Syracuse had been scoreless for 521 minutes and 41 seconds before finally finding the back of the net Sunday afternoon.

But against the No. 5 team in the country, one goal just wasn’t enough.

Despite scoring for the first time in five games and four weeks, Syracuse (5-10-4, 2-7-1 Atlantic Coast) lost its season finale, 2-1, in overtime to No. 5 North Carolina (12-2-2, 9-0-1) before a crowd of 563 fans at SU Soccer Stadium on Sunday. The Tar Heels scored in the sixth minute of overtime, ending the Orange’s season with despair.

“Obviously we’re disappointed with the loss. I thought that we did enough to come away with at least a tie,” SU head coach Phil Wheddon said. “In fact, we had those chances in the first half that should have been converted and then we come away with the win.”

The game reflected some of the overarching themes of the season as the team once again struggled to create offensively, recording only three shots. The team finished with only one win — a 3-0 win over Boston College on Oct. 4 —in its last eight games.

The Orange approached the UNC game with a different offensive game plan that previous games. Because of UNC’s pressing style of defense, Wheddon said his team knew it wouldn’t have the time or space to play a more possession-based game, the game plan was to play more balls over the top and ahead to attackers because of UNC’s pressing style of defense.

“We had to bypass the midfield and get the ball forward quickly, which I thought we did,” Wheddon said.

Senior forward Alexis Koval thought that the approach worked well, but was still unsatisfied with the team’s performance in the finale.

“We did have a couple more opportunities and we just didn’t finish it,” Koval said. “We still need to work on our final-third (passing), but overall it was just the missed opportunities.”

SU freshman forward Alex Lamontagne had some good opportunities to tie the game for SU in the first period, following the Tar Heels score 16:38 into the game.

Within less than two minutes, two of Lamontagne’s shots went awry. On the first chance in the 23rd minute, she used her speed to separate herself from all of the other players and with two defenders trailing her, she shot from the top of the 18-yard box. But the ball went about 10 feet over the top of the goal.

Soon after, Lamontagne created an opportunity for herself in the box, dribbling around a few defenders. She shot again, but this time the ball went left of the goalpost.

Syracuse only mustered one second-half shot, but it found the elusive back of the net.

The Orange’s Stephanie Skilton was about 10 yards away from the net with two defenders on her, so she threaded a ball diagonally forward to Maya Pitts who was waiting at the top of the 6-yard box. Pitts quickly shot it and the ball snuck past UNC’s Lindsey Harris to even the score in the 72nd minute.

“We took our chances — or we tried to,” Pitts said, referencing the team’s capitalization of their limited opportunities.

With the Orange failing to create offensively after Pitts’ goal, Paige Nielsen’s score in the sixth minute ended the contest.

When asked what he thought about the season as a whole, Wheddon said he was “disappointed,” the same adjective he used to describe the loss.

“If we fought like (we did today) every game and had that intensity every game, it probably would be a different story,” Wheddon said. “But it goes without saying that we just aren’t finishing our opportunities and that’s been our nemesis all season long.”

Published on November 2, 2014 at 5:50 pm

Contact Liam: lpsull01@syr.edu