Last year, Notre Dame ended Syracuse’s season in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament with a crushing 1-0 loss.

The Orange played the then-No. 24 Fighting Irish even until the 78th minute, when Cari Roccaro finished a Mandy Laddish chip for what proved to be the game winner.

On Thursday, SU has a chance for revenge.

“Against Notre Dame, we’re out to win,” senior defender Kayla Afonso said.

The loss is still fresh in the minds of the veterans on the team as the Orange (4-4, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) prepares to take on No. 7 Notre Dame (6-1, 2-0) at 7 p.m. on Thursday in South Bend, Ind. Players and coaches agree there’s more to the game than just the pressure that comes along with playing a Top 10 nationally ranked team. It’s also a chance for SU to earn its first ACC win, as well as bounce back from two tough road losses before Syracuse returns to SU Soccer Stadium for a game with Duke (4-3-1, 1-1-0) on Sunday at noon.

“There’s definitely some extra motivation, but we just want our first victory in the ACC,” senior midfielder Rachel Blum said.

The Orange lost 3-0 to then-No. 2 Virginia on Thursday and again 3-0 to Virginia Tech on Sunday. But senior goalkeeper Brittany Anghel thinks the defeats will help the team in the long run.

“Our last road trip is the kind of the learning curve you have to go through playing in the ACC,” Anghel said. “Virginia was a really tough game.”

Added head coach Phil Wheddon: “Virginia was the best team I’ve ever seen in college soccer. They created less scoring chances, but they take advantage of them and put you away on defense.”

For Syracuse, coming off a good battle against a ranked Virginia team, expectations were high going into the game against the less imposing Hokies. But again Syracuse fell short and the disappointment could be heard in the player’s voices as they tried to move their focus onto Notre Dame.

But Wheddon emphasized the team’s sole goal remains the same.

“We want our first victory in the ACC,” Wheddon said. “There’s definitely some extra motivation against Notre Dame, but we’re just going out there to win.”

Added to that motivation is the fact that Notre Dame just beat No. 1 North Carolina 1-0 in its last outing. But Syracuse isn’t letting all the buzz surrounding Notre Dame get to it.

“We just need to play our game, nice and simple, and move the ball around like we can.” Wheddon said “Both teams have gotten better since last year. We know the ins and outs of our style of play and theirs.”

Published on September 19, 2013 at 12:39 am

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman