Villanova was unable to gain any substantial ball possession. Syracuse was dominant in closing all of the Wildcats’ passing lanes.

Spearheaded by junior backs Iona Holloway, Amy Kee and senior midfielder Nicole Nelson, the Orange defense stifled Villanova all game long in its Big East semifinal.

‘They were great,’ SU head coach Ange Bradley said. ‘The way they move the ball, they make it look easy and I think people forget that.’

Bradley mentioned yesterday’s announcement of Nelson as a 2011 Second Team All-Big East honoree, but also said she thinks the team got overlooked in the selections. The defensive effort was firm against the Wildcats in No. 5 Syracuse’s 3-0 win on Friday, just as it was last week when the Orange won 3-2 at Villanova. The prior experience against Villanova paid off, as the Syracuse players knew Villanova’s physical style of play entering the game.

Both Kee and Holloway received cards, with Holloway’s being an off-setting yellow in the second half that took her off the field for five minutes.

‘They play on field turf so it’s a bit of a rougher game,’ Holloway said. ‘They brought that today and we knew that from the style of play from last weekend. We were a lot more physical in the start of the first half than we were last week.’

SU’s readiness was apparent from the onset. Villanova recorded no shots on goal in the opening 34 minutes. It wasn’t until the final minute of the first half for the Wildcats to gain a shot, when they recorded two shots off of penalty corners.

Holloway made numerous highlight-reel plays in the first half to keep Villanova away from the goal. Just before Lauren Brooks’ scored Syracuse’s first goal, Holloway threw a big hit in front of the Villanova bench, flipping a girl overlooked.

With four minutes remaining in the half, her grit showed off when she dove full extension for a pass just out of her reach, spraying water high into the air as she hit the ground.

And it wasn’t just Holloway. Nelson broke up a few crossing passes and Kee played a factor in starting many SU offensive opportunities. She attempted several long breakout passes throughout the game.

‘You just kind of read the defense to see what press they’re playing and what they’re giving us. There were spaces that opened up,’ Kee said.

The second half was much of the same. Midfielder Martina Loncarica and back Laura Hahnefeldt became even more involved in the defensive effort. The Wildcats had only three shots on goal in the second half.

Syracuse hopes its stalwart defensive effort — one that led to goalkeeper Leann Stiver’s fifth shutout of the year — carries over to Sunday, when the Orange takes on Connecticut in the Big East championship game.

Kee said UConn, who beat SU in the two teams’ only regular season meeting, is a similar team to Villanova. The Huskies are going to be physical too, Kee said. The only difference is that the No. 4 Huskies will be a bit faster.

‘We can always improve,’ Holloway said. ‘I think we need to give away less penalty corners than we did today. We’ve been working all week on double-teaming so we’ll use more of that against UConn.’

jmhyber@syr.edu

Published on November 4, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu