On one end of the sideline, the Towson players trudged out to their head coach. On the other, the Syracuse bench ran out to greet teammates.

For the Tigers, it was disappointment. For SU, it was high-fives and fist bumps.
Towson had just called a timeout after Devon Collins scored on a pass from Alyssa Murray. It gave the Orange a three-goal cushion with just 6:12 left to play. The duo made it look easy, but up until that point, the game had been anything but.

For the first 31 minutes of the game, Towson goalie Kelsea Donnelly held SU — the nation’s leader in points — to just seven goals. Each shot was met with her stick and a roar from the small section of Tigers fans in the bleachers.

No. 2 Syracuse (6-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) came into the game averaging 18.6 goals per game and a 53.4 shooting percentage, and even though Donnelly was at her best, was able to pull away late to beat No. 15 Towson (2-1) 12-7 in front of 1,113 the Carrier Dome on Sunday.

“I just really had to focus on the ball,” Donnelly said. “They have great shooters, I knew that. I just had to stay forward and be ready for anything, because they can just turn the corner and whip it in.”

Donnelly came in against a hot offense and limited it to 12-of-28 shooting. She had a 15:03 stretch midway through the first half until early in the second half where nothing got past her. Her eight saves doubled SU’s total saves on the day.

“Kelsey is an unbelievable goalie,” Towson head coach Sonia LaMonica said. “I had no doubt in my mind that she was going to make it very challenging for these offensive players here.”

Kayla Treanor, one of the nation’s leading scorers, was twice shooed away by Donnelly on free-position shots in the first half. Overall, Treanor was just 1-of-5 on shots the first half.

With just under 14 minutes to go in the opening stanza, SU attack Kailah Kempney had an open shot just a few feet in front of the goal. But her seemingly-inevitable score was blocked by Donnelly to keep the game tied at four.

“She’s a good goalie,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “She’s on the Tewaaraton list, and we did our homework and knew what we needed to do. Unfortunately, sometimes we don’t execute and we made some mistakes early.”

The Orange outshot Towson 28-to-16. SU had an 11-to-8 advantage on the draws. It was the same story with ground balls, which Syracuse led 21-to-16. Towson had two more turnovers, and on the offensive side of the ball, Syracuse was doing a lot better than the Tigers.

But with just 11 minutes to go the score was tied. SU was in danger of losing its first game of the season.

And it was in large part due to the play of Donnelly.

“I was just playing my game,” Donnelly said. “What I should be doing. Just being a goalie.”

But even with the solid performance, the Orange was just too good.

A Treanor unassisted goal, followed by Gabby Jaquith tossing one in over a defender into the top right corner of the net had Syracuse up two. After Collins backbreaking goal just 47 seconds later, Towson’s improbable upset bid had all but fizzled.

Donnelly had played well all game, but the floodgates opened and shots started pelting the back of the cage.

“That’s what you need,” Gait said. “Players to step up under pressure and execute when you’re down.”

The result wasn’t what Donnelly was hoping for, but for more than two-thirds of the game, she played better than anyone could have asked of her.

“Some shots are going to go in, no one’s perfect,” Donnelly said. “But I think there are some shots that I think I could have gotten.

“I’m happy. But I’m not really happy.”

Published on March 2, 2014 at 7:35 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3