After losing draw battle in 6 straight games, Syracuse finally paid the price
Syracuse, like it has all season, struggled on the draw control Thursday, and closed its regular season with a 7-4 defeat to Boston College. Ave Magee | Photo Editor
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
This is no new thought for Regy Thorpe. He says it just about every game. If there was one thing he wished his team could do differently across Syracuse’s season-defining 12-game winning streak this season, it’d be cleaning up the draw control.
While it was hard to lose any sleep over that facet when the Orange were winning game after game, the first year head coach brought it up after almost every contest. After a narrow loss to top-ranked North Carolina? We need to win more draw controls. After a nine-goal blowout of Pitt? We gotta clean things up on the draw.
It always seems to be the column of the stat sheet Thorpe pays most attention to, whether it’s truly the most important or not. That’s why, in Alumni Stadium after SU fell to Boston College Thursday, he knew the 8-4 margin off the top of his head.
That represented Syracuse’s (12-4, 7-3 Atlantic Coast) shortcomings against BC (9-6, 6-4 ACC) in the circle Thursday — the sixth straight game the Orange have lost the draw battle. It ultimately played a part in the 7-4 loss, snapping SU’s 12-game winning run. And while it certainly wasn’t Syracuse’s worst performance on the draw this year, a season of inconsistency in the circle finally caught up to it.
SU has now lost the draw battle in 11 of 16 games this season, including six of 10 ACC contests. It never really seemed to matter, though, as the Orange rattled off win after win and rose as high as No. 3 in the Inside Lacrosse rankings.
But, especially after it was dominated 18-6 on the draw in a quadruple-overtime thriller against Notre Dame, it became increasingly evident Syracuse couldn’t afford many more lackluster days in the circle. Thursday’s 8-4 margin was nowhere close to as bad but still hurt the Orange.
“Our fundamentals are right there,” Thorpe said postgame. “We gotta pick up some loose balls and the 50/50s … We gotta keep trying to get better there.”
That’s really been what Syracuse has tried to do all season. One of its biggest question marks entering the 2026 campaign was who would step up in the draw circle. The Orange weren’t necessarily good in that department in 2025 — ranked ninth in the ACC with 12.63 draw controls a game — but lost primary specialist Meghan Rode this offseason. This year, that number’s plummeted to an ACC-worst 7.93 draw wins per game.
In the season opener against Maryland, Molly Guzik debuted as SU’s new specialist, winning six draws against the Terrapins. But, unlike some of the ACC’s top draw takers, Guzik’s asked to do a lot more than just win in the circle, as she leads the Orange with 37 goals. Winning draws hasn’t come as naturally to the star sophomore as scoring has.
That’s why, at multiple points this year and more frequently as of late, Thorpe’s switched up his personnel in the circle. Joely Caramelli’s split reps just about 50/50 with Guzik in recent weeks. She’s provided sparks at times, but ultimately, the results aren’t much different.
That was the case again Thursday. Against BC’s Abbey Herod — averaging a modest 4.93 draw controls a game — both Guzik and Caramelli saw some action in the circle. Guzik won the opening draw for the Orange, but SU promptly turned the ball over, leading to a quick score on the other end for BC.
After the Eagles promptly found a second goal off a transition score from Giulia Colarusso, Guzik won her second draw, which ultimately helped the Orange get on the board. From there, though, they lost six straight draws and didn’t record another for the rest of the half.
Caramelli won SU’s first draw of the second half and went 2-for-3 in the quarter. But ultimately, BC won each of the two faceoffs in the fourth quarter to win the margin 8-4.
As Thorpe said postgame, it wasn’t necessarily the biggest concern of the day. After all, Syracuse turned the ball over 14 times and put just 10 shots on target. But at this point in the year, he’d surely like to see his team come away with a few more wins in the circle. Entering the postseason having lost the draw battle in six straight games isn’t a good sign.
But Syracuse has proven it can overcome those struggles to win. The Orange can only hope that’ll be the case in the playoffs.
