In the final seconds Sunday against Columbia, the Syracuse field hockey team attacked – charged with a tenacity and focus as if it were trying to force the game into overtime despite its 6-0 lead.

Thirty final seconds in a weekend where Syracuse never ceased its aggression. A perfect exclamation point to two days of hockey marked by a distinct rise in intensity.

‘We really wanted to attack and keep going forward,’ junior forward Lindsey Conrad said. ‘We just kept attacking, getting our penalty corners. Our shots up, good things will come from that.’

The matchup against the Lions on Sunday personified the focus and intensity of the Orange over the weekend. The full-speed ahead attack of head coach Ange Bradley pushed even further this weekend, especially on Sunday, as the ‘Shark Attack Mentality’ Bradley has harped on seemed to have a refined focus.

SU’s aggression forced the ball into its own offensive territory for almost the entire game, racking up shot after shot and penalty corner after penalty corner along the way. At one point, with mere seconds remaining, the statistics spoke for themselves, as the scoreboard read six goals, 26 shots and 14 penalty corners for Syracuse.

Columbia’s side was the exact opposite, as three goose eggs occupied the Lions portion of the scoreboard; a testament to the fact that sometimes an intense unrelenting offensive attack is a team’s best defense.

A day earlier, SU played with that same intensity against a conference foe in the Providence Friars. Though the Orange only won by one goal, two five-minute yellow card penalties were proof of its aggressive mentality.

‘I thought they did a good job, they made adjustments,’ Bradley said. ‘They handled it well under some pressure. I was proud of them to get that result.’

All-American midfielder Martina Loncarica exemplified the team’s aggression the most throughout the game, as she tallied two green cards and one yellow card.

With 28 minutes left in regulation, the Orange attempted to weather its first man down situation following Loncarica’s yellow card, but the Friars connected to draw within one.

With 3:38 remaining, freshman Iona Holloway put the Orange in the situation yet again with another yellow card. Holloway’s residence in the penalty box meant the Orange would need to hold off and finish the game with a distinct disadvantage.

But this time the one difference for Syracuse was that the possession skills of Loncarica could be utilized, as the sophomore led the controlling defense until the game ended.

‘Martu (Loncarica) does a great job of protecting the ball, and she has got great skills,’ junior back Maggie Befort said. ‘So when she came back in the game towards the end we needed her out there to posses and run out the clock.’

The sights and atmosphere surrounding the end of most all of Syracuse’s one-goal victories this year have been memorable. Moments marked by jubilation where the squad celebrated close victories over top teams.

Snapshots of Loncarica jumping on Amy Kee after a game-winning goal, and Maggie Befort sinking to the ground as her teammates piled highlight Syracuse’s path through the first half of the season.

But on Saturday following one of Syracuse’s biggest wins of the season over Providence, its seventh one-goal game in a row, the reaction was much different.

Euphoria was replaced by a scene of an almost calm and reserved acknowledgment. As the team walked back to the bench from the field a scene similar to the others wasn’t possible.

The squad was simply too tired. Too exhausted from the struggle over the previous three minutes.

An end to a game stemming from the intensity and mentality that highlighted the weekend.

‘We really stepped up and pressured. We stepped up together,’ sophomore forward Heather Susek said. ‘We just don’t like to give up. We play until the buzzer rings.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on September 28, 2009 at 12:00 pm