It took nearly two months, but Syracuse finally found itself victorious Saturday.

Although the Orange fell in the front-end of a two game series with Quinnipiac, SU pulled out a narrow 3-2 victory Saturday in front of 271 at High Point Solutions Arena, the team’s first win in 57 days. It snapped a nine-match winless streak for SU, a period in which the Orange went 0-6-3.

The Orange (9-16-3, 0-3-3 College Hockey America) got on the board early when sophomore Margot Scharfe scored on a wrist shot for her 10th goal of the season.

After the Bobcats responded with a first period goal of its own, Syracuse retook the lead as sophomore defender Caitlin Roach blasted in a shot for her second goal of the year.

The back and forth affair would continue, as Quinnipiac (15-10-2, 10-4-2 Eastern College Athletic Conference) outshot the Orange 20-10 in the second period, eventually leading to a game-tying goal from Brittany Lyons.

SU took the lead for the final time when Nicole Ferrara received a pass from teammate Holly Carrie-Mattimoe and finished for the eventual game-winning goal with 8:38 left in regulation.

Defensively, sophomore goaltender Kallie Billadeau played stellar, with 53 saves as the Bobcats outshot the Orange in every period. 

Syracuse fell a day earlier to the Bobcats, getting outshot 38-19 in a 3-0 loss.

Tennis

Syracuse completed its second consecutive sweep as the Orange defeated Buffalo 7-0 at the Ellicott Tennis Courts in Buffalo on Sunday afternoon.

SU (2-2, 1-1 Big East) dominated all three of its doubles matches to take an early 1-0 advantage heading into singles. Emily Harman and Komal Safdar defeated Tanvi Shah and Miranda Podlas 8-1 in the No. 1 doubles match. No. 2 Maddie Kobelt and Aleah Marrow outplayed Tamara Markovic and Marta Stoyanova 8-6.

Alessondra Parra and Amanda Rodgers capped off the doubles sweep with an 8-3 victory against Anamaria Candanoza and Kira Golenko.

Both No. 1 Harman and No. 2 Safdar won their singles matches 6-1, 6-4 and 6-3, 6-3, respectively. Kobelt topped Markovic in the No. 3 match 7-5, 6-4, and Parra defeated Golenko in the No. 4 match 6-1, 6-2.

After dropping the first set, Marrow rebounded for a 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory in No. 5 singles against Podlas. Rodgers concluded the match with a straight-set 6-3, 6-2 win against Candanoza.

The Orange is set for a road test next weekend with matches at Ohio State on Saturday at noon and Cincinnati on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Track and field

This weekend, Syracuse competed in the Penn State National Invitational, the Boston University Terrier Invitational and the Class of ’32 Invitational at Colgate University. 

One weekend after breaking the Syracuse 60-meter hurdle record with a 7.61, graduate student Jarret Eaton topped that with a 7.49 in the finals at State College, Pa.. In Boston, senior Lauren Penney also set a new school record in the mile run with a 4:39, which ranks sixth nationally this season.

In these competitions, the Orange faced athletes representing Big East rivals Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Villanova and Georgetown.

Fifth-year senior Flings Owusu-Agyapong, competing at Penn State, ran a 7.34 in the 60-meter dash, good enough for second place. Also at State College, senior Ieva Staponkute finished third overall in the triple jump with a 12.22-meter jump, an improvement from last weekend’s 12.16-meter performance.

In Boston, freshman Ryan Urie took third place in the 1,000-meter run, which qualified him for the conference championships. Junior Andrew Nelson and sophomore Justin Murray also secured spots in the Big East championships with their performances in the mile run.

This weekend, the Orange will participate in the New Balance Collegiate Invite in New York City. The action will begin on Friday afternoon.

—Compiled by The Daily Orange Sports staff

Published on January 29, 2012 at 12:00 pm