WLAX : Goaltender battle intensifies after Richardson’s solid play in net
Alyssa Costantino turned in a sloppy first-half performance against Rutgers on Saturday. Though Syracuse went into the break up one, the sophomore made just four saves and allowed six goals.
She allowed a weak rolling shot that took a bad bounce to get through for Rutgers’ first score. Then midway through the first half, Costantino misplayed a bounce shot way in front of the net, letting the ball skip over her head to give the Scarlet Knights a one-goal lead.
So as the halftime clock ticked away, it wasn’t Costantino warming up against SU volunteer assistant coach Brett Queener, but Kelsey Richardson. SU head coach Gary Gait called on the freshman for the second half.
‘That’s the nice thing about having two goalies. They’ve gone back and forth like this,’ Gait said. ‘We’ve split halves in all but two games so far, and they seem to take turns.’
Although Costantino and Richardson have split time in all but two games this season, Saturday was the first time Richardson replaced her counterpart in a close game since playing the final 24-plus minutes of an overtime loss to No. 1 Northwestern on Feb. 29. In Richardson’s action in the seven games since, the Orange has held at least a four-goal advantage when the freshman entered the game. Richardson made six saves and allowed just four goals while holding Rutgers to 1-of-5 on free-position shots to help SU earn the victory.
Gait downplayed his decision to switch goalies throughout his postgame press conference, returning time and time again to the statistic that both goalkeepers have played in eight games this season. So on Monday when No. 3 Syracuse (8-2, 3-0 Big East) hosts No. 6 Dartmouth (8-1, 4-0 Ivy League) at 3 p.m. in the Carrier Dome, both goaltenders will be ready to go when their names are called.
‘Only two games,’ Gait said. ‘The only two games where we didn’t split were Florida and Maryland. What are we, 8-2? Eight games we’ve split, two we haven’t. The decision was made early.’
Richardson held the Scarlet Knights to just one goal in the first 21:42 of the second half, with the final three goals coming when the game was all but over. Syracuse led by five goals with less than nine minutes remaining.
Playing primarily in the second half of games this season, Richardson generally has a chance to gain a familiarity with the opposition while watching from the sideline. That was no different Saturday.
‘Just seeing the first half and seeing where the shots were going (helped),’ Richardson said. ‘I just wanted to step up for the team, and I wanted to make a statement on the defensive end and get our whole team going.’
Richardson noticed from the sidelines in the first half that the ball took some strange hops off the turf to sneak past Costantino.
Bounces such as the one that gave the Scarlet Knights their first goal are part of what led to Costantino’s mediocre outing, though she was credited with the win for SU.
‘Those are just fluke goals. It happens to all of us,’ Richardson said. ‘But I think that she did a great job, and I think I just tried to stay focused on the ball and where it was going and trying to stop it.’
As Gait dismissed the idea of a controversy surrounding the goaltending position, he didn’t say what his plans in net are for the team’s matchup against the Big Green on Monday.
Instead, the head coach just repeated one statistic – Richardson and Costantino have split time in eight out of SU’s 10 games.
‘One will make a couple more saves than the other and (we’ll) be about 50 percent,’ Gait said. ‘They challenge each other. Knowing that we need a couple extra saves, (Richardson) did a great job.’
