No. 3 Orange beat Wildcats in women's lacrosse for first time 11 years

No. 3 Syracuse (9-1) edged No. 7/8 Northwestern (4-3) 11-7 Sunday afternoon at the Carrier Dome and earned its first victory over the Wildcats in 11 meetings to improve its record to 9-1.

“No matter what players they have on the field they know how to win,” Alyssa Murray said. “I think that’s very telling of our team this year. We were able to dig deep and even though they came out and scored two quick ones on us, we were able to bounce back from that and make a good run on them to close out the game.”

Murray registered one goal and two assists against the Wildcats and Katie Webster led the Orange with four points on two goals and two assists. Amy Cross and Kayla Treanor chipped in as well, with two goals for Syracuse.

After a Katie Webster goal just 1:47 into action, Northwestern netted two goals on the Orange to give the Wildcats a 2-1 early lead.

With the game tied 3-3 midway through the first half, Devon Collins connected with Kelly Cross to lead the Orange on a brief 2-0 run that would give them a 5-3 lead. Following a goal from Kara Mupo for the Wildcats, Collins delivered to the back of the net and gave SU the 6-4 halftime advantage.

Coming out of the locker room, the Wildcats registered a fast pair of goals from Kaleigh Craig and Kat DeRonda to even the score 6-6. The Orange responded quickly with an unassisted goal from Amy Cross to give the Orange a 7-6 advantage and spark the Orange offense which then went on a 4-0 scoring run to pull away from Northwestern.

Wildcats Kara Mupo tallied a hat trick to break the run and tightened the score 10-7 with 7:40 remaining in the game. Despite the goal, Kayla Treanor continued the momentum for Syracuse netting her 32^nd goal of the season to seal the 11-7 victory for the Orange. 

While the Syracuse offense took control of the scoreboard, the defense put a strong showing to stymie the Wildcats. Syracuse finished the game with 12 forced turnovers and eight ground balls, thanks to  Natalie Glanell, who had a game-high of three forced turnovers two ground balls and Cross and Mallory Vehar, who each recorded two forced turnovers and two ground balls as well.

“Today they put in a full sixty-minutes, they never gave up until the last whistle,” Head Coach Gary Gait said about his defense. “They put tons of pressure on a team that was going to try and slow it down on us, take time off the clock, and in the first half had a lot of possessions. We got after it, got some good turnovers in the second half and it made the difference.”

Syracuse goalies Kelsey Richardson and Alyssa Costantino split time in the net. Richardson stopped 3 shots for the Orange and Costantino made two saves to finish the game. Wildcats goaltender Bridget Bianco played the entire 60 minutes with 7 saves.

Syracuse continues its home stretch and returns to ACC play Saturday March 29 against Duke. The draw is set for 3 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.