Just as it seemed like #6 Syracuse women’s lacrosse (8-5, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) was finding its stride, the Orange hit a big road block on Wednesday.
A season high four-game win streak came to an abrupt halt as Syracuse fell 13-10 to #13 Yale on the road in New Haven. It was a bad start to a road stretch that continues Saturday, when Syracuse takes on California (5-7, 0-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) in ACC play.
It’s by far the longest road trip of the year for SU, who will travel over 2,700 miles to Berkeley, California. On paper, it should be an easy win for the Orange. Cal is 0-6 in ACC play, the only team yet to win a conference game this season.
But the Orange still need to change some things around from last game. The upset loss was spurred by domination at the draw circle for Yale. The Orange’s Joely Caramelli, Meghan Rode and Molly Guzik combined to go just 7 of 26 from the middle.
Yale took that and exploded offensively, leading from wire-to-wire in the contest.
“I think our attackers really felt the urgency to get to the cage,” Yale head coach Erica Bamford said after the game.
But while Syracuse’s defense struggled, the offense couldn’t keep up either.
“With Syracuse having a really great offense … we had a tall task ahead of us and I’m really proud of how we played today,” Bamford said.
The Orange had an 18 minute scoreless drought across the second and third quarter. And in the fourth quarter, a zone defense doomed the Orange.
“Syracuse went into a zone defense so all seven players were active at that point and not in those face guard situations,” Bamford said.
Moral of the story is a lot went wrong for Syracuse. But luckily for the Orange there’s a bit more margin for error in this next contest with Cal.
When the Golden Bears score double digit goals, they’re good. Cal is undefeated when scoring at least 10 this season. The problem? That’s only happened five times.
So Syracuse’s main task will come in stopping attacker Emily Moes (31 goals) and midfielder Kennedy Mason (24). Those two make up half of Cal’s double-figure goal scorers this season.
Cal has especially struggled against unranked opponents this year. In its last contest with then #16 Clemson, the Golden Bears fell 19-3. It’s other ranked games this year include a 13-4 loss to Duke, a 15-8 loss to Notre Dame and a 20-9 loss to Virginia.
On the flip side, Syracuse has dominated against unranked opponents, posting wins against UAlbany, Cornell and Pittsburgh.
A new team in the ACC, the Golden Bears and Orange haven’t played since back in 2009. And things were pretty dominant then for SU with an 18-2 win.
The game is Cal’s senior day, honoring four different seniors in the matchup. It’s also SU’s third-to-last game of the regular season, with a road clash against Virginia Tech and a game against Boston College at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse still to come.
Opening draw is set for 6 p.m. eastern time. Follow @waersports on X for live updates.