SU women lose overtime heartbreaker to No. 3 Florida State

The Syracuse Orange (5-7-1) women took the field Thursday night against No. 3Florida State University (10-0-3).  SU was looking to keep the momentum going after a 4-0 win at Pitt, its first ever ACC win, while FSU was coming off a win against Boston College. 

Orange played tough until the final moments of the game, forcing FSU into overtime in order to draw a result, 1-0 in favor of the Seminoles.

“I think that’s the best I’ve ever seen this team play in all the four years that I’ve been here,” SU goalkeeper Brittany Anghel said, “I’m proud of them I just wish we could have won.”

SU came out very strong defensively, matching FSU’s strong play in the first half. Florida State controlled most of the possession and the Syracuse defense stopped any and all offensive advances, limiting the Seminoles to only five shots and no goals in the first half

“I’m really proud of the players,” head coach Phil Wheddon said. “I thought we generated some good opportunities.”

The second half was much more evenly distributed between the two teams. SU stepped up its offense and controlled the ball better on offense, getting several decent scoring opportunities as well as continuing with its lockdown defense.

“We settled down a little bit,” midfielder Jackie Firenze said of the team’s second half performance, “and once we realized that we can stay with anyone, the nerves just got out of our system.” 

The only goal of the game came in the 95^th minute off of a stout throw. FSU’s Megan Campbell tossed the ball into the box and Dagny Brynjarsdottir headed it in for the winning score. Campbell has one of the strongest and longest throw-ins in the ACC and after the Orange were able to mark and defend it well for most of the night things finally caught up to them and FSU capitalized on their mistake.

“Throughout the whole game they had been using their weapon of the long throw…it’s a really hard weapon judging the flight of the ball in the air from a throw in, it’s a completely different trajectory,” Anghel said. “That girl can throw.”

The general feeling after the game was slightly optimistic even after a heartbreaking loss knowing they had play well against a great team.

“Any time you take a ranked team like that to overtime and you have opportunities its obviously a very positive sign, it just sucks to come out on the wrong end of it,” said Coach Wheddon. “If we play like this on Sunday, we win.”

The Syracuse Orange takes on the University of Miami (FL) Sunday at 12:00 p.m. at the SU Soccer Stadium.