The night before the Syracuse women’s lacrosse game on Saturday against Loyola, SU head coach Lisa Miller pondered a possible shift in the Big East Conference’s balance of power.

Though Loyola is struggling this season, it is normally a perennial national title contender. It will replace Boston College in the Big East next year. The Greyhounds had defeated the Orange two consecutive years and Miller wanted her team to deliver a message that future conference games would not be one-sided.

Consider it sent.

No. 17 Syracuse survived a 30-minute scoring drought and three Greyhound comebacks to defeat Loyola, 11-9, in front of 276 at the Carrier Dome. SU junior attack Meghan O’Connell’s goal with 5:16 remaining broke a 9-9 tie and gave the Orange its sixth straight win.

‘We are not going to get pushed out of our role in the Big East as one of the better teams,’ Miller said.

More important for SU (8-2, 1-1 Big East) than asserting itself in the budding rivalry was simply getting the victory. Miller called the game a ‘must-win’ afterward because two other top 20 teams in the northeast, Hofstra and Boston University, already defeated Loyola (3-7) this season. A loss would have dealt a severe blow to SU’s hopes for a NCAA Tournament at-large bid.

Early on, an Orange loss was unfathomable. Just 12 minutes into the game, SU jumped out to a 5-0 lead on goals by five different players. But inexplicably, its offense and defense shut down. Loyola dominated the rest of the half, culminating in Australia-native Kate McHarg’s three goals in the final 68 seconds to even the score at 5-5.

‘We were a little flat emotionally,’ Miller said. ‘The game on Tuesday (against Cornell) took a lot out of us. We talked about just going back to the game plan, getting a bounce (in our step) and going after it.’

SU responded to Miller’s halftime call for more energy. Once the Orange finally found the back of the net 10 minutes into the half, the flood gates opened similar to the beginning of the game. Three goals in under three minutes gave SU an 8-5 advantage. But the relentless Greyhounds battled back to tie the game at 8-8, and then again at 9-9.

Finally, SU took the lead for good on O’Connell’s third goal of the game. It was the third straight contest the junior tallied a hat trick.

‘The people behind (the net) know that as soon as Meghan’s stick is open, she is going to score,’ SU senior midfielder Courtney Palladino said. ‘The chemistry is there.’

Loyola took a page out of Cornell’s playbook and called for an inspection of O’Connell’s crosse after her go-ahead goal. Last Tuesday, the Big Red caught Palladino and fellow senior midfielder Monica Joines with illegal crosses – ones that hold the ball even when turned over. But O’Connell’s equipment passed the test and a large roar went up in the crowd and on the SU sideline, as if to say ‘told-you-so.’

Other than O’Connell’s game-winner, the biggest goal of the game came from freshman midfielder Allison Furstenburg. She ended the frustration of SU’s longest scoring drought of the season when she gave the Orange a 6-5 lead. Though she said afterward she only concerned herself with not committing a turnover, the assertive one-on-one move she used demonstrated her growing confidence. She also scored three goals.

O’Connell and Furstenburg’s increased efforts of late prove the Orange offer seven legitimate, and seemingly equal, scoring threats.

‘Today Loyola didn’t know who they were going to double-team because of where everyone was going,’ Palladino said.

There’s always next year now for Loyola. Miller is pleased with the Big East’s future addition, noting that all the teams in the conference will benefit from the Greyhounds’ strength-of-schedule. Loyola left the Colonial Athletic Association after the 2002 season.

‘We’ve been lucky to join a conference,’ said Loyola head coach Kerri O’Day. ‘The Big East is strong. It’s great to be a part of.’

While SU suffered lapses at times on both sides of the ball, Miller slept well Saturday night knowing not only that her Orange saved its season, but also hold bragging rights for the first conference game against the Greyhounds next year.

‘It was a sloppy game,’ Palladino said. ‘But we still came out on top.’

Published on April 9, 2005 at 12:00 pm