Ashlee Volpe silenced in 2nd half en route to SU’s defeat to Yale
After scoring four goals in the first half to take a 5-4 halftime lead, Syracuse sophomore Ashlee Volpe was shut down by Yale’s zone defense in the second half. Courtesy of SU Athletics
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Ashlee Volpe was getting her way. For the second time this season, she dominated Yale, which had no answer for her.
A deep strike? It found the back of the net. A close-range whirling finish? Another goal. Volpe totaled four scores by halftime, helping Syracuse erase an early 3-0 deficit and turn it into a 5-4 lead.
But in the second half, Yale had defenders like Emmy Pascal and Maggie Bellissimo immediately close in on Volpe once she received the ball, forcing her to pass to teammates. As a result, the sophomore failed to score in the back two frames, allowing Yale (16-3, 5-2 Ivy League) to come back from down three goals to defeat Syracuse (10-9, 5-4 Atlantic Coast) 9-8 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, ending the Orange’s season.
Volpe has faced ups and downs in her first collegiate season after missing all of last year with a torn ACL. She didn’t play until SU’s sixth game of the season against then-No. 12 Clemson and entered the NCAA Tournament with eight goals — four of which came in Syracuse’s first matchup with Yale.
But she was playing her best lacrosse when it mattered most. Volpe converted two scores in SU’s NCAA Tournament First Round win over Brown. And she looked to be continuing that success with her four early scores against the Bulldogs.
She started Syracuse’s scoring frenzy by taking a pass from Emma Muchnick and drilling a low-to-high shot into the top of the net. Then, Muchnick dished to her again, this time wide open on the left side of the 8-meter. With a direct shot at Yale goalie Niamh Pfaff, she uncorked a lefty snipe that found twine as the first quarter wound down. She added a third before capping her burst with her over-the-shoulder, close-range shot that gave SU its first lead of the game.
Volpe’s explosion directly coincided with the Orange’s. She said postgame, with the constant ebbs and flows of lacrosse, that she knew SU needed to keep striking while the iron was hot. Early on, it did, building a 7-4 lead midway through the third.
“I think you get the spark and spread it to everyone else,” Volpe said. “So why not do it and get everyone else around you hyped and keep momentum going?”
That’s why Yale keyed in on Volpe in the second half. It already had its hands full trying to limit SU’s top options in Emma Ward and Muchnick, neither of whom scored a goal Sunday. To account for the Orange’s many weapons, Yale head coach Erica Bamford said the Bulldogs employed a zone defense, a different look than SU’s matchup with Brown.
“We were a little bit different of a defense through a zone as opposed to Brown’s man-to-man,” Bamford said. “So it truly was a team effort.”
In the second, the zone began to hamper Volpe. On the first possession of the frame, she received the ball three different times, and on all three, she was pressured by one or both of Pascal and Bellissimo. She was forced to pass inside to a lunging Muchnick, whose off-balance shot was stonewalled by Pfaff.
And the Bulldogs didn’t stop there. Midway through the third, they stalled another Syracuse possession by again forcing Volpe to immediately release the ball. With Volpe positioned at the X, she received a pass from Ward. But she was swarmed by Bellissimo, who stuck close and checked her stick twice, and she dumped the ball off to Gracie Britton on her left.
While SU briefly got its way — with two goals from Caroline Trinkaus and Bri Peters — Yale had successfully silenced Volpe. The third quarter closed with the sophomore not recording a shot due to Pascal and Bellissimo’s tight defense.
In the fourth, the Orange continued trying to run their offense through Volpe with Ward — their usual “quarterback,” as head coach Kayla Treanor described — limited. On their first possession of the quarter, Volpe took the ball and skated along the right side toward the X. She was marked by Pascal, who seamlessly switched with Bellissimo, not giving Volpe any open passing or cutting lanes.
The pressure continued mounting on Volpe, leading to an errant pass off a restart minutes later that was easily intercepted by Bellissimo, squandering a chance to potentially boost Syracuse’s then-one-goal lead. Yale took advantage, promptly flipping the script to take a one-score lead that proved to be the nail in Syracuse’s coffin.
Volpe’s dry spell certainly wasn’t the only factor that led to Syracuse’s collapse. Meghan Rode struggled on the draw in the fourth, losing the battle 4-0. Daniella Guyette made only one fourth-quarter save.
But with Volpe nearly unstoppable in the first half, it’s hard to overlook her quiet finish when assessing the damage. Yale’s airtight zone proved too hard to crack in the final 30 minutes, sending Syracuse home at its earliest point in seven years.
“The game was really back and forth,” Treanor said. “I think the second half definitely affected us.”
