COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Taylor Poplawski cut toward the cage and rifled a shot into the back of the net. The Syracuse bench erupted with cheers and the players on the field rushed together.

But as Syracuse celebrated, a referee stood just a few feet away, waving her hands over her head and blowing her whistle.

Poplawski thought she had just tied the game at 8-8 with over 20 minutes to play in the second half, but the goal was called off because of an illegal stick.

“When they called it off — the whistle — my heart sunk,” Poplawski said. “It just, it sucks.”

The Orange had only scored three goals in the first half. But coming out of the break, SU attack Kayla Treanor scored three-straight goals to lead SU on a 4-1 run that brought the team back into the game.

After Poplawski’s goal was waved off, though, the Orange couldn’t find the back of the net again. No. 1 Maryland (5-0) instead seized the momentum that SU just had and defeated the No. 5 Orange (5-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast), 10-7, in front of 1,506 in College Park, Maryland on Saturday afternoon.

“We played young, but we had a lot of heart,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “I like the way Treanor stepped up in the second half to get us back into it.”

In the first half, Syracuse’s players were constantly sent sprinting toward the sideline to save bad passes from going out of bounds and retreating back on defense after a turnover in the offensive zone. After the first 30 minutes, the Terrapins led, 7-3.

“Inopportune turnovers, chances to take over the game and we turn the ball over,” Gait said. “Chances to make a run and you turn the ball over.”

When the team walked back onto the field to start the second half, Gait had shed his blue Syracuse jacket. His squad looked different, too.

Just a minute and half in, Treanor scored from about 8 meters away. Less than a minute later, it was Treanor again.

She backed down her defender with her right shoulder toward the goal and shot behind her back with her left hand.

“We were down so we needed to push the ball and get some goals on the board,” Treanor said. “… I knew my backside was open so I just tried to shoot it.”

The players on SU’s sideline bowed in unison. Even Gait cracked a small smile.

But when Poplawski’s goal was called off, the momentum that Syracuse was carrying vanished. Maryland’s Taylor Cummings immediately went the other way and scored.

On SU’s next possession, Treanor spun and dodged, but couldn’t get an open shot from the right side of the net.

She tried to make another move, but a second Maryland defender ran over and collided with Treanor, sending her to the turf and her stick flying.

As Treanor slowly got up, her knees bloodied, Cummings scored again.

Maryland head coach Cathy Reese ran down the sideline holding two celebratory clenched fists in the air. Gait still stood pointing to where Treanor had been laying on the ground.

Syracuse was frustrated. Minutes earlier the Orange thought it tied the game, but now was down, 10-7. With five minutes left, Gait earned a yellow card for arguing with the referee.

“I was just asking about the ratio of calls for one team versus the other and that was it,” Gait said.

For the rest of the game, Maryland ran out the clock.

Syracuse defender Caroline Grosso walked away from the Syracuse bench and, with her hands on her hips, began kicking the snow behind the Syracuse bench. With 21 seconds still on the clock, the rest of the players on SU’s sideline started packing up their gear.

“Obviously we don’t feel too good because we lost, but we know what we have to do in order to win,” Poplawski said. “If we see Maryland again, they’ve definitely got one thing coming to them.”

Published on March 7, 2015 at 7:18 pm

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