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Meaghan Tyrrell exploited the Maryland goalie crease to produce five first quarter points. With 3:22 remaining in the quarter, Meaghan had already scored twice from the X, semi-circling the crease to her right, scoring two low-driven shots on each side of the net.

Then, Meaghan got a pass to the right of the goal with a defender in front. She faked middle before juking behind the crease. Two Maryland defenders shuffled to the left where she had scored the last two goals from. Seeing this, Meaghan passed diagonally to Megan Carney, over the goal. Carney was wide open outside the crease, and converted, giving Syracuse a 6-2 lead.

Meaghan said she wasn’t face-guarded by Maryland after the Wildcats did last week. Less emphasis on her opened up more scoring opportunities for the entire Orange offense, who were “able to move the ball where we wanted to,” Meaghan said.

The Orange rallied around Meaghan’s career-high 11 points, securing a second top-five victory in their first two games. No. 4 Syracuse (2-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) never trailed in its 20-11 win over No. 2 Maryland (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten) on Friday. In an 11-point first half, Syracuse used superb ball movement to get to the crease before the Terrapins could adjust. Then, the Orange added some isolation offense, featuring sideways-sprinting scores and turnaround shots from the X. Meanwhile, Syracuse goalie Delaney Sweitzer shined, blocking eight of the Terrapins’ 13 free position shots en route to a career-high 13 saves.

With six goals and five assists, Meaghan tied the Terrapins in points on her own. She also came up just one assist shy of her single-game high, one that she set against Northwestern just six days ago. Meaghan credited the offensive scheme for her success, saying “I can’t really take credit.”

“The offense kind of opens up and gives me opportunities,” Meaghan said. “People are working off-ball, so if they are open, I’m going to hit them.”

She used the opposing crease to her advantage, often setting up to the right of the goal before meandering to the X.

The defense never adjusted to Meaghan. On SU’s first possession of the second quarter, she controlled the ball on the right, drawing out defenders once again to find Emma Tyrrell open in the middle. But as she collected, both defenders switched onto the younger sister in front of the net. Emma passed right back to Meaghan, who slammed another goal in off the turf.

The Orange started fast. Sierra Cockerille circled the 12-meter arc with just over two minutes played in the first. As she jogged around the perimeter, she faked two pitch-backs and after the second to Olivia Adamson, she accelerated and swung the ball to the right corner. The Maryland defenders forgot to rotate, and Meaghan received the ball, wide open, and charged the crease laterally before scoring past goalie Emily Sterling to go up 2-0.

Cockerille assisted Syracuse’s next goal as well. Driving wide from the wing, she passed back to an unmarked Adamson in the middle. Adamson placed the wide-open shot attempt into the top right corner of the net to give Syracuse a 3-1 lead with 9:46 left in the first.

But Maryland came storming back at the end of the first. The Terrapins went on a 3-0 scoring run to narrow the four-point margin to one entering the second. That run was capitalized by a heads-up play by Libby May off the draw.

After hitting the ball up on the draw, Kate Mashewske froze with the whistle, the ball behind her right foot. But May shot after the ball, ignoring the insignificant whistle and sprinting to Syracuse’s side with it in her stick. She went up the right seam at full speed all the way, and didn’t slow down until she reached the edge of the Syracuse goalie crease. The momentum of her shot sent her tumbling forward onto the turf – when she arose, the Terrapins were back in it, 6-5.

Then, a second-quarter run, started by the assist from Emma to Meaghan, raised the halftime score to 11-6. The Orange began the second half similar to how they ended the first: with elite defense and inside scoring.

At the top of the crease, Meaghan found her sister streaking across the middle. Emma collected the lead pass, and swiped sideways with her stick to start the scoring just 41 seconds in, giving Syracuse a 12-6 lead.

Shortly later, Sweitzer made the save of the day to keep Syracuse’s lead secure. May sent a free-position shot off the left post as Sweitzer fell, attempting to block it. But realizing that Maryland’s Hannah Leubecker had collected the ground ball and was heading straight for Sweitzer, the SU goalie got up hastily and blocked the putback with her stick.

The free position shot disparity was the only pitfall for the Orange, as they had zero to Maryland’s 13.

“That’s a takeaway from the game, and an area we will look to improve on,” head coach Kayla Treanor said. “If that’s the way the refs are calling the game, then we have to make that adjustment as a team.”

However, Sweitzer saved more of those shots than she let in — 8 and 5, respectively. Treanor said Sweitzer played “outstanding” in goal against a team that was top 10 in scoring and ranked 29th in free-position percentage last year. She added that the defense is “really starting to trust each other,” leading to more offense.

And as the third quarter wound down, Natalie Smith added to the defensive clinic with an acrobatic free-position stop. Lunging forward, she snatched a shot right from the stick of Katie Sites as Smith sprinted in from the left side of the 8-meter. The Maryland momentum was gone.

Minutes earlier, Meaghan drove left to the middle, drawing defenders as she crossed. She dumped it off to Emma Ward on the right, who swung to an eager Carney at the X, already drifting towards the open lane. Just like Meaghan, Carney shouldered around her defender to send a low shot into the net. But this time, it was a short-handed goal to give Syracuse its largest lead of the game to that point: 15-7.

And in the fourth quarter, Meaghan scored twice in 30 seconds, tying her previous career-high of 10 points with another low shot from the X. Once again, she semi-circled the right side and scooped a shot into the bottom right corner of the net.

The Terrapins’ black jerseys were a fitting display in mourning over Syracuse’s dominant victory. In what was supposed to be a highly competitive top-five matchup, Syracuse won resoundingly.

Published on February 17, 2023 at 5:48 pm

Contact Wyatt: [email protected]