Field Hockey Falls to No. 3 Virginia 2-1 at Home

By Jonah Karp

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse field hockey team was back at home, coming off its biggest win of the season, defeating No. 2 Duke down in Durham, North Carolina. The No. 7 Orange looked to transfer that momentum to Saturday’s matchup against No. 3 Virginia, the final ACC regular season contest for SU.

The first half was nothing short of a defensive chess match for 35 minutes. Laura Hurff found the back of the net with about two minutes left in the first. However the score was called back after a video referral. The score remained tied at zero heading into halftime.

In the second half, the offenses came alive. Roos Weers tallied her fourth goal of the season off a penalty corner with five minutes gone by after the break.

“It was a corner,” the junior said, “The ball came out to the top, I dragged it low. We practiced on that during the week.”

The score remained 1-0 in favor of the Orange for fifteen minutes. Cavaliers’ midfielder Pien Dicke scored the equalizer for her nineteenth goal of the season.

With the score tied 1-1, Virginia had something brewing. Tara Vittese scored her twenty-second goal of the year to give the Cavaliers the upper hand, 2-1, with less than nine minutes left in the game.

Entering the homestretch, Virginia seemed to be in the driver’s seat. But with the clock winding down, Syracuse got the break it needed. The Orange was rewarded a penalty corner as time expired for one final opportunity to push the game to an overtime period.

Prior to the insertion, a delay of game penalty was called on Syracuse. The rule on the field was that when that penalty is called, the captain is removed from the field. Being the captain, Roos Weers took herself off the field, though not without exchanging words with the officials.

Head coach Ange Bradley weighed in on her assessment of the role the officials played in the loss.

“I don’t care about umpires, I mean, you can’t control them,” Bradley said smiling. “Whatever their performance is, it’s not for me to judge. My job is to perform to be able to get my kids to win, and I didn’t do my job today.”

The Orange falls to 10-4 on the season with an ACC record of 2-4. Virginia improves to 12-2 on the year, 4-1 in conference play.

Lies Lagerweij was critical of her team’s performance and cited the offense as the chief concern moving forward.

“If you play really well but you lose every game, obviously, that’s not what you want,” the senior said. “How do we get to be more effective and score more goals is the big question for us.”

Syracuse returns home tomorrow to host Drexel at 1 pm.