MAY 20: EVANSTON, Ill. – It started the same as last weekend. Against Vanderbilt, the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team lost the game’s opening draw and found quickly itself in a 2-0 hole.

The difference last week was the Orange climbed out.

Saturday marked SU’s first ever appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals, having picked up its first NCAA tournament win last weekend with a 16-10 victory over the Commodores.

The reward for doing so: a date with top-seeded Northwestern. And the Wildcats were ready, knocking off SU, 14-9, in front of 698 in Evanston, Ill.

The tournament’s top four seeds-Northwestern, Duke, Virginia, Pennsylvania-comprise next weekend’s Final Four at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

Meredith Frank opened the scoring for Northwestern less than three minutes into the game and added another less than two minutes later. NU then added another, and another and another, and with 12 minutes gone by Syracuse trailed 5-1.

But the Orange was relentless. SU ripped back with a 4-0 run, capped off by back-to-back goals from sophomore Meg Mosenson. It seemed momentum might be swinging, especially heading into halftime, when sophomore goalie Amber Pardee-Hill stoned a one-on-one doorstep shot with two seconds before the break. The save kept it a one goal, 7-6, deficit, but Orange coach Lisa Miller never felt her team was in power.

‘I feel like I’m in control as a team when you are possessing the draw control,’ Miller said. ‘Northwestern’s offense is very good and very balanced and if your not possession the draw control you’re giving them too many opportunities. As a team you’re giving them the opportunity to beat you.’

SU never controlled the draw, its blatant Achilles heal the last few games. The Wildcats won 17-of-25 draws, including 11-of-14 in the first half.

The absence of freshman Lindsay Roger didn’t help the draw situation. The Rochester native dominated the draws in last week’s win, but took only a handful Saturday, scratched from the starting lineup with food poisoning. In Rogers’ stead was a compellation of players that included senior Chelsea Strodel, sophomore Bridget Hamm and freshman Christina Dove, who’d handled the duties for much of the season.

The Orange struggles at midfield were magnified by sloppy play all game long, turning the ball over in non-pressure situations. Fifteen times SU gave away possessions – many on passes too high, too long or otherwise difficult to handle.

Those mistakes weren’t as visible in the first half, when Northwestern struggled as well, going 13 minutes without a goal after that 5-1 start. But everything became apparent after halftime, when Wildcats coach Kelly Amonte Hiller saw her team clean up its act.

‘I think we tightened it up in the second half,’ Hiller said. ‘We minimized the amount of errors we made and we played confident and we really took the opportunities that we had and we put it away.’

It wasn’t a five-goal run that did it for NU, but a four-goal streak instead. The Wildcats hit the cage four unanswered times midway through the second quarter to blow it open, a run maybe attributable to fatigue on the Syracuse side.

‘When you went on the road for the first round and you go on the road for the second round you’re really gonna have to battle and your gonna have to battle against travel and things like that,’ Miller said.

Another key aspect of Saturday’s game was its physicality. The teams combined to commit 69 fouls, 16 of which were split between SU’s Bridget Looney and Northwestern’s Christy Finch.

‘The kids just play…they play hard,’ said Miller. ‘I think both teams are fairly physical. They lean across your body and slow you down and if you keep moving through it…they’ll draw a foul. I didn’t see Northwestern do anything that was dirty or unsportsmanlike. I don’t think Syracuse did anything that was dirty or unsportsmanlike…good healthy competition.’

The physical nature of the game was also something that seemed new to Northwestern players, and a big reason why SU was able to play them so tight.

‘I just think they’re a really athletic, aggressive and physical team,’ said NU attacker and reigning Tewaarton Trophy winner Kristin Kjellman. ‘I’m not used to people holding my arm or my stick when I’m running through eight (meter arc). So that’s different sometimes.’

That nature, though, did deter the Orange a bit. The Wildcats connected on five of nine free-position shots as the result of fouls.

‘It’s a rule I wish we would change,’ Miller said of free position shots. ‘I don’t like it. I’d rather play a man down. I think you can take advantage of the rules…Any good attacker’s trying to draw a foul driving down the lane. You do it in basketball you do it in lacrosse. That’s what you’re supposed to do.’

The loss ends the Syracuse season at 13-6 – the best in school history. The team’s 13 wins marks a school record, as does its 288 goals, shattering the old mark of 205. Sophomore Katie Rowan broke single-season and single-game records for goals and points and Looney did the same for caused turnovers.

‘I think there were a lot of firsts,’ Miller said. ‘This offensive unit put up a lot of points. We won the Big East. I think our young attackers are all coming back. There’s a lot of hope for the future. I think we have a good recruiting class coming in, but on a sad note I think we lose a great senior class. We’re gonna miss them.’

Published on June 4, 2007 at 12:00 pm