Up and down the Villanova roster are imposing scorers boasting heights of at least 6 feet tall, giving Syracuse a challenge in a late-season game with the postseason on the line. But at a time when the Orange’s confidence is sky-high following a breakout offensive performance against Cincinnati, the Wildcats’ size advantage isn’t creating any apprehension.

It just calls for a solid game plan.

‘We’re expecting quite a big team, quite a physical team,’ senior midfielder Nick Roydhouse said. ‘They have a lot of players who are over 6-foot, whereas our team is rather small in comparison to that. We’ll be looking to minimize set pieces and things like that where they could use their height advantage.’

In its penultimate game of the regular season, Syracuse (3-10-1, 1-5-1 Big East) is going to have to manage its height disadvantage against Villanova (5-7-4, 2-4-1) Wednesday at 7 p.m. at SU Soccer Stadium to notch a second straight victory. Sitting in seventh place in the Big East Red Division, SU needs to play its way into the top six for a spot in the Big East tournament. The Orange is three points behind Villanova, who is tied for fourth in the division.

Coming off its biggest win of the season, a 4-2 victory over the Bearcats, the weight of not having a Big East win was lifted off the Orange’s shoulders. Syracuse went nine games without a win, but head coach Ian McIntyre said he can’t let his team get too carried away or overly confident after snapping the streak.

Still, to a degree, it backed up what McIntyre’s been saying for the entire season.

‘Cincinnati gives us a lot of confidence,’ McIntyre said. ‘We’ve been pretty close. We know we’ve got a decent group. It was nice to finally get over the line and get that win. You don’t get too low with defeat, you don’t get too high with victories.’

Trying to combat its height disadvantage, though, will be one of the tasks the Orange has in store. The Wildcats’ top-five scorers are at least 6 feet tall. SU’s top scorers are Roydhouse and junior forward Louis Clark, who measure 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 10 inches, respectively.

While Roydhouse said he’s expecting a tough, physical game against Villanova, it might be exactly the style of play SU likes to engage in. The Orange traded shoves several times in its game against South Florida on Oct. 15, culminating in a near-fight postgame when Roydhouse took exception to a couple of Bulls players not shaking SU’s hands.

Roydhouse said USF was too confident and acted it, something he said his team would never do. But in the intense, physical match, Syracuse thrived before falling 3-2 in overtime.

‘That’s when we seem to outplay teams is by getting in the face and not giving them any time with the ball,’ Roydhouse said. ‘It takes the height out of it. We like to be aggressive. It helps us get on top of teams.’

It also means Syracuse will look to use its speed to create scoring opportunities, as it did against Cincinnati. McIntyre had Clark play further up top, which he might do against Villanova, but said he isn’t certain if he’ll stick to that same game plan until he sees what types of matchups the Wildcats draw up.

Clark leads the Orange with six goals and would likely play closer to the goal to be fed the ball. That strategy has worked well for SU in its last stretch of games, and it could spell the difference between a win and a loss Wednesday.

‘We don’t have the biggest team, but we’re fast,’ redshirt sophomore defender Ryan Tessler said. ‘We use our speed to the best of our abilities. We’ve got guys running down the outsides. … Set pieces-wise, yeah, they’ll be bigger than us, but we just have to toughen up and deal with it.’

Syracuse is going to try to match Villanova’s height with the increased intensity that’s been a staple of its recent games. The Orange will gladly trade shoves if it means getting a win that it desperately needs to further its postseason hopes.

And it’ll make any height disadvantage nearly obsolete.

Said Roydhouse: ‘If we play our game, they’ll be more worried about us than we’re worried about them.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

 

Published on October 25, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman