No. 12 Syracuse falls to No. 20 Rutgers in shootout for season’s 1st loss
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Lynn Farquhar recognizes her team is young. The youngest she’s coached since taking over Syracuse field hockey’s program four years ago. Twenty underclassmen, nine of whom are freshmen. Seven new starters, three with collegiate careers two weeks old.
She acknowledges her staff is new, too, and she knows it’ll take time for the Orange to all “speak the same language,” she said Wednesday. And time, there hasn’t been much of. The 2026 season is young. Syracuse’s lineup is young.
While SU entered Sunday undefeated, its wins over Fairfield, Northeastern and Ohio State were head-scratchers. The Orange trailed in each game and allowed the first score twice, overcoming lapses in execution and fouls to secure a flawless start. Sunday, Syracuse faced its most formidable opponent yet. And it didn’t go as well.
No. 12 SU (3-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) lost its first game of the season Sunday, falling 2-1 to No. 20 Rutgers (2-2, 0-0 Big Ten) in a shootout. Syracuse struck first on Taylor Bigbie’s top-shelf score less than three minutes in. The Orange maintained their one-goal lead for 52 more, weathering constant pressure and a barrage of penalty corners, until the Scarlet Knights’ Olivia Fraticelli tied the game shorthanded.
A second yellow card, an overtime period and many more Rutgers penalty corners later, the Scarlet Knights scored on their first four shot attempts in a shootout to complete the comeback.
Syracuse sought to stretch the field early. Bigbie’s goal came after a long series of passes across midfield. The Orange were patient with possession. Defenders Jess Liddell and Elisa Carvajal, along with midfielder Bigbie, played the ball between each other in SU’s defensive half, searching for open seams while Rutgers sat back to limit passing lanes.
Liddell still found one, sending the ball down the right sideline to midfielder Bo Madden. She made her defender miss and cut back to the middle of the pitch. Switching to her backhand, Bo sprung Bigbie, streaking down the left sideline and into wide-open space.
The sophomore danced between two Rutgers defenders as she crossed into the shooting circle. Alone in front of the net, she rattled a backhand shot off the right post to beat Scarlet Knights goalkeeper Emily Nicholls.
The Orange spent much of the next 52 minutes defending. Syracuse was aggressive without the ball, stepping up to challenge lengthy passes and swarming Rutgers’ ball-carriers.
But the Scarlet Knights started poking holes in Syracuse’s structure late in the first quarter, forcing goalie Jessie Eiselin to come off her line to make three saves in the first frame.
Eiselin’s second was a lunging effort, batting down a deflected shot before diving to swat the ball off the goal line. On her third, she charged forward to meet Rutgers’ Júlia Viñas Nieto and made a pad save.
Midway through the second, Eiselin drifted halfway to the top of the shooting circle to shut down a Fraticelli breakaway. The chances kept coming for Rutgers, with Fraticelli earning the Scarlet Knights their first of 11 penalty corners a minute later. But Rutgers couldn’t get a shot off, with Bigbie and Chloe Page getting in the way of Lauren Iaccio’s initial attempt and Eden Doucelin’s follow-up.
The Scarlet Knights increased their press in the second half, keeping Syracuse in its defensive half of the field and earning penalty corners in bunches. Rutgers had three within the first seven minutes of the third quarter. The Orange barely escaped with the lead, bailed out by Eiselin and a Fraticelli goal getting called back.
Just over three minutes into the fourth quarter, SU’s Hattie Madden collided with Anna Cogdell in the open field, earning the Rutgers midfielder a yellow card. For the first seven minutes of Cogdell’s 10-minute banishment, Syracuse succeeded in tilting the pitch.
Belle van de Pas forced Nicholls to make a kick save, Ally Snyder turned the corner on her defender and got a tight shot to the right post and the Orange earned their second and final penalty corner of the contest, with Carvajal firing wide.
But with three minutes left in the Orange’s player advantage, Fraticelli avenged the erasure of her earlier goal and evened the score. Rutgers’ leading scorer settled a pass at the top of the shooting circle and stickhandled through three Syracuse defenders. She then drew Eiselin off her line and lofted the ball over her outstretched blocker.
Cogdell’s suspension expired, returning Rutgers to even strength. SU fended off two more penalty corners in the final minute of the contest to force a fifth period. But the Orange spent the next nine minutes down a player after Bigbie was assessed a yellow card for taking down Cogdell with a minute left in regulation.
For 15 more minutes, the Orange withstood the Scarlet Knights’ attack. Syracuse fearlessly fended off four penalty corners, including two in the dying seconds of the frame. With 21 seconds left, Bo blocked Martha Goodridge’s shot. Six seconds later, Bigbie burst off the goal line and put herself in front of another Goodridge attempt to send the game into a shootout.
There, Eiselin couldn’t bail the Orange out any longer. Each of the Scarlet Knights’ first four shooters converted, with Goodridge calling game on a diving, backhand score.
Syracuse’s first three wins came with questions of discipline. That makes sense. SU is young. In their first test against a ranked opponent, the Orange spent the majority of a 75-minute match leading.
But each game is more time and another opportunity for Syracuse to showcase its growth.
