Syracuse entered Saturday’s season opener against Monmouth with a mission: score within the first 10 minutes of play. But more than 20 minutes and 14 shots later, the scoreboard still read 0-0.’Well our goal was to score in the first 10 minutes which obviously didn’t happen,’ senior forward Heather Susek said. ‘But we found a way and we did it.’No. 5 SU (1-0, 0-0 Big East) eventually got on the board in the 23rd minute and overwhelmed

the Hawks (0-1, 0-0 Northeast Conference) with an onslaught of quantity over quality in a 4-0 win. The Orange tallied a whopping 33 shots, 23 of which were on net, and 15 penalty corners to open the season with a victory. The goals that Syracuse did score can be credited to the amount of chances it got rather than accurate shooting.Still, the Orange dominated an inferior opponent the way it should. Syracuse outshot Monmouth 33-3, and the Hawks failed to put a shot on net.

The minimal offensive success came mostly from utilizing the outside of the field, as Monmouth made an effort to clog the front of its defensive zone.

Two of SU’s four goals were a result of attacking the baseline. Sophomore midfielder Leonie Geyer worked across the right baseline past Monmouth’s defense and dragged a shot past Hawks goalkeeper Teresa Mathews at the near post for SU’s first goal.  

When junior forward Kelsey Millman penetrated the MU defense from the right baseline in the 34th minute, it appeared she would try to replicate Geyer’s shot to the lower right corner. Instead, she found senior Susek in front of the net for SU’s second score. ‘The way we were able to attack today was to get behind them and get back up,’ head coach Ange Bradley said. ‘So that’s what was presented to us today, or what we actually created as an attack. We have to have a variety of ways to score. We can’t just rely on coming in off the baseline.’The Orange struggled to put the ball in the back of the net from any other spot on the field.

Unable to work the ball up the middle, Syracuse fell back on the baseline drive time and time again. Penalty corners were just as ineffective, as the team converted one of its 15 chances.Senior midfielder Nicole Nelson, who scored the fourth goal, was able to capitalize on a penalty corner. Nelson followed misses from junior back Amy Kee and Susek, lifting the ball over the sprawled-out Mathews, who was unable to make her third save in a matter of seconds.’We just have to get the stops, the push-outs, the strikes quicker,’ Bradley said of her team’s corner execution. ‘Right now it’s just too slow, and we have to improve our rebounding and deflecting lines.’Kee credited the lack of scoring to a lack of focus rather than rust. Throughout the game, Syracuse players would get open shots in the scoring circle and clank them off the side of the stick. Lead passes to players upfield were sloppy and pace wasn’t judged well.

Though it was not the Orange’s best performance, it was more than enough to earn the victory against an inferior opponent. But with No. 2 North Carolina next up on the team’s schedule, Kee knows Syracuse can’t afford a repeat performance. It must convert more of its chances into goals. ‘Obviously, it’s good to win,’ Kee said. ‘That was a positive. We identified a lot of areas that we need to improve on, and we’re definitely going to take a lot of weaknesses away from what we did in the game today, and we’re going to improve on them.

‘And obviously we had a lot of shots, so we need to practice on finishing a bit more.’

sebail01@syr.edu

Published on August 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1