Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Orange wash away Brown, 15-9, in rain-soaked NCAA Tournament first round win

The Orange brought the energy and didn’t let a lot of rain get in their way of a good time.

The Syracuse Orange got May Madness off to a strong, if soggy, start with a 15-9 victory over the Brown Bears in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday evening in New Haven.

Playing their first game in over half a month (16 days to be exact), the Orange came out and played like a team that wanted to flip the script on a month of April in which they went 1-4 to finish the regular season with a whimper.

Evidently, ‘Cuse used their time off to re-calibrate themselves, because they displayed an energy and intensity that helped lead to their best performance since their win over Virginia in late March.

The inciting incident was a 7-1 first half run that turned a one-goal deficit into a five-goal lead for the Orange that put the game out of reach. Brown would never get closer than four goals the rest of the way.

A fantastic performance from Emma Ward (3G, 3A) led an offense that was purposeful in their movement, efficient in their shooting (15-of-30) and opportunistic (3-of-4 on free positions).

The defense extended the zone to pressure out on Brown, as the Bears struggled to put their shots on cage. The Orange finished with 10 caused turnovers while only surrendering 11 shots on goal for the game.

Meghan Rode (9DC) got off to a bit of a slow start on draw controls, but quickly found her groove to finish with nine draw wins as she led SU to a solid, 15-11 advantage on restarts.

Emma Muchnick (3G) opened the scoring in this one with a right alley dodge that ended as she bounced one in for her first of three tallies.

After Brown scored back-to-back goals against the zone, Emma Ward did her best Kayla Treanor impression with a BTB finish from way out that started with her signature post-up move from out in front and ended with a precision finish in the lower left-corner of the goal. Say hello SportsCenter Top 10:

Brown came back with a free position goal to take a 3-2 lead with 4:49 left in the first quarter as SU struggled with committing fouls in the early going on the defensive end.

That would be the last time that the Bears would not only have the lead, but that they would even be within touching distance as ‘Cuse went on a 7-1 run over the next 13-plus minutes to give themselves the separation they needed to see the game out.

It started very innocuously, as a loose ball in front of cage got batted around and trickled in past the Brown goalie for a “team” Syracuse goal that tied the game up at 3-3. Less than a minute later, Emma Muchnick got her second on a free position to give the Orange a 4-3 lead at the end of the first.

Going into the second quarter, Brown made a goalie change that ended up not working at all as the second was ‘Cuse’s best scoring frame of the evening. It started just 19 seconds in as Caroline Trinkaus (1G, 1A) ran up from below GLE and scored on a bounce shot past the new keeper. On SU’s next possession, Emma Ward dodged up from X and drew a double team before she hit Ashlee Volpe (2G) for a finish right in front of cage.

Brown briefly stopped the bleeding with a very nice BTB goal of their own, but that highlight proved to only be a consolation as the Orange run picked right back up again 26 seconds later on a left alley dodge from Mileena Cotter (2G) that she deposited just inside of the far pipe.

After another Muchnick free position, freshman Bri Peters (1G) scored a very nice goal off a feed from Ward in which she caught in front of cage, turned and fired around her defender with a nice bounce shot that concluded the Syracuse run at 7-1 with 6:39 left in the second quarter. Peters was one of a few players who saw increased playing time in this game. She hadn’t played at all this season, and looked good out there including scoring her first career goal at a wonderful time.

That 7-1 run ended up being the defining stretch of the game, as it took a 3-2 Brown lead and turned it into a commanding, 9-4 ‘Cuse lead. The game was played relatively evenly the rest of the way, but the damage was already done for SU to see the contest out.

The teams traded goals twice the rest of the half, finished off by an outstanding effort from Sam DeVito (1G) in which she received a pass in SU’s defensive zone and took it all the way down the field by herself for a goal that made it 11-6 ‘Cuse at halftime.

The third quarter was more of the same as the teams scored thrice each, with Cotter, Volpe and Ward all scoring their second of the game to help keep Brown at a distance with a 14-9 margin. The only goal in the fourth was scored by Ward on a back-and-forth X-dodge where she curled around the crease for the finish and the 15-9 final score.

In the fourth, a defense that had already had a solid day capped their evening by holding Brown scoreless on two separate 7-on-5 woman-up chances. Those defensive stands helped preserve a single-digits total for Brown, just the second time all season the Bears had been held below 10.

The defense was led on the day by Izzy Lahah (3GB, 3CT), making her first start of the season in style with a trio of caused turnovers and ground ball pickups. Coco Vandiver (2GB, 2CT) was right in the middle of the action, as always, as her two caused turnovers got her up to 40 for the season for the leader of the defense.

Amazingly, the Orange held Brown to single-digits despite Daniella Guyette (2SV) making only two saves for the entire game. SU will will obviously need a lot more from her on Sunday, since holding their opponent to only 11 shots on goal isn’t going to happen very often.

‘Cuse will be back in action on Sunday when they play host Yale in the second round. The Bulldogs defeated UAlbany, 12-9, earlier on Friday to move on. This will be the second time this season the Orange and Bulldogs square off in New Haven; the first meeting did not go well as SU fell, 13-10, to kick off their bad April.

Sunday’s game will be at 2 PM on ESPN+.