Last year, Syracuse’s defense was a problem.

SU ranked second-to-last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring defense on its way to its earliest NCAA tournament exit since 2006.

This year, the Orange looks to build on that performance and it’ll have to come with a whole new group. But Syracuse head coach Gary Gait has a plan in mind.

“I think you’re going to see a mix on the defense,” Gait said.

The Orange, after two of its starting defenders graduated and another transferred away, intends to implement changes to its defensive schemes to counter the problems it faced last season. Mostly sticking with zone defensive sets in the past, Gait said he plans to experiment with man-to-man tactics.

“Some teams are extraordinary against zone,” Gait said. “That’s when I think you need to have a good solid man-to-man to fall back on.”

The zone defensive scheme that the Orange has so often gone to in the past was exposed in 2017. In addition to allowing the second most goals per game in the ACC, the Orange also ranked second-to-last in caused turnovers per game (8.23) and ranked last in save percentage (.407).

A freshman goalkeeper in a prominent role during the first year of the shot clock rule could provide an explanation for the latter. But where others in the conference experienced rises in both offensive and defensive production, Gait said, the Orange experienced a sharp decline.

Gait’s movement to “reevaluate” the team — one that has already caused Gait to bring on a new goalkeeper’s coach to manage the talented, yet young, group — has the Orange looking to its defense to fill the gaps left by both the departures of players and openings in the zone in years past.

Despite the absence of much of last year’s starting defense, including outgoing-Maryland transfer Kathy Rudkin and graduate Halley McDonnell, the Orange remain optimistic that the holes will be filled.

“I think when you do lose somebody, obviously, at times there’s a void,” senior midfielder Natalie Wallon said. “… But that also leaves room for other people to step up.”

The new defenders will have to “step up” into a new defensive scheme. The Orange faced a lot of open shots last year caused by holes in the zone defensive set, Gait said. To combat that issue, SU is looking to “mark up a player and track them,” Gait said, to limit opportunities for opponents who are toying with the Syracuse defense as they did on some occasions last year.

The formation could have been beneficial to the Orange last season. In Syracuse’s ACC Championship matchup with North Carolina, the Tar Heels had one player cause most of the damage to the Orange defense. UNC attack Molly Hendrick scored seven goals and assisted on two more in what turned out to be an 18-11 loss for SU.

The Orange could have marked up against the Tar Heels, as SU could have in its NCAA tournament loss to Boston College, where 13 of the Eagles’ 35 points in their 21-10 rout came from two players, Sam Apuzzo and Kate Weeks.

While last season ended with two of the Orange’s three worst defensive outputs of the season, Gait said he expects offensive and defensive production to be impacted by rule changes the NCAA made in the offseason.

With Syracuse using a zone defense that left openings in the past, the new “eight meters” rule will allow defenses to pack in closer to the goalkeeper’s circle making it much more difficult for offenses to find an open shot.

Gait maintains that SU’s “fixed plan” is to evaluate matchups each game and decide what will work best. Last year, Syracuse’s faulty defense contributed to its lowest win total since joining the ACC. SU’s willingness and ability to switch between defensive sets is what Gait expects to be the biggest difference this year from the last.

“It’s important to have variety,” Gait said. “If the teams matchup well and they’re playing really well, you want to turn around and be able to change your defense.”

Published on February 5, 2018 at 11:23 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary