The Syracuse field hockey team opened its 2003 season Sunday. But it still hasn’t scored a goal.

The Orangewomen were shut out 1-0 in their loss at Kent State in Dix Stadium.

‘I am very pleased with our effort,’ Syracuse head coach Kathleen Parker said. ‘The only thing we didn’t do was put the ball in the cage.’

Parker said Syracuse had several legitimate scoring opportunities during the game, but couldn’t capitalize on them. Its best chance came 20 seconds into the game when Ann-Marie Guglieri dove to deflect a pass towards the cage, but missed by inches.

Parker said even though the Orangewomen failed to score, their offense performed better together than they did at this time last season. She said the front line fired many shots but couldn’t get them on goal as frequently as she would have liked.

Kent State senior goalkeeper Jessica Creeden stopped each of Syracuse’s 13 shots. Only six really challenged Creeden.

Other than the offensive futility, Parker said she was pleased with all the other aspects of her team’s season debut. Syracuse (0-1) used a zone defense for the first time and Parker was pleased with the results. The Golden Flashes (1-1) fired 16 shots but five were blocked by the Syracuse defense and only six reached the goal.

‘I am very pleased with our defensive effort,’ Parker said. ‘It’s always tough to play your first game, and we showed that we were well-prepared. We didn’t show any first-game jitters.’

In her first start in two years, Betsy Wagner allowed one goal, which pleased Parker.

Early in the game, Wagner showed her trademark aggressive play by coming out from in front of the cage to challenge a Kent State attack. The move impressed Parker, who is counting on Wagner to replace All-American Audrey Latsko.

‘(Wagner’s aggressive play) was a good decision,’ Parker said. ‘It was a good way to get her feet wet as our starting goalkeeper.’

The Golden Flashes scored the lone goal of the game with just under 10 minutes remaining in the second half. Kent State junior Corin Racicot scored her first goal of the season off junior Lauren Grandinetti’s pass for the game winner.

Parker said the goal came off one of the most common attacks in field hockey, a play the Orangewomen run drills against in practice.

‘They made a nice play,’ Parker said. ‘It wasn’t (Wagner’s) fault.’

The win was the 98th of Kent State coach Kerry De Vries’s career, tying her for the school record with Kris Ewing.

The Orangewomen will try to post their first victory of the season this weekend when they play both New Hampshire and Iowa.

‘I came out of the (Kent State) game feeling positive about our play, but we still lost,’ Parker said. ‘And it’s not going to get any easier.’

Published on September 2, 2003 at 12:00 pm