Mary Rahal was in the process of clearing the ball. She ran up the field and passed to Sierra Cockerille who was cutting across the field. As Cockerille neared the goal, she passed to an open Meaghan Tyrrell, who found Nicole Levy.

Levy caught the ball, shifted her weight to her back foot, twisted her shoulders around and flung the ball from behind her back and into the net.

It was the first goal in a season-high scoring day for No. 3 Syracuse (11-2, 3-1 Atlantic Coast). The Orange topped Albany (5-5, 1-0 America East), 19-7. Eleven SU players scored, the second most this season. It was Syracuse’s highest-scoring performance of the season in a game where SU’s lead scorer Emily Hawryschuk found the net only once. Filling in, Mackenzie Baker and Georgia Pesot scored their first career goals, Levy and Rahal reached a season-high in goals, and Julie Cross’s three goals was her career-high.

“With the talent that we have and the depth that we have,” Levy said, “it’s no shock how many people are getting on the board and honestly, those are the teams that are championship caliber teams.”

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Levy had a hat trick in the opening 15 minutes, starting with the behind-the-back goal and ending with a free position attempt. Of Syracuse’s 12 free position attempts, nine were in some way converted into a goal.

Even shots that weren’t successful aided SU. Megan Carney shot wide and went out of bounds, but Tyrrell was close enough to the end line that she just needed to stretch her stick out and take a few steps to earn the possession back for the Orange. Moments later, Cross was in possession of the ball and hit a top-shelf goal.

“I just happened to be finding my teammates, and my teammates were setting me up for opportunities,” Cross said.

After Levy’s behind-the-back goal to start, the Great Danes responded with a goal of their own. Syracuse responded to that with a six-goal run and pulled the game from Albany’s control. The run included Hawryschuk’s only goal of the game.

Prior to facing Albany, Hawryschuk scored at least four goals in her last eight games. The Great Danes held her to one. The junior attack had just attempted a free position attempt that was saved but recovered by SU. She positioned herself behind the net as Tyrrell scooped the ball. She passed it to Hawryschuk who cradled her stick a few times as she ran around the net and tossed the ball over the goalie’s shoulder.

Syracuse’s season-high in points was also the team’s second-highest in assists with nine. Sam Swart, the fourth-highest scorer on the team, was unable to find the net tonight, but she was able to send Rahal an assist late in the second half. Rahal caught the ball and overhand tossed the ball into the net.

“I think that we’re a very unselfish team and when we work together and we can find each other,” Cross said, “… it makes the game not only more fun to play but it shows how close we are as a team.”

Published on March 27, 2019 at 10:32 pm

Contact Kaci: klwasile@syr.edu