In its worst season since 2018, Syracuse Women’s Lacrosse (9-7, 5-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) heads into the ACC tournament as the No. 6 seed. However, the Orange’s opponent in the quarterfinal might have given them their signature win this year. No. 3 seed Stanford (13-4, 7-2 ACC) and SU played over a month ago in a, at the time, top ten matchup where the ‘Cuse won 14-13 in double overtime.
After three straight defeats, @CuseWLAX picked up a massive overtime win over @StanfordWLax.@TimmyWeiss3 details a double overtime thriller that took everything from the Orange. pic.twitter.com/vWY8ZQqpDW
— WAER Sports (@WAERSports) March 8, 2025
Since then, both teams season’s have gone in opposite directions.
For Syracuse, the end of the regular season has not gone to plan. The Orange have lost three of their last four, including a 17-2 thrashing at the hands of No. 2 Boston College last week. Despite this rough stretch, SU head coach Kayla Treanor is still confident heading into postseason play.
“I think we’re going to start fresh and look at this as season two in the ACC tournament,” Treanor said. “We want to make a great run and go try and win an ACC championship.”
On the other side, the Cardinal ended their season winning four of their last five. That stretch includes ranked wins over Clemson and Notre Dame. In those victories, the Stanford defense shined through, holding opponents to just over five goals per game. Meanwhile in its last game against BC, Syracuse put up the lowest goal total in program history. However, Treanor doesn’t think the two goals scored tells the full story from her offense.
“I really liked what our offense was doing, especially at the end of the game,” Treanor said. “We were going full speed, our ball movement looked good, and we were getting open.”
The SU offense has been its strength this year. Before last week, the Orange had put up at least 10 points in every game for nearly two months. That’s off the back of midfielder Emma Muchnick and attacker Emma Ward. The pair were recently named the All-ACC First Team and All-ACC Second Team, respectively, and combined for over 100 points. One more point for Ward could be significant. The graduate student is just one assist away from becoming the school’s all time leader.
“She’s got unbelievable lacrosse IQ,” Treanor said about Ward, after a win against Cal. “She’s got great vision, she’s like a quarterback out there.”
Joining Ward and Muchnick as All-ACC honorees, goalkeeper Daniella Gueyette, defenders Kaci Benoit and Coco Vandiver, and midfielder Caroline Trinkaus each made the third team. On the other side, Stanford has some stars of its own, including first teamer Aliya Polisky. Although Polisky leads the Cardinal in scoring, the attacker was held scoreless against the Orange in the last meeting.
Syracuse and Stanford play in the ACC quarterfinals tonight at 8 pm. You can follow the action @WAERSports on X for live updates.