No. 15 Syracuse takes down Louisville 13-10 behind Guzik’s career day

It took just six minutes for No. 15 Syracuse women’s lacrosse (2-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) to find itself in a deficit at Louisville (2-3, 0-2 ACC). But it took less than three minutes for the Orange to respond, and SU never trailed the rest of the way and snagged its first conference victory 13-12 over the Cardinals down in the Bluegrass state.

It has been a gauntlet of a schedule thus far for Syracuse, to the point where you could say a visit to Louisville would serve as a breath of fresh air. The Cardinals were the Orange’s first unranked opponent. In fact, Louisville was just the second team SU faced that is currently outside the top 3.

After going down 1-0 midway through the first quarter, Molly Guzik and the Orange put their foot on the gas pedal. The midfielder was one of three SU players to find the back of the net before the end of the period.

Syracuse scored twice more to open the second quarter, but Louisville was not going anywhere without a fight. The Cardinals poured in four straight goals to knot the game, 5-5. SU had the final goal before half, but out of the break Louisville was quick to tie the game up at 6 with attacker Ella Berg’s third goal of the game. That is when Guzik took matters into her own hands.

Within a minute of Berg’s game-tying conversion, Guzik took the lead back for the Orange. A minute later, the sophomore added another. SU added two more goals to finish the quarter with a four goal lead. After outscoring No. 13 Loyola Maryland 7-0 in the third quarter on Tuesday, SU had outdone Louisville 4-1 in the third on Saturday.

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Midway through the final quarter, the Orange led by three when Guzik’s final act was delivering the knockout punch. Off a Louisville turnover, Guzik got the ball on an SU fast-break and flipped it to attacker Ashlee Volpe who placed it into the net from close range.

Just over a minute later, Guzik crept around the defense and slotted in her career-best fourth goal of the game, tying her previous high in points with five in the process.

Guzik was the star on the offensive end, but as a team, Syracuse did all of the little things right. Syracuse forced 19 Louisville turnovers, the most of any SU opponent in seven years. The Orange also picked up 15 more ground balls than the Cardinals. On top of that, the ‘Cuse were relentless offensively, outshooting Louisville 33-22 and winning the shot-on-goal battle 27-11.

Although the dominance is not seen from the final score, it is clear on the stat sheet. But supremacy against Louisville is nothing new for SU. The Orange have won each of the last eight meetings with the Cardinals dating back to 2018. Syracuse leads the all-time series 16-1.

After picking up its first conference win, and just its second win under head coach Regy Thorpe, SU faces another conference opponent. The Orange host California on Tuesday inside the JMA Wireless Dome. The opening draw is set for 5 p.m.