Down a goal, Syracuse pushed its offense, hunting for an equalizer. The Orange earned a penalty corner as time expired. If North Carolina cleared the ball, the game would end.

But the first two corners ended in penalties, re-upping the Orange’s chances for a game-tying goal. On the third attempt, junior back Roos Weers said, SU changed its plan of attack and finally broke through. Syracuse forced overtime on a game-tying goal.

Immediately in seven-on-seven overtime, UNC pressed Syracuse. A minute and 26 seconds into overtime, the Tar Heels’ Eva van’t Hoog found the back of the cage, silencing the crowd and giving No. 7 North Carolina (8-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) a 3-2 win over No. 6 Syracuse (8-2, 1-2) on Saturday at J.S Coyne Stadium. Despite rebounding from its worst offensive half of the season to tie, SU couldn’t complete the comeback.

“We didn’t really come out with that energy or that hype,” senior midfielder Erin Gillingham said.

SU head coach Ange Bradley was made unavailable to comment on the team’s loss.

Syracuse tallied only one shot in the first half for the first time since its loss to Connecticut in the 2016 NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels only had four of its own but with no time left in the first half, UNC lined up for a penalty corner. The insertion went to Ashley Hoffman, UNC’s shot leader. Assuming Hoffman would take the shot, SU’s defense flooded to her. Sensing pressure, Hoffman flung the ball back to the inserter, Gab Major, for an easy tap-in.

SU came out aggressive in the second half, but again, it was UNC being “clinical,” Weers said. Fifteen minutes into the second frame, van’t Hoog netted her first score of the game from the left side of the arc.

SU began to change its attack in response to the two-goal deficit, as Bradley had Lies Lagerweij push up the sideline and attack. Several times, Lagerweij played all the way to arc but couldn’t finish her drives.

Lagerweij was made unavailable to comment on the team’s loss.

With just over 15 minutes left, Weers ripped a long hit to Elaine Carey behind the UNC defense. Despite relentless pursuit from Hoffman, Carey spun back and slid the ball softly behind goalkeeper Marissa Hendry.

The Orange then failed to convert on six penalty corners and only had a handful of shots outside of set pieces. Even when the ball did make it into the arc, Hendry blocked away each Syracuse chance.

With 12.9 seconds on the clock, after a video review, SU was awarded a penalty corner. The clock was run to zero before the attempt, but the game would not end until the ball was cleared. After two failed attempts, Syracuse broke through.

Rather than Carey pushing the ball to the top of the arc, she hit it harder, giving Lagerweij a new angle to hit from. The senior shuffled to her left a bit and cocked back, unleashing a blast into the back of the net.

“We played a different corner than before,” Weers said. “We didn’t go straight from the top.”

But before Syracuse couldn’t follow up its back-to-back goals, it was van’t Hoog that put an end to an Orange comeback.

 

Published on September 23, 2017 at 4:23 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham