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When Olivia Adamson fired just too far across her body with time ticking down in the first period, Emma Tyrrell picked it up from behind the left corner of the fan, tied at four. Charging diagonally toward her defender, she sent a high pass for Emma Ward into a crowd near the crease. 

Ward raised her stick and tapped the ball down into the net, hard, but tried to get it out as quickly as possible, cognizant of the time restraint. When she looked up, there was one second left on the game clock, and SU had taken a 5-4 lead. 

“When we came in, we called out how much time was left,” Ward said. “We had a good look at first but the ball went wide and Emma picked it up, made a great feed and just finishing inside gave us good momentum going into the second quarter.”

Syracuse’s leading scorers lived up to their status against the Cavaliers. Meaghan Tyrrell scored nine points on five goals, Ward set a career-high with 10 points and Megan Carney returned to the starting lineup with another four-goal performance. Together, they combined for 14 of SU’s 21 goals. It was a Syracuse beat down in the JMA Wireless Dome as the No. 1 Orange (13-0, 6-0 Atlantic Coast) defeated No. 11 Virginia (8-4, 4-3 ACC) 21-9 on Saturday. 

The momentum from Ward’s buzzer-beating shot carried over to the second period, as the Orange had extended their lead to 12-6 by the half. Virginia’s offense didn’t let up, but Delaney Sweitzer locked down, saving three shots after failing to stop any in the first. Syracuse got more of its playmakers involved in the second as well, namely Carney, who sat out last game against Cornell, but ended the quarter with two quick scores.

Savannah Sweitzer drew a free position on the right and passed back to Ward at the top. She trotted to her right, looking inside when Carney came across, curling parallel to her inside the 8-meter. Carney collected the pass and finished low, hitting the goalie’s stick and then dribbled into the net to give SU the lead with 0:47 left in the half.

“Meg’s just a great cutter,” Ward said of Carney. “I think we’ve gotten down, kind of the timing and when she should be flashing, when she should be holding, and kind of just on my part, putting air under the ball or zipping it in there. With time and tenure you’re able to make those connections and we are doing a good job finding each other.”

Carney earned a free position just 32 seconds later. At the top left of the 8-meter, she cocked back and sent it through the right side giving SU a 12-6 lead with 12 seconds remaining, scoring for the second time in 35 seconds. 

By the game’s end, Ward had assisted both Meaghan and Carney, twice as part of her six assists. Ward has 45 assists compared to 22 goals this season, taking on more of a facilitator role, but tonight, she showed her dominance as a scorer with a season-high four goals.

“This year, we have a lot of great finishers, so when I’m able to do my job and get them the ball to be successful, that’s what I’m going to do,” Ward said. “I’ve been doing a lot of assisting this season so just being able to come out and show that I can put the ball in the back of the net was nice.

In the first quarter, the two went back-and-forth, neither leading by more than one. Tied 2-2, Meaghan’s free position came from the top right of the 8-meter. After taking one step in, she passed to Ward curling around the opposite side of the crease, she took it in stride and placed it above goalie Ashley Vernon to take the lead at 7:40.

The Syracuse defense was on point as well, gaining traction toward the end of the first. Later in the period, Mckenzie Olsen defended Kate Miller on the right flank of Syracuse’s goal with SU down 4-3. When Miller hesitated, Olsen ripped it up and onto the ground before collecting the contested ground ball. After that, SU would score twice in the final 1:01 of the period to take a lead it wouldn’t give back. 

“Caitlin Defliese Watkins is the best defensive coordinator in the country,” head coach Kayla Treanor said postgame. “She’s brilliant. She can make such good adjustments and the defense has bought in, and they are learning and they’re able to make adjustments as the game goes on.”

Early in the second, Delaney stopped some of the bleeding after a four goal first quarter for UVA. The Cavaliers scored just five goals in the remaining three quarters after that. 

Virginia’s Ashlyn McGovern was wide open rolling toward the crease when she received the ball, but on the low shot, Delaney stuck out her left leg to make the save on a last-stitch effort. It bounced off her shin and to the turf before Savannah pounced on the ground ball, giving SU a surge of energy. Treanor said it’s “really nice to have the best goalie in the country behind you.”

On the other end, Sierra Cockerille reset on the left before cutting laterally to the middle. As she cleared the peak of the arc, fighting through contact from Kiki Shaw, Cockerille sent a sidearm shot high into the net. With 7:56 remaining in the second, SU took a 7-4 lead that would only grow.

In the second half, the lead ballooned even more, as Syracuse won the third quarter by a score of 6-1. The clock started running after SU took a 17-7 lead near the end of the period, and it never stopped. 

The second half also brought more defense for Syracuse and Delaney. Shaw drove from the left and tried to sneak a high shot past Delaney on the first possession, but she was ready for it, swatting the ball away for Coco Vandiver to collect the ground ball. The scoring didn’t start until almost four minutes of play, when Maddy Baxter took an unassisted score from the top, her stick raised through contact on the dodge. 

Meaghan scored twice in under a minute to help run up the score. She sprinted left, fighting between Shaw and Maggie Bostain as they converged, to reach the middle of the zone. On a falling attempt, both defenders lost their balance as the sidearm shot found the back of the net to make it 15-7.

She scored again 49 seconds later. This time, Ward jogged toward the bottom right corner of the 12-meter fan before sending a high pass for Meaghan. For the second time this game, a sort-of alley-oop shot found its way into the UVA goal. Meaghan leapt to collect it and then, still in the air, she guided the ball above the goalie’s head. When she landed, it was 16-7 Syracuse with 4:26 on the clock. Meaghan said postgame she had never made a goal in mid-air like that before.

“It was kind of just reactionary,” Meaghan said of the goal. “I just jumped up to grab it, I might not have needed to jump, I’m not sure.”

Shortly after that, Ward, from X, found Emma in front of the crease to start running the clock. From there, Syracuse cruised to victory, but not before Emma was helped off in the fourth quarter, limping and favoring her left side heavily and there was no update on her postgame.

Published on April 1, 2023 at 8:28 pm

Contact Wyatt: wbmiller@syr.edu