SU Takes Down James Madison 2-1 in Overtime Thriller

By: Skyler Wilkes | @swilkes04

CitrusTV Field Hockey Beat Reporter 

CONSHOHOCKEN, P.A. – In their first meeting since 1995, 13th ranked Syracuse and No. 18 James Madison provided an absolute nail-biter. 

The opening quarter was rather sloppy and neither team could generate much offense. JMU didn’t even record a shot until 10 minutes into the second period. When an attempt was made, there was a penalty called. As a result, Eveline Zwager was awarded a free stroke, which she converted. 

Although the Dukes had the lead at halftime, they were outshot 4-3 and the ‘Cuse had a 2-0 short corner advantage. 

Things really started to pick up coming out of the break. Syracuse had three corners in a row, two of which led to shots. With under a minute left in the period, SU set up for another corner. After taking the first few tries, Eefke van den Nieuwenhof passed the ball to Sabine van den Eijnden who knocked it in. 

Everything was relatively calm in the fourth quarter until the final five minutes. The Orange had four straight penalty corners, producing four shots. However, two were blocked and the others were saved by Brandelynn Heinbaugh. Those were just a third of the junior’s six stops today. 

On the other end, the Dukes got three corners and four shots with under 40 seconds left. One went wide, two were rejected by SU backers and Brooke Borzymowki recorded her fourth save of the game. 

With the score knotted up at one, another period was in store. The ‘Cuse were winless in its previous five overtime matches and hadn’t played in one since September 10 of last year. 

Six minutes into the final frame, Joy Haarman took a shot on net that was rejected by Heinbaugh. Then, the ball bounced away and Quirine Comans was there to tap in the rebound. The midfielder’s 10th goal of the season won it all for the Orange. 

Overall, SU outshot JMU 16-13 with eight landing on target compared to five. The ‘Cuse also had an 11-5 advantage in corners, despite only capitalizing once.  

Syracuse won its third contest in a row and improved to 10-2. SU is back at home for a weekday meeting with Stanford at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.