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In just two days, it will have been a decade since Syracuse’s 2015 national championship-winning squad recorded its only loss that year to North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship.

Since then, the finals have continued to elude SU in its search for its first-ever ACC title. Syracuse has made the semifinals four times since 2015, yet each run ended in heartbreaking fashion against UNC, which has cemented a dynasty by winning nine of the last 10 conference tournaments.

But with No. 6 seed Syracuse hot off a statement win against No. 3 seed Wake Forest and facing No. 2 seed Virginia Thursday, it seemed this year’s team could break the trend.

“This squad is something special, and it’s hard to truly understand it when you’re just living it for the first time, from their ability to attack differently to their defensive structure,” SU head coach Lynn Farquhar said. “At the end of the day, though, potential only gets you so far, and you have to show up.”

Although Syracuse dominated the stat sheet against Virginia in their first-ever ACC semifinal meeting Thursday, the Orange fell 3-2 to the Cavaliers after two scoreless overtime periods and a 4-1 penalty shootout, marking its first shootout defeat since falling to the Cavaliers last year. SU outshot UVA 17-10 on Thursday and limited it to just two penalty corners, but produced only two goals en route to the loss. Now, SU must wait to see if its season persists with an NCAA Tournament berth.

Yet, Syracuse’s start to the match was anything but explosive. From the outset, Virginia — a team that usually sits in a low block looking for counterattack chances — controlled possession. Just 12 minutes in, the Cavaliers’ Catalina Quinteros struck first.

UVA’s Amelie Rees intercepted a hasty Bo van Kempen pass directed at the midfield. The ball fell to Emma Watchilla, who dribbled from the 23-meter line into the left-hand side of SU’s shooting arc before ripping a slapshot headed wide.

Before it could pass the far post, Quinteros was there to cash in, making it 1-0.

“We just have to move the ball,” Farquhar said. “Our backfield had to be a bit more patient, and our midfield had to find different spaces.”

With that in mind, the Orange wasted no time getting back into the game. As soon as the center pass was taken to restart play, Syracuse retained the ball. Beginning with van Kempen at the back, SU slowly worked through the midfield into Cavaliers’ territory, before finding any gaps it could to enter the arc.

The Orange began closing in further on Virginia, which attempted to park the bus until the end of the half, evading multiple Syracuse shots.

However, UVA’s luck ran out when, with five minutes to go, an Aiden Drabick through ball into the arc found Madison Orsi’s foot, earning the Orange a penalty corner.

The insert from Drabick came, and as she has all season, van Kempen converted. With pinpoint accuracy, she drove the ball in the inches-wide gap between the left post and Virginia goalkeeper Nilou Lempers’ outstretched foot, leveling the match.

Orsi’s first half only got worse. After thinking a play was dead when SU players called for a foul outside the arc, Orsi mistakenly stopped the ball with her foot within her own shooting arc. That gave Syracuse another penalty corner.

Clinical as always, van Kempen scored again with a minute left in the first. Her drag flick slotted the ball in the same bottom left corner as she had just four minutes before, leaving Lempers reaching.

Syracuse continued to dictate the tempo as the second half developed, while UVA struggled to put passes together. When it did, Pati Strunk was always in the right place at the right time, never letting UVA’s counterattack amount to anything dangerous.

In the past, SU has struggled to manage the final quarter of play, giving up equalizers and game-winners in the last 15 minutes. The Orange lost in that manner to the top-three-seeded ACC squads during the regular season: Wake Forest, Virginia and North Carolina.

Thursday was no different. Once UVA’s Suze Leemans equalized the match on a penalty corner just four minutes into the fourth, the game became a back-and-forth affair, each side struggling to find the net with constant turnovers in the midfield.

The evenness only became more pronounced as the game went into two periods of seven-on-seven extra time. Possession quickly switched between squads. Both sides had their chances. Watchilla found Mary Adams in front of the net with less than four minutes left in the second period, one-on-one with goalkeeper Jessie Eiselin. Adams skied her shot over the crossbar.

Then, with just seconds to go, a Lana Hamilton pass into the arc found Hattie Madden directly in front of the goal. Madden’s one-timer forced the best out of center back Mia Abello, who poked the ball narrowly past the post.

That sent the game to a shootout, where Syracuse fell apart. While Leemans, Orsi and Riley Savage feinted left and right to throw off SU goalkeeper Tane King before converting their chances, SU’s takers, van Kempen and Sammie Goin, took a more direct approach. They dribbled directly at the goalkeeper, leading to a save on van Kempen’s try and Goin not even getting a shot off. Only Lana Hamilton scored for the Orange, bringing the tally to 3-1.

Following a back stick foul from King on the subsequent play, Virginia was awarded a potentially game-winning penalty stroke. Farquhar put Eiselin back in, but SU’s fate was sealed.

Eiselin dove left as Abello’s shot sailed right, sealing Syracuse’s defeat in a match it controlled until the last 15 minutes of regulation.

“If this is something we really want, there needs to be a different kind of aura to our play,” Farquhar said. “We can’t play as if there is tomorrow because in tournament time, it really is you show up, you execute and you get to advance. There is a mental strength to be able to do that.”

Published on November 6, 2025 at 7:43 pm
Contact Peter: peterhradosh@gmail.com