Offense wins games, defense wins championships.

When Syracuse opens its home schedule on Sunday at noon at Coyne Field against Richmond, it will face a team full of poster girls for that mantra.

Head coach Kathleen Parker’s squad will have its hands full with a Richmond team that has entered the national spotlight in the last four years. On Saturday, the Spiders scored 12 times in an opening day shutout of Monmouth, a school record.

When told of Richmond’s dominance against Monmouth, starting goalie Betsy Wagner said: ‘Good for them. I count on not letting them do that again.’

After a 4-3 overtime loss to Temple on Sunday, the Orange could use an early season victory with upcoming games against four more 2003 NCAA Tournament teams.

‘There are days I look at the schedule and don’t know what I was thinking,’ Parker said. ‘If we can get a couple of wins in those games, it should give us a boost.’

In preparation, Parker will have a chance to scout the Spiders in person today when they take on Pacific at Coyne Field. Syracuse plays Pacific on Monday.

‘I think Richmond is a very strong team,’ Parker said. ‘And I know that they didn’t lose anybody from last year’s team. But I certainly wouldn’t expect to go out there and see a score like that.’

Led by head coach Ange Bradley, Richmond has compiled two consecutive Atlantic Ten Conference tournament titles, a team-best 18 wins last season and a No. 10 ranking in the coaches poll and an at-large tournament bid in 2003.

Bradley posted a 35-12 record in her first three years and did not bow out easily in a 4-2 first round tournament loss to national powerhouse Old Dominion.

‘I thought it was a really good start to our season,’ Bradley said. ‘The biggest thing is we learned to finish. We were able to put the ball away. For this early in the season, it is a great thing to start scoring.’

The Orange has plans of putting an end to any more offensive onslaughts. In their game against Richmond’s conference rival, Temple, the Owls posted four goals against quick-fix goalie, Jessica Dahle. Normally a field player, Dahle prepared for only the last week and a half leading up to the game.

‘Jess did everything that we could have asked her for and more,’ senior Meredith Gettel said.

Dahle’s spot start came at the expense of a one-game suspension to the starter, Wagner. The disciplinary move was carried over from last year.

‘It was based on my own decisions,’ Wagner said. ‘We knew it was coming for a while.’

The Orange hope to pepper Spider goalie, Michelle Swartz, who faced only one shot against Monmouth.

Published on September 2, 2004 at 12:00 pm