BC shots and lead 'Cuse to a 25-10 third set win.  Maintaining momentum, SU jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the fourth, and made the lead count with a 25-18 win that sealed the match.

The Orange look good so far in the competition, but BC's Football, Soccer, Ice Hockey and Women's Cross-Country teams are set up to pull BC right back into this with plenty of time left.  Who will win it all come May?  It is too early to tell, so stay tuned for more action from The Nations Oldest Blog Trophy Competition!