After a media timeout, Syracuse finally succeeded at the faceoff X. The ball flicked up and sent near two SU wings but neither of them scooped the ball. It continued to bounce, white and black jerseys swarmed the yellow rubber. Redshirt-senior Taylor Gait eventually picked it up and won the first draw for SU, though she instantaneously turned it over. Possession went back to the Terrapins.

Gait cited her own mental hurdles as to why she could never beat Maryland in five years. Yet, SU’s draw control problems haven’t been limited to just Sunday afternoon’s game. The faceoff X has hampered No. 8 Syracuse (4-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) in the season’s first six contests and it manifested in the hardest test to date, an 18-11 blowout loss to No. 5 Maryland (5-1).

UMD totaled 22 draws to SU’s eight and no combination of Julie Cross or Kerry Defliese could provide the solution to what head coach Gary Gait called Syracuse’s No. 1 priority.

“It’s tough when we don’t get possessions,” he said. “We got to solve our issues in the draw control area. That’s the No. 1. If we can get close to 50 percent, we can compete with anybody. We’ve proven we can beat teams when we get dominated, but if we get 50 (percent) we have a real chance to compete every game.”

The game’s first draw was representative of Syracuse’s draw control struggles: wing play. Due to the new rules implemented before the season, teams can have the draw control specialist and two wings around the center circle to compete for the ball.

After Cross flicked the ball in between two SU wings, neither of them could come up with the ball and Maryland’s Kali Hartshorn came up with it. The Terrapins entered the game as the best draw control team in the country and handled an Orange draw control unit ranked 28th.

“The draws are really about really competing around the circle,” Gary Gait said. “That’s the area where we’ve been dominated. We may get to some balls first but then there’s players there other team that check us, cause turnovers. We don’t maintain that possesion, or get that ground ball, it becomes a 3-v.s-3 ground ball battle and we haven’t been winning them.”

Gary Gait predicted this year that the new rules would change the Orange strategy at the faceoff X. That game plan was discarded when Morgan Widner, the freshman record-holder for draw controls, suffered a season-ending knee injury against Albany on Feb. 22.

To replace Widner, SU turned to Cross — a junior who had 17 draws in her first two seasons combined— and Defliese, a sophomore who said she hasn’t taken draws before this season.

Against the Terrapins, it didn’t matter who was at the faceoff X. Maryland’s combo of Meghan Siverson and Hartshorn excelled. The visitors snuffed out any extended Orange run that could’ve kept the game within reach.

“I think they had a great first step on the ball,” Defliese said.

When Riley Donahue notched SU’s first goal in nearly 10 minutes of game-time in the first half to cut the deficit to three, Maryland went on a streak of five-straight draw controls.

In the second half, Maryland wrestled momentum with three-straight goals, silencing the SU bench. Two quick goals awoke the Orange sideline and the 6-foot-1 Cross trotted out to the block ‘S’ with the bench and fourth-largest crowd in program history cheering her on.

The Orange reserves and nearly-1,600 in attendance watched as the 5-foot-7 Siverson out-jumped Cross and won the possession that Syracuse needed to stay in the game. The next two draws followed the same blueprint and Maryland scored twice more, extending it’s now insurmountable second-half lead to eight.

The failure’s on the draw trickled over into the Orange’s offense. Syracuse’s possessions were rushed, as attackers knew that chances were scarce. Gait said his attack felt pressured and couldn’t settle down.

“They move the ball well,” Gary Gait said. “They took advantage of their opportunities and it started by dominating the draw controls.

“The gas tank was empty. They jumped on us, we didn’t compete.”

Earlier this season, Gary Gait theorized that the rule change would split the draws evenly between teams. For Syracuse, it hasn’t. The Orange has only come out on top in the draw control battle once this season against Oregon on Feb. 18. Excluding that matchup, SU has won 36 percent (57-of-137) of its draws.

Nothing it’s tried has worked so far, and the Orange is left searching for the consistency it’s lacked all year.

“I think we’re trying to figure some things out,” Defliese said. “(We’re) just throwing people in, and just working together to find an option.”

Published on March 11, 2018 at 5:46 pm

Contact Nick: nialvare@syr.edu | @nick_a_alvarez