Michelle Tumolo participated in pregame warm-ups, suggesting that head coach Gary Gait might send out the senior captain with a torn left ACL to help send Syracuse back to the final four.

She was fully dressed in uniform with a knee brace and the eye black that always covers most of her face on game day.

But Tumolo wasn’t needed as the rest of the Orange’s attack carried SU to victory.

All season long, especially in Tumolo’s absence, Syracuse was powered by the offensive prowess of first-team All-Americans Kayla Treanor and Alyssa Murray, and that continued Saturday afternoon. The duo combined for seven points and led the No. 4-seed Orange (18-3) to a 13-9 win over No. 5-seed Florida (18-3) in front of 975 at the Carrier Dome. With its defeat of the Gators, Syracuse advances to the final four for the fourth time in Gait’s six years as SU head coach.

“The bottom line is we knew it was going to be a tough game,” Gait said. “We looked at this game as an opportunity to demonstrate how much we’ve grown and how far we’ve come since the beginning of the year and I think from top to bottom, again, our players gave an incredible effort.”

The Orange will travel to Villanova next weekend to face top-seeded Maryland for a spot in the national title game.

Treanor set the tone for the Orange with a goal in the opening two minutes of the game to put Syracuse ahead, but it was not an easy first half. She didn’t record a point for the remainder of the period.

After the Orange went up 2-0, the Gators countered with three unanswered goals to take their first – and only – lead of the contest, feeding the lively Gator faithful. Meanwhile, the quick footwork of Florida’s Emily Dohony matched Treanor’s, and the UF defender repeatedly denied the SU attack any progress in dodging.

But it didn’t matter.

“They have threats from all angles,” Dohony said. “They’re very hard to stop.”

Murray silenced the Florida fans, spinning through a double team to find an open Kelly Cross to knot the score at 3-3 before firing a low free-position shot past Mikey Meagher.

UF’s Kitty Cullen scored to tie the score at 4 going into halftime. But Treanor began the second half like she started the first.

Less than a minute out of the break, Treanor dodged across the middle and rifled a shot over Meagher to put the Orange in front for good. She capped off her hat trick two minutes later by beating defender Kayla Stolins to the right and burying her third goal.

“And I know she’s going to do her best to get the best shot or opportunity,” Murray said of Treanor, “ … I think she brings it every game.”

After a score by UF’s Nora Barry at the 25:48 mark, Syracuse strung together a 5-1 run. Devon Collins scored twice in the 10-minute stretch – one goal after receiving a jump pass from Treanor – and Murray converted another free-position opportunity.

The Orange had jumped ahead 11-6 with fewer than 10 minutes remaining.

“At halftime, we talked about getting quality shots, getting in front of the net,” Gait said,” and throwing a fake, throwing a hitch, and putting the ball away.”

The Orange didn’t need Tumolo for her goal-scoring abilities, but her pregame warm-ups weren’t wasted.

For the last minute of the game, Tumolo took the field, caught two passes and passed them along. Tumolo – who has yet to have her torn ACL surgically repaired – wasn’t going to see any meaningful playing time, but she received one last chance to play on the Carrier Dome turf.

She then joined her teammates in a midfield celebration, to chants of “Villa-nova” – the site of this year’s final four – from the Orange faithful.

“She wanted an opportunity to say goodbye to the Carrier Dome crowd here,” Gait said. “And the game worked out in that players worked hard to give her that opportunity.

“ … They wanted her to step on the field and finish her career here. It didn’t finish a month ago, and it’s not over yet, so that was a nice message for the team to deliver.”

Published on May 18, 2013 at 7:59 pm

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