The No. 13 Orangewomen of Syracuse defeated the No. 2 Virginia women's lacrosse team Saturday, 14-13, powered by strong defensive performances at the end of each half. The game marks the third straight time that Syracuse (1-0) has defeated the Cavaliers (1-1) in a regular season matchup.
After two third-quarter goals by Syracuse, the Cavaliers counteracted with two of their own. Sophomore midfielder Julie Hauser scored on an Amy Appelt feed, and Appelt scored another goal in the crease to give Virginia the 12-8 lead going into the final 18:55 of play.
But much like in the first half, the Cavaliers failed to maintain their offensive intensity beyond the first 12 minutes. Chasney suffered a knee injury with 5:38 remaining, and moments later Syracuse capped off their final run of the game on a goal by junior midfielder Monica Joines.
The goal gave the Orangewomen their first lead of the game at 14-13 and proved to be the deciding goal of the contest, as the Cavaliers were unable to capitalize on a last-second shot by Ashleigh Haas, who was in the game replacing Chasney.
"Today we had a lot of shooters with great looks -- we just didn't always execute," Myers said. "Part of it was placement of the shot, and part of it was maybe just panic. Haas is a great shooter. She's a big strong kid, so we thought she had it in her to do it" in the final moments.
Virginia started out strong and gained the lead off the opening draw. Junior midfielder Courtney Young won the draw and proceeded to draw a foul on Syracuse. She converted on the eight-meter for the first score of the game. The goal for Young was her first of three on the day, and she also added four draw controls.
On the ensuing play, the Cavaliers' Kim Connors controlled the draw and worked the ball to Appelt, who used a clever maneuver in the crease to beat Syracuse goalie Jen Kasel and give Virginia a two-goal advantage. Appelt finished with a team-leading four goals on the afternoon. Connors added five ground balls and three caused turnovers.
The Cavalier offense continued to control the tempo for the next several minutes, building their lead to 6-2 11:39 into the game on goals from senior midfielder Morgan Thalenberg, senior attacker Caitlyn Banks and a pair of goals from junior midfielder Cary Chasney. But Virginia would fail to score in the final 18:21 of the first half. As a result, Syracuse, led by senior midfielder Leigh-Ann Zimmer who tallied six goals on the afternoon, tied up the game at 6-6 going into halftime.
"We knew that [Zimmer] was going to get the ball and go and go hard," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "We just didn't respond to it. We backed off when we should've been stepping up. We need to make a few more goals and a few more saves, and we need to make our scoring opportunities count down the stretch."
The second half mirrored the first for Virginia, as they offensively dominated the opening minutes. The Cavaliers jumped out to a quick lead after the Orangewomen controlled the opening draw but lost possession. The Virginia defense gathered the loose ball and fed it to Banks, who drove it in for a score. Young scored the next goal for an 8-6 Cavalier lead, and she assisted on an Appelt goal to push the lead to three. Appelt added her third goal of the game 90 seconds later to give Virginia a 10-6 lead 7:18 into the second half.
Virginia will look to use the loss to their advantage as a motivating factor for future matches. Last season, following the loss to the Orangewomen, the Cavaliers went on to win nine of their next 10 games and 11 of 13 to finish the regular season.
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