Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Many try, and most fail.

You’ve had a Tewaaraton Award-caliber season. Congratulations. Now comes the hardest task: do what you’ve done all season against Syracuse.

It’s like entering a haunted house, and the door locks behind you. It’s pitch black, and you feel the ghosts creeping up on you, which, in this case, is a suffocating defense.

Turn left, and here’s single-season caused turnovers leader Izzy Lahah. Turn right? You’re spooked by the “artful” Mackenzie Salentre. In the middle, you’ll find All-Atlantic Coast Conference team members Coco Vandiver — the program’s all-time caused turnovers leader — and Kaci Benoit. Behind them stands the “childlike” but equally intimidating Dan Guyette.

Just ask Northwestern’s Madison Taylor, who broke the NCAA’s single-season goals record (106) and had recorded at least three goals and four points in every game in 2026 before playing Syracuse. Against the Orange? One garbage-time goal.

Taylor was selected to the prestigious five-player Tewaaraton Award finalist list Tuesday. Another was Navy’s Alyssa Chung, with her 106 points sitting as a top-five mark in the country. So, whenever the Midshipmen have their backs against the wall, they lean on her. But it couldn’t happen against SU. It surely would be the exception.

Chung was an outlier Sunday, digging No. 6 seed Navy (20-1 8-1 Patriot League) out of a 9-3 third-quarter deficit to eliminate Syracuse (14-6, 7-3 ACC) in an 11-10 come-from-behind overtime victory in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. After being blanked to zero goals, four missed shots and four turnovers in the first half, the attack turned a corner in the second. She sparked the comeback with four goals, including the game-winning score, to advance the Midshipmen to the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals.

“All she needs is a little space to get her hands free,” SU head coach Regy Thorpe said.

Early on, it seemed Navy was trying to get its head above water to gasp for air, succumbing to Caroline Trinkaus’ prowess in the second quarter. After all, she’d scored four goals in eight minutes to flip the game on its head.

The Midshipmen were searching for every spark possible. In fact, they pulled starting goalie Felicia Giglio after she saved one of the Orange’s first 10 shots. Inserting freshman Angelina Price may not have changed the game, as she only faced three shots on goal, but something snapped.

“We’re never out of it. Never say die,” Midshipmen attack Maggie DeFabio said.

If you ask head coach Cindy Timchal, the 9-3 deficit wasn’t “insurmountable.” In reality, Navy’s spark was in the lineup all along. It just needed to unlock it and catch SU off guard. Chung’s surge was bound to happen. Maybe not to the extent of four goals in the final 25 minutes of play, but she wouldn’t be held to a standstill.

Not with stakes rising to this magnitude, with 16 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament. It made sense Chung was the one who lifted the spirits of a sideline that jubilantly recreated TikTok dances during first-quarter huddles before perching in silence.

Navy attack Alyssa Chung celebrates after the Midshipmen’s comeback win over Syracuse Sunday. Chung scored four goals after halftime, including Navy’s game-winner in overtime. Courtesy of Michael Nance, Navy Athletics

Those smiles dissipated when Salentre rocked the ball out of Chung’s stick three minutes in. Or when Mackenzie Borbi did later in the first quarter to ping Molly Guzik’s second goal. It was Vandiver and Courtney Maclay in the second frame.

The Severna Park, Maryland, native misfired to Guyette’s side in the first quarter, and SU’s netminder thwarted her with her stick three times in the second, a sight Chung hoped to never see again, but she never altered her playstyle.

“Not a single time did someone walk over to me and say, ‘Hey, maybe don’t shoot. Stop. I don’t want you to shoot that anymore. I don’t trust you anymore,’” Chung said. “But instead, it was, ‘Let’s get her the ball. She’s going to get hot, and when she gets hot, she’s going to keep scoring.’”

Albeit it took a long time. Both sides traded scores to make it 10-4 before Chung got her hands dirty. She seamlessly did with a low-to-high bullet that sailed over Guyette’s left shoulder.

That set the tone for the second half, as the Midshipmen nabbed two more that Chung wasn’t involved in, and Thorpe was stuck.

“In the fourth quarter, you have that four-goal lead, and they score, and they get momentum and try to hit a timeout and stop it,” Thorpe said. “You lose a draw, and they come down and score. You’re just trying everything.”

The pressure didn’t outwardly faze Chung. But inside, she added postgame that this moment meant more to her.

The sophomore watched Syracuse lacrosse growing up, admiring Nicole Levy as one of her idols when she played, so she couldn’t complete her pregame ritual of watching her highlights against her. So, seeing her on the opposing sidelines was only further motivation. And surely enough, Chung cut a once-six-goal-deficit to two off a feed from Emma Kennedy.

Thorpe, for one, was flabbergasted. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t even piece together Chung’s name in his postgame press conference.

“Eighteen had what, (points on) the last five of the seven?” he asked.

Close enough. The attack got another opportunity out of free position with five minutes remaining after a long referee discussion and trimmed the game to 10-9.

Navy continued its surge on the game-tying score, chiefly because it had so many players open with Chung drawing double teams. The Midshipmen ran isolations for Chung after winning the next draw and nearly won the damn thing in regulation. But SU sent triple teams this time.

It came to nobody’s surprise when the Midshipmen called a timeout at the start of overtime. Everybody in the building knew where it was going.

“We knew the ball was going to be in her stick there,” Thorpe said. “Unfortunately, we got shifted around a little bit.”

And so it happened. Syracuse’s season flashed before its eyes. Chung’s deep, low-to-high shot. Ballgame. Everyone’s faces lit up. Navy’s in pandemonium and Syracuse’s welling with tears.

“She’s a Tewaaraton-type player,” Thorpe said. “She made some plays, and Tewaaraton players make plays down the stretch. She can hammer the ball in. She did and snuck one by Dan.”

Published on May 10, 2026 at 7:25 pm
Contact Jason: jaglick@syr.edu | @jason_glick