Syracuse Falls in Double Overtime Heartbreaker vs. Virginia, 3-2

By Max Gifford | @GiffMD

“Protect Coyne”

It’s a mindset Syracuse field hockey has lived up to for the better half of two seasons. On Friday, the castle that’s been Coyne came crumbling down. The 10th ranked orange played two overtimes against No. 6 Virginia. However, in the 79th minute Adele Iacobucci ended the longest home win streak in Division-I field hockey in a 3-2 UVA victory. Despite the loss, head coach Lynn Farquhar knows this mentality goes far beyond the result on the scoreboard.

“Protect Coyne” is a mentality, right? So I think they did that,” Farquhar said postgame. “When you say protect coyne, it means something greater than your win-loss record…So win-loss is a piece of the game we play. What’s more important is our actions.”

The Orange fought back after falling behind early. This was propelled by two late game goals from Olivia Bell and Pieke van de Pas. SU was outshot 11-4 by halftime, but the ‘Cuse turned the tables and peppered the Cavaliers 12-3 in the third and fourth periods. 

“[If] you look…our second half is when we really started to dominate,” said Coach Farquhar. 

Two players that made all the difference in this game were goaltenders Brooke Borzymowski and Tyler Kennedy. The two keepers combined for 16 saves on the afternoon, in which both Borzymowski (9) and Tyler Kennedy had season-highs in that category.

The final tally in the column that counted came off a tip of Iacobucci’s stick that sealed the match for Virginia. All the Cavaliers goals were off scrappy rebounds or deflections on the backdoor.

Syracuse falls to 0-2 in ACC play in a weekend that’s far from over for the Orange. SU heads down to Happy Valley, where it’ll showdown against Penn State for the first time in the regular season since 2007 with first push set for noon.