Women's Lacrosse

Loren Ziegler scores 5 goals in final regular season home game, leads SU to win over Albany

With Syracuse down a goal and 30 seconds left in the first half, midfielder Loren Ziegler cut from left to right across the field with the ball, fell and fired a shot past Albany goalie Courtney Henderson.

SU head coach Gary Gait greeted Ziegler with a smile and a fist bump, and Mallory Vehar said, “That was sick,” to her on the sideline. The goal was Ziegler’s fourth of the game and helped SU go into the locker room with the game tied.

The rest of the No. 9 SU (11-6, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) offense converted on just three of its 11 first-half shots, but Ziegler stepped up. She scored four first-half goals, more than she had scored in her first three years at SU. The senior’s five tallies led the Orange to its 14-12 win over No. 19 Albany (11-3, 4-1 America East) on Senior Day in the Carrier Dome. Ziegler was one of just three Orange players to score in the first half.

“Nothing like a senior stepping up on Senior Day like Loren Ziegler,” Gait said. “Five goals, a career high. Not a better day to do it.”

Ziegler kicked off the scoring for the Orange. After SU goalie Kelsey Richardson made a save on a high shot, the Orange ran the length of the field. Attack Halle Majorana sent a pass from the left side of the Albany crease and attack Kayla Treanor couldn’t corral the pass on the right side. Instead she picked up the loose ball as it rolled away and fired it to Ziegler, who buried a shot from the front of the crease.



When she was one-on-one with defenders, she used a jab step to draw defenders one way before she moved the other way. The move helped her get to the net. In the second half, she beat her defender and a foul sent her to the 8-meter arc for a free position.

She buried the ensuing shot to give SU a 12-8 lead and, as she ran off the field, fist bumped associate head coach Regy Thorpe, and hugged teammate Ella Thorpe.

Albany head coach John Battaglino said that the Great Danes played Ziegler well, and Albany players were positioned correctly, but Ziegler just managed to get her stick free from checks.

“I don’t know if she missed, did she?” Battaglino said. “…You tip your hat to her.”

Against Albany, Ziegler scored on both her free-position shots and five of her seven shots. As a team, the Orange has struggled to do both lately. SU had not converted above 45 percent of its shots in its last three games and scored on just seven of its 25 free-position shots. Ziegler’s efficient performance helped SU make half of its shots and more than half of its free positions.

“I think it was all mental really,” Ziegler said. “I think just knowing that it’s Senior Day, it’s your last guaranteed home game in the Dome, you just gotta dig deep and just go hard.”

Staff Writer Jon Mettus, [email protected], contributed reporting to this story.





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