Kayla Treanor only took one shot and it resulted in a point-blank save by Loyola (Maryland) goalie Molly Wolf. Syracuse’s Tewaaraton finalist was left jumping in place in front of the crease.

She had no assists and was tagged with two turnovers while being face guarded by Loyola defenders Bailey Mathis and Morgan Holleran.

“(Loyola) did a heck of a job with the shut off,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “Then we get the ball and it was a double, triple team on Kayla Treanor so they definitely weren’t going to let her score.”

Still, SU’s offense ran through Treanor.

Though Loyola managed to keep Treanor off the scoreboard, the Orange’s leading goal scorer was able to draw the attention of the defense and set picks, which created space for her teammates and led to several goals. Her contributions were enough to help No. 4-seeded Syracuse (16-7, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) advance to its fourth straight final four with a 10-7 victory over the Greyhounds (17-5, 8-0 Patriot) in the Carrier Dome in front of 636 fans.

The Orange will take on the winner of Sunday’s game between No. 1 seed Maryland and No. 8 seed Northwestern.

“She was the leader out there still,” Gait said. “She was running (the offense), dictating it and she was still the one getting kids opportunities to score.

“She may not have been on the stat sheet for goals and assists, but certainly for making plays and scoring goals she was a huge part of it.”

After Treanor was shut down on SU’s first possession, the Orange came back and midfielder Loren Ziegler and Treanor were left alone on the left side of the field. Ziegler cut toward the net and Treanor set a screen on Ziegler’s defender, allowing Ziegler enough space to shoot top left and beat Wolf for Syracuse’s first goal.

While being closely guarded on SU’s offensive possessions Treanor walked between the 8- and 12-meter arcs getting in the way of her teammates’ defenders. Occasionally, Gait would yell, “Treanor, be a pick” from the sideline.

Loyola’s fans were screaming for illegal screens on nearly every possession, but the calls never came.

The Greyhounds talked about stepping around the screens Treanor was setting and covering the shooter, Mathis said, but Loyola never seemed to find a solution.

“They played within the rules that weren’t called and more power to them if they’re going to get away with those,” Loyola head coach Jen Adams said.

When Adams was asked if she thought illegal screens should’ve been called, Wolf nodded her head beside her head coach.

Syracuse got the ball back with 1:40 left in the half and held it until less than 20 seconds remained, but SU attack Riley Donahue tried to force a pass to Treanor in front of the net that was intercepted by Wolf. Loyola went the other way and tied the game at four goals apiece with one second left in the half.

SU couldn’t get Treanor the ball, so just over a minute into the second half, she was back to setting screens. She got in the way of Syracuse midfielder Taylor Gait’s defender and Taylor Gait pocketed a shot in the net before wrapping Treanor up with a hug.

“There was a lot of pressure on ball so I was really focused on that,” Treanor said. “(My teammates) were getting better looks than me so we just set them up.”

When Loyola beat SU two weeks ago, Treanor scored two goals in 31 seconds to single-handedly bring the Orange back in the game. She never found the back of the net this time, but did enough to help SU advance in the NCAA tournament and end the Greyhounds’ 16-game winning streak.

“We just needed to step up and bury our shots and that’s what we did,” SU attack Halle Majorana said. “But none of that would have happened if we weren’t getting picks from Treanor.”

Published on May 16, 2015 at 5:43 pm

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