The final shovel of dirt landed on the grave at 9:10 last night.

The Syracuse women’s soccer team, in a funeral procession of sorts, strolled off the Syracuse Soccer Stadium field, heads bowed. The Orangewomen’s 2002 season, a train wreck at best, had just been laid to rest with a fitting, 0-0 tie against Cornell.

The debacle’s eulogy is scant: a 3-11-3 record, shut out eight times and outscored 34-11 by teams not named Robert Morris.

Syracuse’s three wins came against teams with a combined 18-32-3 record.

It was, by far, the worst season in team history.

“It’s been really hard, not something you expect,” said Carrie Klotz, SU’s lone senior. “You don’t sit around all summer thinking about being 3-11. Even now, I can’t even look at our record.

“But I thought about it earlier today, and I don’t think we ever allowed ourselves to give in.”

And the thing is, the Orangewomen didn’t last night.

Klotz tore through the Cornell defense. Goalie Shannon Myers rolled in the frozen mud for loose balls. Erica Mastrogiacomo, who sat out part of the game with a sore left quad, gimped through two overtimes.

The Orangewomen’s burial was respectable.

Too bad that, at gametime, a hand-counted crowd of 38 — not counting three injured or suspended SU players and two Public Safety officers — shivered in weather so cold it froze spilled hot chocolate on the concession-stand counter.

And too bad that coach April Kater, once again, failed to address the media — she hasn’t since Oct. 19 — while her players faced the music.

“I think it took a lot of courage for everyone on the team to get through this season,” Mastrogiacomo said. “It’s hard sometimes to go out to practice and give 100 percent.”

Syracuse tried to do it without all its personnel.

The Orangewomen lost defenders Courtney Spencer and Maureen Tohidi to injuries before the season and never recovered. They resorted to a 4-5-1 formation that used one forward and scored 1.12 goals per game.

They played aggressively in the 4-5-1 last night, but, once again, failed to convert chances.

Klotz said she thought the system fit SU’s personnel.

But what about Kater, who, in years past, has been extremely critical of her teams?

These Orangewomen were, after all, destined for this burial when they were knocked out of Big East tournament contention before October’s second week. Was Kater too tough on a team that had etched its own gravestone — R.I.P. SU — before Halloween?

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Klotz said.

After the game, Kater gathered the Orangewomen, who hadn’t risen from the bench before overtime, and told them to catch up on their schoolwork, since they’d resume training next week.

“We can only learn from (this season),” Mastrogiacomo said. “(For next season), we all have expectations — the Big East tournament, the NCAA Tournament.”

Whoa, now.

Tohidi and Spencer will be back on defense. So will last year’s leading scorer, Nina Scalzo, who was suspended this season and watched last night’s game from the stands.

But can next year’s Orangewomen shake this season?

Tohidi seems to think so. In the hall outside SU’s locker room, she talked excitedly about how she’d never again watch a game from the bleachers.

As Tohidi beamed and pulled back her ponytail, her teammates walked sullenly by, tossing their uniforms and orange gym bags onto a counter top.

The gear will be stowed away until next season, when Klotz’s No. 6 is reassigned.

“I don’t have any deep thoughts,” Klotz said. “My brain’s kind of frozen.”

Today, Syracuse’s season isn’t. It’s buried — six feet under.

Published on October 30, 2002 at 12:00 pm