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For the final 50 minutes against North Carolina, only Meaghan Tyrrell scored against goaltender Taylor Moreno. Her two goals were the only that Syracuse scored in an otherwise quiet second half.

In a showdown featuring the top two teams in the country, No. 2 Syracuse (6-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) posted a season-low goal tally in a 17-6 loss against No. 1 UNC (11-0, 5-0) on Saturday. The Orange took a 4-1 lead in the opening 10 minutes, but the offense struggled to the finish with costly turnovers and missed opportunities on free position play. Moreno made 11 saves on 17 shots on goal to help stifle the Syracuse offense.

“They know how to step in front of your shots,” head coach Gary Gait said. “During the game today, we had probably eight shots … where they just jumped in front, got a stick on our stick so we couldn’t follow through, and the ball just floated to the goal for an easy save.”

Syracuse’s offense looked lively to start the game — the Orange gave the Tar Heels their biggest deficit of the season after goals by Sam Swart, Megan Carney and Tyrrell. But then, the Tar Heels completely shut down the Syracuse offense, and they double-teamed Carney and Tyrrell. The defense was more aggressive, too, with well-placed stick-checks causing nine turnovers.

After being named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List this week, Swart was one of the many Syracuse players pickpocketed in midfield. As Swart ran to set up the Syracuse offense near the end of the first half, she was stick-checked from behind. And within seconds, UNC ran the length of the field and scored. During their 9-0 run to end the first half, the Tar Heels caused five turnovers.

“Every time we got the ball, we made some mistakes, and we allowed them to get up on us,” Gait said. “We had chances to fight back in that first half, and we just continued to make mistakes.”

The chances to fight back came on free-position plays right at the end of the first half. The first free-position play of the game fell to Carney with just three minutes left. Carney drew the foul with a quick shift past her defender and lined up in the middle of the arc. Instead of running a set play, Carney drove straight to the goal and fired a shot, but was denied by Moreno.

Carney wasn’t the only player to miss an opportunity from 8 meters. Swart won two free-position plays in the final minute of the half, both saved by Moreno.

“We had plays drawn up to move the ball and hit the open player, and instead, we took it to the goal and took a weak shot,” Gait said. “We ended up not scoring on any of them, so that makes it tough when we don’t execute what we’ve been working on.”

Syracuse didn’t have another free-position opportunity for the rest of the game. The Orange sit last in the ACC in free-position percentage, shooting just 40.6%.

For the first time this season, Syracuse was notably missing All-American Emily Hawryschuk on the field. Hawryschuk led the Orange in goals the past three years, but she tore her ACL just one game into the season. Before Saturday, the Orange held their weight without her, but against the top team in the country, the Orange floundered without their top scorer.

“Without her, we didn’t have enough today, and we didn’t make the adjustments we needed,” Gait said. “We may have lacked a little leadership on the offensive end.”

Published on April 3, 2021 at 3:52 pm

Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu