One-hundred minutes of play and a regular round of five penalty strokes wasn’t enough to decide a winner. Then Syracuse midfielder Alyssa Manley fired and scored on a sudden-death penalty stroke to send the Orange to the NCAA championship game.

No. 4 Syracuse (18-5, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) beat North Carolina (19-4, 4-2 ACC) in a penalty shootout after the teams played to a 2-2 tie in regulation and two overtime periods on Friday. SU will now play for its first-ever NCAA national championship against  No. 3 Connecticut (19-2, 5-0 Big East) at 1 p.m. on Sunday. It was also be an opportunity for the SU field hockey team to capture the first-ever women’s national championship in school history. 

The Orange held UNC to no shots for nearly 16 minutes to start the match. The Tar Heels however got on the board with their first shot as forward Emma Bozek tipped the ball off her stick past SU goalie Jess Jecko on a penalty-corner shot.

Syracuse was two minutes away from getting a shutout in the first half until Emma Russell scored her second goal of the NCAA tournament, and 22nd on the season, on a rebound shot past North Carolina’s Shannon Johnson.

The match remained deadlocked in a 1-1 tie until Manley fed a pass to freshman Lieke Visser, who delivered her second goal of the tournament in the 47th minute of the game.

North Carolina pulled their goalie with 10 minutes remaining to give them a one-man advantage on the attack.

SU couldn’t convert on an empty net and a brief defensive lapse allowed midfielder Emily Wold to flick a shot from the top of the circle past the reach of Jecko.

The 2-2 tie would remain so through the end of the second half of regulation, and both 15-minute overtime periods that followed. The national semifinal was to be decided in a five-round penalty stroke-off.

SU held a 3-2 advantage in strokes, with Russell looking to seal the victory with a goal. She couldn’t convert, allowing North Carolina to tie the stroke-off on their last shot.

The sudden-death victory round of strokes then took effect, with Jecko making a save on the Tar Heels’ first shot to set the stage for Manley, who sent a shot past Johnson and hysteric celebration ensued.

Published on November 21, 2014 at 9:08 pm