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Syracuse opened the season by stringing together two straight wins against top-five opponents. On Friday, the Orange took down Maryland in a 20-11 victory to take the Terrapins’ No. 2 spot in Inside Lacrosse’s rankings. The team scored less than two minutes in and maintained that lead for the rest of the game.

Meaghan Tyrrell reached a career-high against Maryland with 11 points, six of which were goals. Goalie Delaney Sweitzer also had a day to remember, recording her most collegiate saves to date. Just three days later, Binghamton came to the Dome, a team that the Orange have never lost to, with Syracuse sporting a 9-0 record. Binghamton was coming off an 11-5 home win over Syracuse’s Atlantic Coast Conference rival Pittsburgh, which faces off with the Orange on Saturday.

But, against the Bearcats, SU was dominant in the first three quarters, going up 17-4 early in the fourth quarter. Then, it subbed out some starters and allowed Binghamton to narrow the lead to seven before the clock struck zero.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s 17-10 win over Binghamton:

The Megs shine again

Meaghan was hanging to the right of the Binghamton goal early in the first quarter. She saw Megan Carney running upfield on the opposite side and fed her the ball. The pass bounced on the ground before Carney fielded it and quickly slid it through to put the Orange up 3-0.

About 10 minutes later, SU ran nearly the same exact play. Meaghan was positioned slightly behind the right side of the net when she saw Carney streaking up toward the goal. This time, however, the pass was cleaner. Meaghan slung it perfectly to Carney’s left shoulder, and she immediately ran up to the goal and poked another one through to extend the lead to 5-2.

Meaghan and Carney kept it rolling with outstanding performances against the Bearcats, as at least one of them was involved in eight of the first nine goals. They ranked first and second on the team in points with six, three more than anyone else on the team. This comes after they combined for half of the Orange’s goals against Maryland just three days ago.

Markey gets the spotlight

About five minutes into the second half, Emma Tyrrell set up Jenny Markey barreling down the middle of Binghamton’s side. The midfielder used her speed to get free on a fast break and veered toward her right. When Markey crossed into the attack area, she whipped the ball from her right shoulder past Bearcats goalie Emily Manning.

Markey hadn’t gotten a shot off all season going into the game. But, that certainly changed on Monday, as the Mount Sinai, New York native scored her first goal of the season and got two free-position opportunities. She hit the post on one in the last few minutes of the first quarter, but capitalized on her chance in the second frame.

The junior had a blank stat sheet in Syracuse’s Friday game against Maryland, but was a factor in the opener against Northwestern. In that game, she caused two turnovers and corralled one ground ball. This still pales in comparison to her performance versus the Bearcats. She got off four shots, three of which were on goal. The midfielder also caused a turnover and snatched a ground ball.

Syracuse uncharacteristically coughs up the ball

The Orange went into this game causing 11 more turnovers than their opponents. Also, Syracuse won the turnover battle in each of its first two games. But oddly enough, an unsuspecting Binghamton team forced only one fewer turnover than the Orange on Monday.

Syracuse also coughed up the ball 15 times total — three more than Binghamton. Four Syracuse players turned the ball over more than once against the Bearcats.

This trend was apparent early in the first quarter when Emma Tyrrell, who hadn’t coughed up the ball all season, was charging head-on toward the Binghamton goal with about 11 minutes left. Bearcats midfielder Kristen Scheidel stepped up toward her and swiped the ball away to force the turnover.

The Orange were able to button up the turnovers better after the opening quarter. After surrendering the ball nine times in the first frame, they only had six in the last three quarters combined.

Winning the shot battle

The Orange have had a near perfect start to their 2023 campaign, but they were outshot in both of their first two games. Going into Binghamton, Syracuse had taken eight fewer shots than its opponents and two fewer shots on goal. This had put pressure on Sweitzer, who stepped up to the challenge with a whopping 13 saves against the Terrapins.

However, Syracuse was able to flip the script against Binghamton and had way more shots than the Bearcats. The Orange had 30 shots to Binghamton’s 26. This is compared to the Orange allowing 31 shots to Maryland and 35 shots to Northwestern. On top of that, they had more quality chances, with seven more shots on goal than the Bearcats.

The Orange defense stiffened and prevented chances, even though not nearly as many saves were made against Binghamton as there were in the first two contests. But, Sweitzer was subbed out with 10 minutes left in the game when SU held a 17-4 lead.

Published on February 20, 2023 at 6:23 pm

Contact Matthew: mahassan@syr.edu