ORANGE EAGLE TROPHY: BC Outlasts SU, Ties Score at 51-51

On Saturday, Syracuse University's women's lacrosse team had a golden opportunity to put The Orange in striking distance to retain the Orange Eagle Trophy.  Leading 51-45 in the standings and playing at home against a Boston College team that they had defeated in each of their twelve previous contests, Gary Gait's team was poised to extend SU's competition lead to twelve.  Such a lead would have forced BC to get as much as possible out of the regular season-ending softball triple-header on March 21st (6 points) and hope for bonus points in women's hockey and lacrosse later in the Spring.

Rather than slamming the door on the 2014-2015 competition, The Orange left it wide open with a welcome sign.  Indeed, Boston College impressed at The Dome in a hard-fought 10-9 victory over Syracuse in a program-defining victory.  The win also knotted the score of The Orange Eagle Trophy at 51-51 with one regular-season match up remaining.

The focus of the trophy competition now turns to softball on March 21st and 22nd in Boston, where Leigh Ross' Orange women play three matches over two days to possibly determine the winner of the trophy.  Whoever wins that series will give their school at least a 2 point lead in the trophy standings with only post season bonus points to play for.

What could possibly go wrong right from here???

Following the softball triple-header, the competition is not quite over.  Any postseason matchup between the two schools, or any national championship won by a school adds to their OET point total.  A head-to-head matchup in the postseason earns the victor six Orange Eagle points, an ACC Tournament Championship is worth another six points, and an NCAA Championship is worth ten.

It is impossible to know how many bonus points will be in play, but the possibilities include:

• A women's basketball matchup in the ACC Women's Basketball tournament, March 4-8 (advantage SU)
• A women's lacrosse matchup in the ACC (Apr. 23, 24 & 26) or NCAA Women's Lacrosse Tournaments (toss up)
• A women's hockey matchup in the NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Tournament, March 8-22 (advantage BC if SU qualifies)
• A women's softball matchup in the ACC Women's Softball Tournament, May 7-9  (toss up if schools qualify)
• National Championships in women's ice hockey (BC), women's lacrosse (BC or SU), or men's lacrosse (SU)

So clearly, a win in the softball series does not guarantee a winner in the competition, but every point here on in will be critical.  There is no way of knowing how many bonus points will be earned in the next two months, but Saturday's result guaranteed one thing:  that by not finishing those pesky Eagles off, we just made it that much harder on ourselves...

Come on @cuseSB...let's finish the job...