Coming into Friday, Missy Grosman played in 39 games, attempted 21 shots and netted three goals.

But Friday, the Syracuse field hockey senior took advantage of a unique opportunity.

Grosman, a defender, redirected a corner past Cardinal goalkeeper Emily Zander as Syracuse blanked Stanford, 3-0, in the Orangewomen’s season opener. The following day, New Hampshire downed SU, 2-1, in overtime, snapping the Orangewomen’s home winning streak that dated to Oct. 22, 2000.

“After the fourth corner, coach (Kathleen Parker) saw that they weren’t covering the left side,” Grosman said. “She gave me the green light to take it.”

The same may not have been the case last year. Grosman is a key component to a new defensive system that Syracuse developed in the offseason.

The system forces midfielders and forwards to take a more active role on defense, allowing defenders like Grossman to drop back.

“We’re trying to press more,” Parker said. “That means the forwards have to work harder defensively, and they’re not typically known to play defense.”

The new strategy seemed to tire Syracuse. Stanford beat SU to loose balls, clogged the passing lanes and controlled the flow of the game for the first 15 minutes.

That led to Stanford’s first scoring opportunity when Amanda Billmyer intercepted a pass and aimed at the net behind goaltender Audrey Latsko with 14:14 left in the first half.

Stretching to her right, Latsko — who recorded her 13th career shutout — kicked the ball away for one of her four saves.

After seeing her team on its heels, Parker made several substitutions.

“They were doing a lot of running,” Parker said. “I know that I have to keep fresher legs on the field.”

The moves worked.

“We started beating them to the ball,” Grosman said. “We made some big plays, and we took some of their momentum away. The defense allowed the forwards to mark up higher, and then we just had to mark up better at the (25-yard line).”

Syracuse used that approach to control the ball for a four-minute stretch of the second half that resulted in SU’s second score.

Brittany Carriero whipped a shot at Zander that bounced off the goalie’s blocker. Two other sticks touched the ball before Jackie Sheaffer slammed the ball in to finish a sloppy sequence of play.

“It was a spur of the moment play,” Sheaffer said. “The opportunity was there, and I just put it in.”

Stanford called timeout immediately after the play, but Syracuse continued to control the play.

With less than eight minutes left, SU converted a direct corner as Kristin Aronowicz converted off feeds from Sheaffer and Ann-Marie Guglieri, who recorded two assists in the game.

Published on September 8, 2002 at 12:00 pm