Lies Lagerweij stepped back and focused on a Stanford player, who tried to step right. She shuffled left quickly, cutting off the Cardinal player. When her opponent tried to dribble left, Lagerweij again was there to force her to make a change. Eventually, her opponent backed up to the corner of the field and tried to center the ball, which bounced off Lagerweij and rolled out of bounds. She got back into position, ready to stop whatever came her way.

Lagerweij and the No. 1 Syracuse (6-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) defense held No. 14 Stanford (1-4, 0-1 American East) to just one goal in a 3-1 win on Sunday at J.S. Coyne Stadium. The win was Syracuse’s third against a ranked opponent this season and second consecutive after the Orange beat No. 18 Boston College on Friday.

In all, Syracuse has given up just six goals this season, good for one per game and top 10 in the country as of Sunday evening.

The defense helped limit Stanford on offense and was active in moving the ball up field and creating opportunities on offense. Roos Weers surveyed the field after controlling the ball and did a near 270-degree spin before passing the ball up field to a teammate. Lagerweij and the other defensive backs slowly crept up, but maintained a presence behind the midfield line.

When SU controlled the ball on offense, its defense was preparing for a counter-attack, getting in position in case Syracuse lost possession. As players moved up to help on offense, others fell back to stop any potential scoring threat by Stanford.

“A big focus for us was counter-D. So how our defense sets up when we have the ball,” Lagerweij said. “That was a really big focus for our defense and our No. 1 goal.”

And Syracuse was effective at its counter-defense method. The team limited Stanford to just six shots the entire game, five of which landed on goal. The Orange picked apart each Stanford push on offense because SU was in position and waiting. If something went wrong, teammates filled gaps by talking to one another.

“If you stand behind our goal and listen to our backs, we are constantly talking to each other, sometimes yelling if necessary,” Lagerweij said.

Communication was a major factor for Lagerweij and Weers. They ran up the sidelines and into midfield to play offense often, as the two are SU’s No. 1 and No. 3 leading scorers, respectively. Weers is also SU’s assists leader, with six on the year.

By moving up to help on offense, Stanford could easily counter-attack with at least one defensive back missing. Midfielders Serra Degnan and Laura Hurff filled the holes if a defender pushed up like Lagerweij and Weers did multiple times.

Throughout the game, Syracuse got “good pressure on the ball,” head coach Ange Bradley said.

“We’re gonna continue to grow on that.”

Published on September 11, 2016 at 8:10 pm

Contact Charlie: csdistur@syr.edu | @charliedisturco