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WLAX : Syracuse breezes past Cornell for 10th straight victory

Another ranked opponent, another dominant first half for Syracuse.

The Orange sprinted out to a 10-3 lead over Cornell behind a balanced and efficient scoring effort.

‘We came out prepared, ready to play and jumped on them,’ SU head coach Gary Gait said in a phone interview.

No. 2 Syracuse (11-2, 4-0 Big East) cruised to a 16-8 victory over the No. 13 Big Red (8-4, 3-2 Ivy League) in Ithaca on Tuesday. The Orange earned its 10th consecutive win and knocked off its third straight ranked opponent to continue to cement its place among the elite teams in the country.

Sophomore Alyssa Murray led the way with seven points, scoring a game-high four goals to go with three assists. Junior Katie Webster and freshman Kailah Kempney chipped in with three goals apiece.



‘(Murray) was just really focused,’ Gait said. ‘… She was particularly focused tonight and played very well. She’s very confident in her game.’

Seven different Syracuse players scored on a 7-0 run to put the Orange ahead 9-1 with 7:32 remaining in the opening half.

Freshman Gabby Jaquith gave SU a 3-1 lead 13:21 into regulation, scoring off a feed from Webster. SU followed with a streak of five goals, each separated by no more than 80 seconds.

And Devon Collins provided the exclamation point, scoring her 23rd goal of the season with 7:38 left in the half to give SU its eight-goal advantage.

‘Seven unanswered goals from seven different players – that helps us as a team,’ Gait said. ‘That helps build our depth and gives us more strength as we head toward playoff time.’

In addition to the stellar offensive performance, the Orange received quality outings from both its goaltenders.

Sophomore Alyssa Costantino stopped 4-of-7 Cornell shots in the first half, while freshman Kelsey Richardson turned away 9-of-15 in the second.

The two combined to prevent the Big Red from scoring on all four of its free-position opportunities, helping bail out an Orange team that committed nine second-half turnovers.

‘We’ve got two goalies above 50 percent,’ Gait said. ‘There are only a handful of goalies who have that save percentage, and we’re happy that we have two.’

Though the Orange slipped a bit in the second half, something Gait called ‘human nature,’ it tacked on another quality win to its already impressive resume.

But to stay on its current hot streak, the Orange will need to continue to come into games with high intensity and rely on its balanced scoring attack.

‘We work hard on our pregame prep to get ready to play,’ Gait said. ‘It’s certainly a focus point this year for us as a coaching staff, and I think all year we’ve had very good first halves.’

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