Impactful Players and ACC Schedule Preview
By Adam Avin
Citrus TV WLAX Beat Reporter
Its three games into the season, the Orange are undefeated, and ranked second in the country. Syracuse Women’s Lacrosse beat Binghamton 17-10, in its first game against a non-top 5 opponent. They were up big 17-4 with about 10 minutes in the final quarter, and Head Coach Kayla Treanor was so pleased with her team’s play that she decided to give the starters a rest. That decision ultimately let the Bearcats go on a run and stay in the game, but the Cuse pulled through.
The Syracuse attack has been doing what everyone expected them to do at full strength. Meaghan Tyrrell, the frontrunner for pretty much every pre-season award, has already set new career-highs in both assists and points. Her star partner-in-crime, Megan Carney, is making people remember what she can do on the field after being in-and-out with injuries last year. Carney has scored at least 4 goals and led the team in scoring in each of the first three-games. Her presence on the field has been very noticeable and the connection between Meg and Meag has looked the best its ever been.
While Tyrrell and Carney led the pack, a season-high 11 players got the ball in the back of the net against Binghamton. Natalie Smith (2) and Jenny Markey (1) both scored their first goals of the year. Here are the rest of the players who got their names in the Goals column: Emma Tyrrell (2), Savannah Sweitzer (2), Olivia Adamson (1), Tessa Queri (1), Sierra Cockerille (1), Emma Ward (1), and Maddy Baxter (1).
There is a very important player however, who may not be scoring goals, but she is stopping the other teams from scoring. And that’s Delaney Sweitzer. There was uncertainty coming into the year on who would start in goal, but three games in and it’s very clear who the undisputed starting goalie is. Sweitzer set her career-high in saves week one against No.3 (No.4) Northwestern, then decided to do it again the following week against No.6 (No.2) Maryland. If she wasn’t pulled to rest early in the fourth quarter, it’s very possible she could’ve re-set her career-high for the third week in a row. Sweitzer currently leads the ACC in saves and is top-20 in the country.
‘Cuse gets its first test against an ACC opponent in Pittsburgh (2-1), tomorrow February 25th at Noon. The Panthers are a pretty new foe for the Orange, tomorrow’s contest will be just the second time in program history where the two will face off. The first time came last year, where Syracuse dominated the inaugural game with an 18-6 victory. Meaghan Tyrrell had 6 goals, 2 assists in that one, something which we can only expect would look the same this time around.
It’s also the first time that Syracuse will go on the road this year. The team will need these conference road games/challenges to prepare for a tough intra-conference stretch later in the year, which include No.10 Duke and No.12 Virginia, and it will end the season with back-to-back games against No.1 North Carolina and No.4 Boston College.
Game time against Pitt tomorrow is at 12 p.m./Noon. Follow along on twitter @_adamavin for all the live updates on this away contest and see if the Orange go 4-0 to start the year.
