After losing to Connecticut in the 2007 Big East semifinals, first-year head coach Ange Bradley gathered her newly inherited Syracuse program and watched the championship from the bleachers the following day. While the Huskies knocked off Princeton, 1-0, Bradley passed along a simple message for her team: “We’re going to be doing the same thing on their turf in ’08.”

They did, and with the one-goal victory in Storrs, the Orange clinched the program’s first tournament berth under Bradley. It ended with a loss in the national semifinals, but started a foundation that led to more postseason appearances and peaked with a national championship in 2015.

“Vision, commitment and pursuing the dream,” Bradley said in October. “That’s what it’s about.”

Now, SU is returning to Storrs. After tallying 12 wins for the second time in three seasons, Syracuse field hockey earned a spot in the NCAA tournament for the 11th time in 12 seasons under Bradley. The No. 12 Orange (12-6, 3-3 Atlantic Coast) will travel to Connecticut where they will face Princeton (13-4, 7-0 Ivy League).

Despite missing the NCAA tournament last season and graduating Roos Weers — the anchor of the Orange’s offense and defense — SU notched three wins over top-five programs and rose to No. 8 in RPI, ensuring that even after a loss to Louisville in the first round of the ACC tournament last Thursday, a postseason berth was still likely.

“Each game we win there’s a turning point, each game we lose there’s a turning point,” Bradley said on Oct. 2 after beating Duke the week before. “What we did last month and last week is over and that’s what’s great about sports — it’s a new page to be written every day.”

Early this season, Syracuse struggled from a lack of secondary scoring. In close wins against Vermont, UMass Lowell and Lafayette to open the year, freshman Charlotte de Vries scored four of the eight SU goals. But since then, a balanced attack has allowed the Orange to open up more opportunities when opponents face-guard de Vries — seven Syracuse players tallied more than one goal this season, as opposed to five last year. 

de Vries’ 15 goals are just three shy of the all-time record for a first-year SU player set by Martu Locarinca (18) in 2008. She relied on a reverse hit — her “signature shot,” Conestoga (Pennsylvania) High School coach Megan Smyth said — and often found lanes to weave through defenders before lining up her shot, a lane formed when forwards such as Chiara Gutsche, Sarah Luby and Clara Morrison pulled defenders toward the sideline.

A 5-1 start by Syracuse was overshadowed by a loss to unranked Cornell on Sept. 7, when the Orange couldn’t capitalize on five late penalty corners to tie the game. After that, Syracuse won seven out of 11 games to close the regular season — all four of the losses coming against ranked opponents. 

That came despite giving up more than 20 shots twice. Syracuse leaned on freshman goalie Sarah Sinck and her ACC-leading 3.83 saves per game to mitigate chances against explosive offense, and when that clicked with a fluid offense, the results were games that SU won despite being dominated statistically. First it was Duke. Then, UConn and Louisville. And with that came another postseason berth.

Published on November 10, 2019 at 10:21 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew