Syracuse Goes Out On Top On Senior Night

By Jaron May

CitrusTV Women’s Lacrosse Beat Reporter

Nine players, 57 wins, three NCAA Tournament appearances, 468 combined points, and one senior class. It is a heck of a resume for the Syracuse Women’s Lacrosse Class of 2019. They have represented the blue and orange with pride and dominated their opponents for four years now. Playing their last regular season game in the Carrier Dome, the senior class would have it no other way than how Tuesday’s game went down.

With the bad loss to North Carolina still in its head and Senior Night festivities in hand, Syracuse (14-3, 5-2 ACC) put together a strong come-from-behind win over Cornell (8-5, 4-1 IVY) with a final score of 16-13.

Before the first draw occurred, SU honored its nine seniors. Nicole Levy, Mary Rahal, Alexa Radziewicz, Morgan Alexander, Julie Cross, Natalie Wallon, Cara Quimby, Emily Resnick, and Bri Stahrr were all recognized.

“Great opportunity to honor all of the players that have given so much to the program and continue to lead this team,” said head coach Gary Gait. “They have been a great example of how we need to work and how we need to be to have success.”

Fortunately for Gait and SU lacrosse, the fact that Tuesday was all nine seniors’ last regular season game is only half true. Only four of the seniors played their final game in the Dome, but the other five will still be eligible to play again next season due to redshirting.

“The good and the bad of it is, we got a lot of seniors coming back,” said Gait. “We bring back a very veteran team next year with a bunch of the seniors returning for their redshirt years.”

The Orange were all smiles during the Senior Night happenings. However, once the first whistle blew, the Big Red wiped those smiles off their faces quickly. Unbecoming of Syracuse, it did not get on the board first. Instead it was Cornell who opened the game with four straight goals from a pair of Big Red players.

Ellie Walsh started the on slot, scoring back to back goals within 18 seconds of each other. Then her high school teammate and sophomore counterpart, Olivia Jensen, took over. She slipped two past Goldstock in a two-minute span.

It was déjà vufor the Orange who went down early against North Carolina just a few days prior. They weren’t able to climb out of the hole against the Tar Heels, so Cornell’s hot start worried SU.

“We saw that nervousness play out in the beginning of the first half when the first three shots hit the pipe,” said Gait. “It’s something you need to work through and focus on playing the game and finishing.”

That is exactly what the Orange did. Syracuse finally got on the board ten minutes into the first half from a Megan Carney goal and from there it was anyone’s game. Syracuse and Cornell traded blows throughout the first half and all of the way through the second.

Jensen was the go-to player for the Big Red. After her quick two in the opening minutes, she went on to add another three goals and account for nearly a third of Cornell’s total points.

As for the Orange, it was the definition of a team effort. Four SU players tallied a hat trick including Morgan Alexander. After going through three major leg injuries, the senior shined on her Senior Night.

“It means a lot because I have gone through a lot,” said Alexander. “I tend to downplay what happened to me… so to go out there today and get the opportunity to play a lot, I took advantage of it to the best I could.”

Meaghan Tyrrell, Emily Hawryschuk, and Sam Swart also finished with hat tricks on Tuesday. Hawryschuk not only racked up three goals, but she had a hat trick in assists as well.

“[Emily] has such an incredible drive to be successful,” said Gait. “She goes as hard as anybody out on the field. She gets opportunities and she puts the ball in the net, and she’s been doing it all year.”

After going back and forth and being down by one midway through the second half, the Orange flipped the switch and scored four straight to seal the final win of the season. Now Syracuse has a week to prepare before the ACC Tournament starts on April 24th.

jmay02@syr.edu| @jaron_may