Allie Murray charged 3 to 4 feet out of her net and left half of it open. She snagged the ball out of the air and, at that point, had stopped Northwestern’s opportunity to score its second goal with almost 13 minutes gone in the first half.

Wildcats attack Christina Esposito pressured Murray as the SU goalie started racing back toward the crease. As she was working to avoid Esposito, Murray slipped and the ball rolled out of her stick, crossing the goal line. After stopping Northwestern seconds earlier, Murray’s error had just cut the Orange’s lead down to one goal.

The first half for Murray was stained by significant mistakes that followed up exceptional saves. But she adjusted in the second half, and made several key saves that helped No. 2 Syracuse (5-0) hold on to beat No. 7 Northwestern (1-2), 16-12, on Sunday in the Carrier Dome.

Murray only ended up recording four saves in the game, two in each half. Still, despite the mistakes, head coach Gary Gait was happy with her performance and thought that the number of saves didn’t tell the whole story.

“I thought she played great … she pressured, made them hit the post, made them miss and shoot high,” Gait said. “I thought she had a great game.”

Still, Murray negated some of the her saves by following them up with mistakes. With just over 12 minutes left in the first half, Murray stepped up and stopped a Catie Ingrilli’s free-position shot. Instead of being patient, she hastily tried to pass the ball onto a teammate. Ingrilli, who was still close to the net, stole the ball and pushed it into the open goal. It gave Northwestern a 5-3 lead.

Murray appeared rattled. She frequently slapped her stick all over the goal posts and moved around, even when the ball was on the other side of the field. SU went into the half up 8-6, but it could have had a four-goal advantage.

Then things shifted for Murray after the break. She remained aggressive and kept coming forward to try and take away shooting angles. That worked, as the Northwestern offense started rushing its shots. The Wildcats ended up just 1-of-4 from the free position in the second half, allowing SU to regain its hold on the game. A 5-0 run midway through the half did just that.

“Some of the things that we talked about, in regards to her, I don’t think when the game was really under pressure, I don’t think we executed to our best,” Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said.

With 6:40 left in the game, Kaleigh Craig, Northwestern’s active leader in goals, had a free-position shot and an opportunity to cut SU’s lead to two. Murray knocked the ball away and then less than a minute later, senior Kayla Treanor scored her fourth goal of the game to open up a 14-10 advantage.

Twenty seconds after Treanor’s goal, Northwestern’s Tara Chelios came right up the middle and had a clear shot at the net. Murray stepped up, put her stick high and recovered the ball. The crowd and the bench roared with approval as she passed the ball and SU cleared it. Less than a minute after the save, SU’s Gabby Jaquith got on the board and put the Orange up, 15-10.

After the game was over, all the players ran out to midfield and crowded around Murray, tapping her on the helmet. Treanor said that the team was showing appreciation for their goalie. The player who allowed the Wildcats to take control of the game also prevented them from getting back into it.

“As a goalie, if you want to be good, you really have to just shake things off very quickly, that’s just the nature of the position,” Amonte Hiller said. “Great goalies do, and I think she did that.”

Published on February 28, 2016 at 5:10 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer