When Syracuse faced Virginia, Devon Collins and Kalya Treanor combined for nine goals while the Orange cruised to an 18-14 win.

Syracuse dominated the Cavaliers — who started the season 1-3 — for most of that game, but SU head coach Gary Gait isn’t taking too much stock in the past heading into the weekend.

“Certainly you can watch that film, but you’ve got to rely on recent film,” Gait said on an NCAA tournament teleconference Monday afternoon. “They’ve made a lot of changes. I think it’s time to reevaluate, focus, do a good scouting report on the team and see where they’re at now.”

No. 2-seed Syracuse (20-2, 6-1 Atlantic Coast) will most likely face a much better team than it did on Feb. 23 when it squares off with No. 6-seed Virginia (12-8, 3-4) in the NCAA tournament semifinals.

Since starting out 4-6, Virginia has won eight of its past 10 games to earn a spot in the final four against SU, which will be played at 5 p.m. in Towson, Md., on Friday.

“Our backs were against the wall,” Virginia head coach Julie Myers said on the teleconference. “And I think it was a matter of, were we going to respond or not.”

Myers said she shifted around her starting lineup, moving some players from midfield to defense and visa versa. She also said her team and coaches became more invested in the program as the year wore on.

And now it’s all paying off.

When Syracuse scored 18 goals on UVA goalie Liz Colagan, she was allowing 12.75 per game. Now her 195 saves rank first in the ACC and she’s allowing just 9.75 per contest.

“She’s an outstanding goalie,” Gait said, “and if you’re under pressure and you’re not having time to do a fake or take a good look at the net, it’s going to be tough.

“She’s gonna make a lot of saves.”

This season, playing top teams hasn’t been too challenging for the Orange. It’s had 11 games against top-10 teams, and won nine of them.

Virginia’s been the same, as its late-season renaissance has proven it can run with any of the nation’s premier programs.

And it’s also validated the program’s hard work in the last seven years, in which the Cavaliers haven’t appeared in the final four.

“It’s a huge relief a huge monkey off our back to be able to get back into this final four after being out of it for so long,” Myers said.

“It was really nice to see that we came together at the top and our players really followed us and believed.”

Published on May 19, 2014 at 4:29 pm

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