The sky was grey, the air was crisp, and the weather was dreary. But the Syracuse University women’s field hockey team was on fire.
On Friday October 2, the women’s field hockey team beat Monmouth University 5-0. Syracuse played aggressively in the first and second half, which allowed them to dominate this game.
By halftime, Syracuse had 15 shots on goal with 6 corners while Monmouth had 1 shot on goal and no corners. Syracuse’s offense found many opportunities to penetrate Monmouth’s defense. Although the majority of this game was controlled by the Syracuse offense, the Orange struggled to gain goals through their many corner attempts. The more aggressive Syracuse played the more penalty corners that were created. In result, this put an extreme amount of pressure on Monmouth’s defense. During these corner attempts Monmouth’s defense did well to keep their form and block many of the tried shots by the Orange. Syracuse had 12 penalty corner attempts during this game and only scored on 2 of them.
Syracuse’s defense played an integral role in shutting down Monmouth’s offense throughout the game. Syracuse had 29 shots to Monmouth’s 1 shot during the entire game.
With Syracuse’s “on fire” performance they were missing one thing. One of the best women's field hockey teams in the nation received little to no support from their fans. Maybe it was the unpredicted cold of the evening or the rain? Whatever the case the fans were dismal. Throughout the game there were several chances for fans to interact. Whether it was through a social media trivia challenge or a half time shoot out competition. The encouragement for fan participation was there but the fans weren’t.
Altough it hasn't yet, SU fan support may play a key role moving forward. However, it may not. The team has made it this far with fan participation as is. Because they continue to make fan participation a large part of the home game experience, hopefully their fans catch on as the season continues into its’ last stages.
On Sunday the field hockey team continued its winning ways by defeating Cornell 9-1. Syracuse's dominant performance over the weekend was enough to jump UCONN, the only other unbeaten team left, in the Penn Monto/NFHCA Poll. This marks the first time since 2012 that SU has been ranked No. 1 in the nation.
The next home games for the team will be Saturday October 17 against No. 7 Wake Forest and Sunday October 18 against No. 20 Princeton. First they will travel to Kentucky this Friday to take on No. 9 Louisville.
