No. 11 SU falls to No. 3 Wake Forest 4-2, splits 1st ACC weekend
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Syracuse field hockey heavily discussed resilience at the start of its season.
The Orange had to wait nearly a month to play their first home game. For a month and a half, they couldn’t even practice there, regularly traveling an hour to train at Cornell. What was their attitude?
“You make it work,” SU head coach Lynn Farquhar said.
Again on the road Saturday — two days after dispatching No. 9 Virginia 3-0 — No. 11 Syracuse (6-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) nearly did. The Orange defended against 19 Wake Forest shots, turned away eight penalty corners and battled back to within a goal twice against the No. 3 Demon Deacons (6-3, 1-1 ACC), but they ultimately fell 4-2, splitting their first weekend of ACC play.
In the first quarter, an aggressive Syracuse press gave possession to SU’s backline and midfielders, who maintained it in the middle third of the pitch. But Wake Forest’s defense stayed connected and consistently denied Syracuse from entering the shooting circle.
SU’s lone first-quarter chance inside the circle was created by a long Aubrey Turner run, sprung by a well-placed through ball at midfield. From the left sideline, Belle van de Pas played a pass underneath a WF stick and past two layers of defense to Turner, who outran four defenders and nearly shot beneath Ruby Butterfield’s arm.
Wake Forest made the most of its early possession, capitalizing on an Orange oversight just over two minutes into the first quarter. Mia Schoenbeck spotted Bianca Rees-Gibbs unmarked on the opposite 23-meter line.
Schoenbeck fired a pass that beat seven Syracuse defenders along the far sideline. The ball skipped over Jess Liddell’s stick and to Rees-Gibbs, who slotted her shot past Jessie Eiselin stick-side on the breakaway.
Nearly nine minutes later, Wake Forest secured its first penalty corner of the contest. Syracuse’s defensive penalty corner unit — which entered Saturday a near-perfect 53-of-54 on the season — shut down Schoenbeck’s drag flick. The Demon Deacons rerouted their second try, setting up Rees-Gibbs for a strike past SU’s DPC and Eiselin to double their lead.
WF came close to tripling its lead with a minute left in the first frame, but video review determined a backstick occurred, erasing the goal.
The Demon Deacons continued to force Syracuse outside early in the second quarter. Black uniforms populated passing lanes and intercepted Orange feeds.
Possession evened out as the quarter carried on, though. Syracuse delivered its most threatening quarter of the game, outshooting Wake Forest 3-2 and putting two of its three shots on goal.
With just over two minutes left in the half, Syracuse earned its first corner of the afternoon. Butterfield stopped Elisa Carvajal’s strike, but Bo Madden collected the rebound at the perimeter of the circle and drew a second corner for Syracuse. Carvajal’s second strike bobbled through traffic and into the back of the net, last touching Turner’s stick to bring the Orange within one.
A year after scoring 20 of its 59 goals on penalty corners, Syracuse converted just four of its 24 tries before beating UMass Lowell in its home opener on Sept. 18.
“We need time to develop our corner unit,” Farquhar said then. “You look at our squad, and they’re filling in new positions. It’s transformational. It’s not gonna happen overnight.”
And it didn’t, but how about two weeks later?
Syracuse’s attacking penalty corner unit scored twice against UMass Lowell and twice more against Virginia, finishing 4-for-8 across both contests. On Saturday, Syracuse’s APC accounted for both of its goals.
With 30 seconds left in the third quarter, one minute after an Ava Moore deflection made it 3-1 Wake Forest, Syracuse again drew within a goal. Grace Anne McCooey inserted, Ava Brewer set and Liddell fired through the legs of Mia Montag and Butterfield for her first collegiate goal.
Wake Forest’s APC wasn’t as effective. Early in the third, Syracuse’s DPC stifled the Demon Deacons on four straight attempts. WF tried tinkering. On its first attempt, Schoenbeck faked a strike, then slid the ball across the top of the circle to Moore. Madden blocked her shot.
On the Demon Deacons’ second try, Montag attempted to insert to Amelia Blood. She missed the trap. On WF’s third corner, Schoenbeck attempted a strike. Taylor Bigbie blocked it. On its fourth corner, Schoenbeck again fed Moore, who played the ball low to Blood. Eiselin came off her line and made the save.
Four different strategies, all thwarted.
The Demon Deacons didn’t convert again until their ninth corner of the contest. Moore, laying her stick flat across the turf, redirected Schoenbeck’s flick past Eiselin.
WF’s Sarah Mudd finished with the game’s final goal, taking the ball off Sammie Goin’s stick in front of the Syracuse net, turning and scoring with five and a half minutes left on the clock.
This time, no answer.
At the beginning of the season, Farquhar estimated 75% of her roster was new to their role. She acknowledged it would take time for Syracuse to all “speak the same language.”
A month into the season and a week into ACC play, Syracuse has played three competitive games against ranked opponents. It toppled Virginia Friday and answered twice against Wake Forest in a back-and-forth game Sunday.
The performances signal Syracuse could be speaking that same language fluently.
Still, as she’s navigated coaching her youngest team in four years at Syracuse, Farquhar is looking into the future.
“It’s about where you are at the end of the season,” she said.
