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Meaghan Tyrrell found Emma Tyrrell for a goal. There wasn’t much that the North Carolina defense could do to stop it.

Positioned near the right edge of the 8-meter, Meaghan beckoned for Megan Carney to set a screen. It was a decoy. Carney’s entrance into the 8-meter allowed Meaghan a few steps of space. She surveyed the scene and pitched to her sister, Emma, right in front of the crease. But, UNC’s Emily Nalls was all over her.

Emma caught the ball and immediately stopped on a dime. Nalls briefly lost her footing. Then, turning to her right, Emma opened her body up to face the net. She fired the ball past Alecia Nicholas, propelling the Orange to a 5-2 lead.

In a top-five matchup between No. 1 Syracuse and No. 5 North Carolina, SU led the Tar Heels 7-2 at one point before UNC roared back, tying the game at eight apiece midway through the third period. In the first quarter, Syracuse was trigger happy, and in the fourth, it was scoreless until the 5:40 mark. The only thing that seemed consistent throughout the Orange’s (15-0, 8-0 Atlantic Coast) hard-fought, 14-12 win over North Carolina (11-3, 6-2 ACC) was the production from both Tyrrell’s who combined for 12 points.

Last week, when SU faced off against then-No. 19 ranked Clemson at Cicero-North Syracuse, Emma didn’t play. Head coach Kayla Treanor labeled it a day-to-day injury and said the midfielder would be back to play at Chapel Hill.

After Melissa Sconone put UNC up 1-0 under two minutes into the contest, it took the Orange a couple more minutes to find the mark. Emma Ward received the ball behind the cage, enjoying room to operate. She looked right, and pump-faked a pass in the same direction, as Emma circled around the 8-meter and converged on net. Ward dished and Emma, with one fluid motion, caught and bounced the ball into the left corner of the net, helping SU draw even at the 11:19 mark.

Before Meaghan assisted her sister for Emma’s second goal of the afternoon, she handed Natalie Smith her first in almost identical form. Standing on the right wing, Meaghan attracted a double team of Gabi Hall and Livi Lawton. Before Hall got too close to limit Meaghan’s options, she swung a pass to Smith, who started to make her way inward from the 12-meter. Smith caught Meahgan’s feed and barely entered the 8-meter before unleashing a shot that stormed into the top left corner.

All game long, Meaghan was on record watch. Coming into the Orange’s last road contest of the regular season, the fifth-year attack had notched a Division-I leading 80 points during the 2023 campaign. Her collegiate career total of 388 points ranked third on SU’s all-time list behind Treanor and Katie Rowan.

Switching lanes from right to left, Meaghan willed a shot into the back of the net to draw one behind her now-head coach. She connected with Smith again to draw level with Treanor.

Off a free-position opportunity, Meaghan started in a sprinter’s stance at the 8-meter, awaiting the official’s whistle. Immediately when play resumed, Meaghan leapt up to pick out Smith to her left. Smith caught the ball and fired an inch-perfect attempt past Nicholas, finding the top left corner for the second time.

The assist from Meaghan to Smith, at the end of the third quarter, was the last point Syracuse would record for just over 10 minutes. Although both Tyrrell’s were still active on the right flank, and in the middle of the park, the Orange’s failure to win the draw (18-12) led to less time handling possession. Alyssa Long’s free-position score for the Tar Heels with 8:45 remaining in the game knotted the game at 11.

Shouldering her opponent, outside the 8-meter, Meaghan ran past Lawton toward goal. Long, who was tasked with keeping an eye on Smith, stepped in to help stop any further progression. Nearing Long, and the crease directly behind her, Meaghan feinted right and dodged left, forcing Long to bite. Now one-on-one with Nicholas, she slid a cross-body shot into the bottom right corner to return a 12-11 advantage to Syracuse with 5:40 left to play. The clutch conversion gave Meaghan point No. 394, placing the attack two points away from Rowan’s record. Treanor moved back into third.

Although North Carolina’s Reilly Casey would tack on another goal, her attempt was UNC’s last before an Emma score solidified the Orange’s 15th win of the year. At the 3:45 mark, around 30 seconds after Casey equalized, Emma found a clear path towards the net. But, instead, she opted to flip a pass over to the left wing, where Carney scored to give Syracuse a 13-12 advantage.

The immediate answer was followed up with the favor returned — a pass from the left flank into the middle. Retreating from pressure, Ward back-pedaled a few paces before passing high to a cutting Emma. The dish seemed out of reach and forced Emma to jump off of her back foot to receive. Her hop was good enough. Ward’s ball nestled into Emma’s stick before she converted another goal past Nicholas. She took a tumble before immediately getting up and pointing at Ward.

Published on April 15, 2023 at 8:15 pm

Contact Tyler: trschiff@syr.edu | @theTylerSchiff