As Taylor Gait cleared the ball with about 2:30 left in Syracuse’s game against Northwestern, Wildcats attack Kara Mupo swung her stick, just missing Gait’s head.

The missed check was enough to draw a yellow card, which gave the Orange an extra player and a chance to tie the game. SU worked the ball around until Kelly Cross promptly sent a high shot at goalie Bridget Bianco, who saved it.

“We didn’t finish our shots,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “So when we had opportunities to make plays, we didn’t make one on the offensive end.”

The save ended the Orange’s last attempt at a comeback and No. 5 SU (8-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) lost 11-10 to No. 6 NU (5-2) in Evanston, Illinois on Sunday. The Orange squandered its last chances to tie the game. Mupo, who scored five goals, led NU past the Orange in the first half and provided an answer to SU’s threats.

“We couldn’t quite get to that tie situation and battle back. We kept making our runs and getting a couple goals,” Gait said. “We just need to try and continue to make shots and get back to that next level. We just didn’t get that done today.”

After playing to a 3-3 tie in the game’s first 10 minutes, NU scored three goals in three minutes to temporarily pull away from the Orange. With the score 6-3, SU recovered with two goals in a little more than a minute.

But Mupo found holes in the Orange’s defense and rebuffed SU’s comeback twice. Finding herself all alone against SU goalie Kelsey Richardson with 12 minutes and two minutes left in the first half, Mupo ripped two goals past Richardson, the latter of which gave Northwestern its 8-6 halftime lead.

In the second half, the teams traded goals until Cross cut NU’s lead to 11-10 with 9:50 left. But after an SU timeout, attack Kailah Kempney threw the ball out of bounds on the ensuing restart.

“We scrapped, we gave ourselves a chance,” Gait said. “We had at least three chances to tie the game and we didn’t get it done.”

With 5:24 left in the game, Cross intercepted an NU pass and SU successfully cleared the ball. As Syracuse passed the ball around, the Wildcats were called for a three-second violation. Riley Donahue took the Orange’s free position and fired it high. Bianco cleanly saved it and cleared the ball.

The score held through NU’s final game of keep-away.

“It was a tough game,” Gait said. “… We just came up short at the end.”

Published on March 22, 2015 at 5:19 pm

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