Jessica Vigna placed her hands on her head as she walked slowly away from Cornell’s goal. At the same time, Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon buried his head in his palms. The players on SU’s bench, some of whom had been jumping up and down in excitement, now stood silently. And the Orange fans sitting in the bleachers collectively groaned.

Moments earlier, a scramble near the goal left Cornell goalkeeper Kelsey Tierney lying on the ground and Vigna with a shot at an essentially empty net from point-blank range. But Vigna’s shot sailed high over the goal, squandering an opportunity at breaking a scoreless tie with 12 minutes left in the first half.

“Those are chances that don’t come very often, and we’ve got to be able to finish those,” Wheddon said.

It was one of the few legitimate scoring threats Syracuse managed throughout the afternoon, and “absolutely” its best, Wheddon said. Despite dominating possession for most of the 110 minutes of play, the Orange (2-4-1) finished with just six combined shots on goal in regulation and overtime. The result was a 0-0 tie with the Big Red (3-0-2) at SU Soccer Stadium on Friday afternoon.

From the start of the game onward, Syracuse midfielders like Vigna and Jackie Firenze were getting to the ball before Cornell’s players could and pushing it forward into Cornell’s half of the field, where it stayed.

Just five minutes into the game, a pass from Firenze found Alex Lamontagne, who received it just right of the penalty box. Wheddon, pleased, shouted, “Good! Good!” Lamontagne then crossed the ball toward the goal, but Syracuse couldn’t manage a shot on goal.

Later in the first half, forward Sheridan Street moved the ball past midfield and Wheddon yelled to her to “look for Eva (Gordon).” Street did look for Gordon, who was running up the right sideline, but her pass went a little too long and out of bounds.

It’s that pass — the penetrating pass, as Wheddon called it — that, on a few occasions, Syracuse failed to connect with.

Other times, though, SU players did connect with those passes, but Wheddon said they were still putting each other “in a hole” with the balls they were playing.

“We’ll play a ball to someone’s knees or to the wrong foot and then you’re immediately under pressure,” he said.

The Orange was most often under pressure around Cornell’s goal. Whenever Syracuse pushed the ball forward, Big Red defenders dropped back close to the goal and left SU’s forwards with little space to attack.

“I give Cornell a lot of credit for that,” Wheddon said. “But we’ve got to be savvy. We’ve got to be a little more sophisticated and play in front of them and then pick the seams, try to split them. And we didn’t do that very well.”

In overtime, little changed. After an entry pass made from Alexis Koval went long and straight to Tierney, Vigna implored her teammates “to settle down,” telling them that there was still time. But the Orange only got one more shot on goal and failed to capitalize on it.

Said Vigna: “We did really well finding numbers in the attack and being dynamic. It’s just the final piece we’re missing.”

Published on September 11, 2015 at 8:05 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu