Daniella Guyette fell short last year at Yale. She didn’t Tuesday.
Like in last year’s NCAA Tournament loss to Yale, Daniella Guyette’s offense didn’t have her back during a fourth-quarter collapse. Eli Schwartz | Asst. Photo Editor
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When she’s bored in her goal crease, Daniella Guyette says she does everything but take herself seriously.
She blankly stares at a smiley face doodled on her cleats to settle her mind.
When the action’s on the opposite side of the field, Guyette’s cage seems silent. All the noise comes from the sidelines and field players near the ball. But the netminder is actually having a rock and roll concert in her goal.
Guyette shrieks “god-awful,” boisterous sounds to stay ready for the action to come, she said. When the activity arrives, she’s as silent, and she’s ready for battle.
Yes, the ritual’s quirky, but it helped Guyette to her season-best performance in No. 9 Syracuse’s (6-3, 3-2 Atlantic Coast) 6-5 upset over No. 5 Yale (7-1, 1-0 Ivy). She posted 10 saves, her second-most this season, with four in the third quarter. The netminder’s five goals allowed were her fewest against a ranked opponent in her career as a starter.
Most of the time, the Orange’s offense has Guyette’s back. They’d only scored six goals or fewer twice this season before Tuesday, granted these games were against No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 Maryland. SU reached at least 13 goals for a four-game stretch.
“They’re doing everything they can to keep me up on my feet,” Guyette said. “And, God, I got to do my best to stay up with them.”
It was the antithesis Tuesday. SU’s field players couldn’t hold up the fort for Guyette. It was reminiscent of last year’s NCAA Tournament loss to Yale. That followed an ugly stretch of her season, in which the goaltender only had more saves than goals allowed once in her previous 13 appearances.
With high stakes in last season’s tournament exit at the feet of the Bulldogs, Guyette stopped 10 of their 16 shots through three quarters. But when the lights were brightest in the fourth quarter, Guyette conceded three goals on Yale’s final four shots.
She wouldn’t let that happen again. No SU player wanted to be handed a third straight loss by the Bulldogs.
“Something we talked about all week is using that as fuel, that they not only ended our season last year but also beat us in the regular season,” Syracuse midfielder Joely Caramelli said.
The junior took it personally and was the Orange’s lone multi-goal scorer Tuesday, having Guyette’s back on the other end. The netminder had abundant opportunity to make her idiosyncratic noises, especially in the first half.
Like last season’s exit, Guyette held the Bulldogs scoreless for well over half of the first quarter. But that was because SU remained on the attack the entire time.
When she was tested for the first time late in the frame, Guyette seemed rusty. Granted, she hadn’t faced the greatest attacks recently. The Newbury Park, California, native didn’t even have to make a save against California.
Yale attack Ashley Kiernan approached Guyette’s right and flung a shot into the goalie’s stick. Guyette failed to control the ball, and before she could swoop it up, the ball had crossed the line.
“I know my defense will give me the best looks they possibly can, and they’ve done that this whole season, and I’m more than grateful for it,” Guyette said.
But from that point on, Guyette couldn’t be faulted any more than her back line. The Orange’s defense was lifeless, accruing 14 ground balls and eight caused turnovers, which were both below-average marks this season.
Guyette had to step up in a big way. Molly Guzik wasn’t going to save her this time, already having done so with four hat tricks this campaign. Yale neutralized her. That meant stopping the Bulldogs in their most auspicious state: free position.
The senior was stalwart, helping stop all four of Yale’s free-position opportunities, which was the first time SU held a ranked opponent scoreless with a vacant lane to the cage.
“We didn’t hit (our free-position shots), and for Dan to come in there and get some good pressured shots and timely saves was huge,” SU head coach Regy Thorpe said.
In the first quarter, Guyette made a hockey-esque kick save with her lower leg on Whitney Froeb’s free-position attempt. Froeb had another go in the second frame, which Guyette batted down with her stick. In the waning moments of the half, she dove on Nell Ducey’s try.
But she was just getting started. The Orange desperately needed Guyette’s A-game in the third quarter. And when they were held scoreless for the entire third quarter, the netminder emerged as the hero.
Guyette stymied Froeb’s third free-position attempt, and the Bulldogs were scoreless for over 18 minutes.
When SU finally got a go-ahead goal out of Caroline Trinkaus to break loose, Guyette needed to make those annoying sounds and stare at the smiley face on her shoe again.
On Yale’s final limb, its assists leader, Kate Gould, stood no chance against Guyette. The netminder’s oddities prevailed, as she finished the job down the stretch to reverse last year’s curse.
“She had 10 saves, so we needed every one of them tonight,” Thorpe said. “Hats off to our last resort.”
