Leading by a goal late in the second half, Syracuse looked to close out Virginia. Laura Hurff fed the insertion to Emma Tufts as Roos Weers stutter-stepped and wound up.

But the Cavaliers’ Pien Dicke swiped the ball away and kickstarted a 6-on-2 fast break. After a handful of passes, the ball made it back to Dicke, who sent the ball through SU goalkeeper Borg van der Velde’s legs for a goal.

“We let one of their best players run for 75 yards,” SU back Lies Lagerweij said. “And that is unacceptable.”

No. 4 Virginia’s (12-2, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) pair of top scorers, Dicke and two-time national player of the year Tara Vittese, felled No. 7 Syracuse (10-4, 2-4), 2-1, on Saturday at J.S. Coyne Stadium. Syracuse squandered a one-goal lead, allowing the equalizer and game-winner in the final 15 minutes of the Orange’s conference finale.

“In key moments,” Lagerweij said, “you’ve got to prioritize. If there’s an open player, who are you going to chose to defend first?”

Entering the game, Vittese led the country with 21 goals. Dicke, a true freshman, was No. 3 with 18 goals before Saturday. Both players, SU head coach Ange Bradley and players said on Wednesday, needed to be contained for SU to have a chance to win.

At halftime, the Orange did just that. Despite Syracuse not registering a shot of its own since at least 2005, it held Virginia’s No. 1 scoring offense, along with Dicke and Vittese, silent.

“I think we did a really good job of containing them most of the game,” Bradley said.

It seemed Dicke might not even have a chance to contribute in the second half.

Late in the first half, Hurff charged down the right wing late and challenged Dicke to make a stop. As the freshman stepped up, Hurff wound up to unleash a cross, but her attempt struck Dicke’s stick and smashed the back of her left hand. Dicke left the field sobbing with trainers clutching her limp hand. But, after halftime, Dicke ran out, a mass of tape wrapped around her injury.

Shortly after Dicke pulled the game even, Virginia earned a penalty corner. SU’s defense had already thwarted Virginia on 10 corners, but the 11th was different.

“You can’t expect them to keep stopping them.” Lagerweij said. “… We shouldn’t put (ourselves) in a position to be stopping 11 corners.”

Hurff charged towards the Cavaliers stopper with under 10 minutes to play, who shoved the ball into a shooting lane for Vittese. But Hurff beat her there and extended her stick to poke the pass away and out of danger. Hurff missed.

After Hurff’s overrun, Vittese settled the ball and ripped her 22nd goal past van der Velde, giving Virginia the lead for good.

“You can’t keep giving opportunities like that,” Bradley said.

Syracuse stopped 10 penalty corners and six shots on goal. The back line held Vittese and Dicke in check for all but two plays. But two plays was all it took.

Published on October 14, 2017 at 5:15 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham