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Heading into its bout with No. 6 Stanford, Syracuse was amid one of its worst slumps in recent memory.
Following a 9-8 loss to then-No. 12 Clemson Saturday, SU found itself in its first three-game skid under head coach Kayla Treanor. In the matchup, the Orange were once again hindered by their inability to win draw controls and take care of the ball, finishing with a 19% win rate in the circle and 16 turnovers.
Battered from its gauntlet of ranked matchups, a five-day break finally gave Syracuse the chance to regroup in the wake of Olivia Adamson’s season-ending injury. During the pause, Treanor said the Orange mainly addressed their turnovers and blunders on the draw control. Apart from improvements in those areas, Treanor also added she’d like to see her players “value the ball more” offensively.
Fully recharged, Syracuse hoped the extra practice time would lead to its first win in over two weeks against Stanford. The time away from the field was exactly what the Orange needed, as they downed Stanford Friday.
Here are some observations from No. 10 Syracuse’s (4-3, 1-2 ACC) 14-13 overtime victory over No. 6 Stanford (6-1, 2-1 ACC):
Cardinal cough ups
Syracuse showed against Clemson last week that it can steal the ball just as easily as it gives it away. SU narrowly won the turnovers battle, pressuring the Tigers into 19 — directly causing eight of them. The Orange showed that hunger for the ball against the Cardinal Friday.
Building off her team-high four caused turnovers in her last outing, Coco Vandiver continued to cause havoc for the Cardinal. In the first half alone, Vandiver led all Syracuse players with five caused turnovers, while Lexi Reber and Kaci Benoit contributed one each.
While Syracuse struggled amid the Cardinal’s momentum-shifting 6-0 run in the second quarter, Vandiver’s efforts helped slightly minimize the damage. But even with Vandiver and Co. doing everything in their power to strip away the ball, Stanford’s offense still racked up seven goals in the frame.
Over the final two quarters of play, the Cardinal cleaned up their act while in possession of the ball, but the unit didn’t handle it perfectly by any stretch. In double overtime, Vandiver added on another key turnover by intercepting Martha Oakey’s pass at X, giving SU a chance to score at the other end. En route to its loss, Stanford racked up 18 total turnovers, further staining its average of 11.6 per game entering Friday’s contest.
Draw control experimentation
Treanor and the rest of SU’s lineup are very aware of how concerning its draw control numbers have been. Coming off a 4-for-21 day versus Clemson, changes needed to be made. Instead of placing the brunt of draws solely on Meghan Rode, Treanor shifted the unit into a mixed bag Friday.
In the first quarter, Rode didn’t step into the circle once. Freshman Mileena Cotter and Joely Caramelli guided the unit with the occasional contribution from Alexa Vogelman. Sparked by Caramelli’s opening draw win, the trio finished the first quarter 5-for-6, ultimately settling for a 7-for-17 mark by halftime.
Coming out of the locker room for the third quarter, Syracuse’s unit regained its composure. Returning to the No. 1 draw control spot, Caramelli led the Orange to victory in all but one of the eight draw chances in the frame. Her consistency allowed the Orange to go from down 8-7 at the start of the frame to ahead 12-9 by the start of the fourth.
Riding the hot hand, Treanor kept Caramelli in the circle in the game’s final stretch as it looked to hold its slim lead. With Vogelman’s help, SU’s draw unit won four draws between the fourth quarter and overtime, showing improvement from past contests with an overall 17-for-33 (51%) win rate.
Prohibiting Polisky
Syracuse’s largely inexperienced defensive core had taken strides in its recent matchups, most evidently against Clemson. Not only did the unit suppress the Tigers to a season-low nine goals, but it also made one of its top scorers — Kayla MacLeod — into almost a nonfactor. Like MacLeod, SU’s defense stymied Stanford’s biggest threat in Aliya Polisky, holding the junior to one assist.
Just as she had done in SU’s last two matchups, Superia Clark took sole responsibility of keeping the Cardinal’s top scorer in check. In the first half, the Cardinal tried to work the ball around Daniella Guyette, and then cut through the middle for a shot. Preoccupied by Clark’s endless face-guarding, it was hard for Polisky to make much of an impact. It wasn’t until the 1:15 mark of the first quarter that Polisky finally recorded her first shot on net, but it was turned away by Guyette.
With Clark constantly in her face, Polisky remained virtually invisible in the first half, registering just two shots on net. Fortunately for the Cardinal, her services weren’t needed much in the first 30 minutes, as six different players found the back of the net.
In the second half, Polisky’s bids on net remained few and far between. At the 10:34 mark, she found herself with room at the 8-meter mark, but once again couldn’t beat Guyette. She finished her forgettable day with just one assist and four shots.
Double-sided first half
Through the first 15 minutes, it seemed as though Syracuse had everything under control. Backed by Ashlee Volpe’s first two career goals and a dominant 5-1 lead on draws, SU held a commanding 4-1 lead and looked to keep piling it on. But in the second quarter, everything went off the rails.
Suddenly, Caramelli lost hers way in the circle, forcing Rode into action after being held out of the circle during the first quarter. Even with Rode’s assistance in the second, the unit still couldn’t scoop anything up, going 2-for-11 in the circle.
At the same time, Guyette — after seeing beach balls in the first quarter — couldn’t buy a stop in the final 15 minutes of the first half. Of the eight shots on goal she faced in the second quarter, just one of them were saved as the junior turned in the worst quarter of her career so far as SU’s No. 1 goalkeeper.
At one point down 5-1, the Cardinal reclaimed control of the game via a 6-0 run. Emma Ward and Gracie Britton guided the Orange on a two-goal push in the final moments of the second quarter, but it wasn’t enough for SU to erase its hole as Stanford still carried an 8-7 lead into the half.
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