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Syracuse didn’t lead against Stony Brook until 3:35 left in the half when Emma Ward connected with Megan Carney to help the Orange go up 9-8. Ward was trapped at X, as defenders swarmed her on each side. But when she looked up, there was a slim passing lane over the top of the goal. So, Ward threaded a pass between the outstretched sticks of two Stony Brook defenders, Carney leapt up to cradle it, then fired for the score when she hit the turf.

That goal kickstarted a 4-0 Syracuse run to end the half, flipping the momentum. SU went into halftime with an 11-8 lead that only increased in the second, when Syracuse outscored the Seawolves 5-3.

“(Ward) was just unreal back there behind the net,” Carney said. “She has great vision and knows where everyone is going to be and when they are going to be there.”

Ward finished with seven assists and eight points, tying both of the career-highs she set against Notre Dame, and most of the feeds came from behind the net. Ward patrolled X for the entire game, with and without the ball, looking for passing lanes and open cutters. Head coach Kayla Treanor said before the game that she thought this might be a huge day for Ward, and she was right. Ward led No. 1 Syracuse (10-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) to a 16-11 win over No. 6 Stony Brook after the two sides were neck-and-neck throughout the first half.

Two minutes after the lead-taking score by Carney, Ward got the ball at X once again. Going to her right this time, Ward looked off a defender before passing across her body to Emma Tyrrell. Emma pocketed the high pass and scored on an open net, as the goalie was still whipping her head around. With 1:38 remaining in the half, SU took a 10-8 lead.

Ward didn’t stop there. She got a free position shot from behind the fan on the right with just under 10 seconds in the half. As soon as the play started, Maddy Baxter cut hard from the top of the zone toward the crease, and Ward let it rip. Baxter handled the high pass and swiped a downward shot over three converging defenders. That gave Syracuse an 11-8 lead going into the half after trailing for most of the first 25 minutes.

Coming into the game, Ward was second on the team in assists, trailing Meaghan Tyrrell by one. She now has 33 assists on the year, six more than Meaghan, and is just two shy of the team lead in points.

“She has a real gift of feeding the ball, she really understood the offense, what we were trying to do (today),” Treanor said.

After Syracuse trailed early, Ward got the SU offense going. Down 3-1, Ward ran behind the cage from the left side, looking for an open Orange player. Emma cut inside and stopped on a dime in front of the crease – Ward’s pass reached her raised stick without her moving it, and Emma spiked it through the goalie’s legs to make it 3-2 Seawolves.

After that, Ward would live up to Treanor’s pregame prediction – she had a career day against a ranked squad for the second time in four games. Treanor said that her and Ward worked on specific passing maneuvers this week, and she implemented them successfully on Wednesday night.

“She’s a really amazing offensive player,” Treanor said. “I’m really proud of her because we worked on specific things and she did it in the game, and she was talking about it and kind of joking around that ‘I did it.’”

One of her few assists that wasn’t from behind the fan happened on a fourth-quarter transition opportunity. Sierra Cockerille sped down the middle of the field before finding Ward on an outlet pass, who instinctively swung to an open Carney on the left of the crease. Carney scored from point-blank range with 9:18 remaining in the game to give SU a 14-9 lead, their third scoring connection of the day. She also scored her lone goal on a free-position shot, which she sent into the top of the net on a blazing sidearm shot from the 8-meter.

Ward contributed three straight assists in three-and-a-half minutes to end the first half. Then, she started the second half scoring as well, although it was a bit delayed. After a shot-for-shot first half that featured 19 combined goals, neither team scored for over six minutes in the third quarter until Ward and Carney connected again.

Before getting a pass at X from the right side, Ward was eyeing Carney outside the crease. As soon as she got the ball, Ward sent another high pass over the goal, where Carney finished easily for her fifth goal of the game.

Treanor said that her coachability and selflessness play a big role in her elite passing ability, which the team has relied on this season.

Published on March 23, 2023 at 1:14 am

Contact Wyatt: wbmiller@syr.edu