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Delaney Sweitzer made six saves in the game’s first 10 minutes, batting high shots from Cornell continuously, as the SU offense gave her a four-goal cushion. By the end of the first, Cornell led Syracuse in shots and shots on goal, but the score stood at 7-2 in SU’s favor.

The Big Red took the ball to the crease throughout the opening period, but Sweitzer seemed to know what was coming. On a free-position shot midway through the quarter, Katie Castiello crashed the crease and sent a shot from point-blank range, but Sweitzer had her stick raised laterally, waiting for it. That was her fifth save in just under nine minutes, and she would make her sixth less than a minute later.

“We talked about mindset, and that’s something that I’ve really been working on,” Sweitzer said. “I just feel confident in (the defense) and myself.” 

Coming in, Cornell had the seventh-highest free-position percentage in the country, but it didn’t score on one until its third attempt. Sweitzer blocked three such attempts and let in two during her three quarters of play, holding them to a .400 success rate despite their .556 season mark. 

Syracuse’s usually stout back line had trouble with Cornell in the first half, but Sweitzer stayed vigilant. The offense came out strong behind Emma Tyrrell’s four goals in the first half, while Meaghan Tyrrell scored five goals in the game and led the Orange in points. No. 1 Syracuse (12-0, 5-0 Atlantic Coast) tied its longest win streak in program history on Tuesday, beating Cornell (6-4, 2-1 Ivy League) 19-13 in a one-sided affair.

Up 5-1 in the first, Emma Tyrrell collected a draw control and initiated the transition offense, passing upfield to defender Katie Goodale in the middle. She swung to Tessa Queri, who quickly dumped off to Emma Ward. 

That’s when Goodale came screaming down the middle and Ward made a perfect feed. Goodale swiped down for her first career goal to give SU a 6-1 lead with 2:14 left in the period as the entire Syracuse sideline erupted.

“We always encourage, especially off the draw if we can push it to net, whoever’s up there to go,” Meaghan said. “Katie felt that confidence and started going up the field and she finished it. It’s such a big momentum shift for us.”

All three of Meaghan’s assists went to her sister. With just over a minute remaining, Emma scored a behind-the-head shot. Cutting across the formation, she received a pass from Meaghan from the right side and then whipped it behind her head and that of her defender. The goalie never stood a chance, lunging at the ball a second too late. 

Emma’s fourth goal of the first half gave Syracuse a 10-4 lead. Meaghan said that Emma works on behind-the-back shots and other quirky shot angles in practice.

Emma scored first in the second quarter after five scoreless minutes. Meaghan was awarded a free-position shot from the right and took two convincing steps forward before passing to Emma. Already having scored twice, Emma maneuvered right, ducking her head under a defender’s stick, then shifted her hips left to the open space to score from right outside the crease. That goal gave her a fourth-straight hat trick, and the Orange an 8-2 lead at the 10-minute-mark. 

Despite leading 10-5 at halftime, Syracuse still trailed in shots (22-19) and shots on goal (14-13). But Sweitzer’s nine first-half saves, earning her a .643 save rate, kept Syracuse firmly in the lead. 

But the second half brought on two unassisted scores for the Orange, which started a run that put them out of the Big Red’s reach. 

Meaghan reset at the top of the zone and dodged middle, fighting through contact on her right hip from Marissa Stafford before firing across her body for the score. Syracuse’s 11-6 lead would increase to 17-6 over the course of the quarter. 

A few minutes later, Emma Ward and Meaghan connected on nearly identical scores. Ward got the ball at X, as she does so often, and looked over the middle. She hesitated before finding Meaghan waiting on the right, just outside the crease, for an easy score. In a minute’s time, Ward collected at X again, but this time passed it immediately to Meaghan, cutting from the top. From then on, it was a mirror image of the goal prior, as she swiped down with her stick to net a high shot past an unknowing goalkeeper. That gave Syracuse a 14-6 lead at 7:30 in the third. 

Meaghan and Ward finished as the top two-point scorers on the day with eight and five points, respectively. “(Ward) is so good at seeing the field from behind the cage,” Meaghan said. 

As the quarter drew to a close, Cockerille created a 10-goal lead. She got a pass on the left edge of the 8-meter, juked a defender to her left and shot off the turf to score into the bottom right corner, giving Syracuse a 16-6 lead. 

Shortly after, Meaghan scored from the right flank. She bent low past a defender on a dodge to her right but lost her footing as she passed underneath. Tripping toward the crease, she collected herself enough to raise the stick above her head and shoot over the top of Clark’s helmet. That goal cemented a 7-0 Syracuse run and put Meaghan in fourth place on Syracuse’s all-time goals list. 

But in the final period, Syracuse pulled Sweitzer in favor of Kimber Hower, along with other key starters. It allowed a retaliatory 7-0 run from the Big Red, stopping the clock from running and narrowing the margin to four with 3:17 remaining.

“I own that as a coach,” said head coach Kayla Treanor of the poor fourth-quarter performance. “We obviously were able to… play a lot of people tonight, but, from a coaching perspective, we just have to get them a little more prepared for games.”

Published on March 28, 2023 at 8:41 pm

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