Toeing the eight-meter arc, Meaghan Tyrrell swung her stick around in a small circle. She took a deep breath, and when the whistle blew, sprinted in toward the goal in a free-position opportunity. Her shot, a lefty overhand attempt, found the back of the net. With eight seconds left, she gave Syracuse a 14-13 advantage. She threw her stick down and jumped into Megan Carney’s arms. After blowing a handful of leads throughout the game, SU earned a one-point advantage with eight seconds left, and never lost it.

It took them more than 59 minutes to clinch it, but No. 4 Syracuse (7-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) eventually came away with a 14-13 victory over Florida (3-4) on Wednesday night in Gainesville, Florida. The Orange jumped out to a six-goal advantage in the first half and never trailed after the opening minute, but failed to ever pull away from the Gators. Five different players scored two or more goals for SU, paced by four first-half goals by Emily Hawryschuk.

Kassidy Bresnahan put Florida on the board first, scoring just over a minute into the game. But for the next 20 minutes, Syracuse dominated the Gators. Just past the 26-minute mark, Sam Swart tied the game off a pass from Hawryschuk after she cut through the middle of the field. She was followed by Vanessa Costantino, who scored unassisted to give the Orange the lead.

From then on, Hawryschuk took over. The junior scored after receiving a screen from Tyrrell and faking a pass to the freshman as she rolled. Then, the two teamed up again during a 3-player motion. Tyrrell shuffled the ball to Hawryschuk who finished to put SU up 4-1.

After Swart’s second goal of the game came on a free position shot it was Hawryschuk again, off a slick pass from Nicole Levy, who earned a free position opportunity of her own. Mary Rahal added to Syracuse’s advantage 38 seconds later, when she dodged through three separate Gators defenders and scored on an overhand shot to give SU a 7-1 lead, prompting a Gators timeout.

While Florida was getting torched on defense, it became flustered on offense as well. For most of the contest, Grace Fahey face-guarded Lindsey Ronbeck, who came into Wednesday’s game with 26 goals, tied with Hawryschuk for ninth in the country. Fahey held her scoreless through the first 16 minutes. Asa Goldstock, meanwhile, saved five of the first six shots she faced.

But following that timeout, the Gators appeared more composed. They scored out of the break and were promptly answered by Hawryschuk’s fourth of the game. But then they went on a run. It began on a free position from the left side of the goal and was followed by Ronbeck’s first score of the game, also off a free position attempt.

Florida stretched its run to four-straight after a third free position score and a goal on a slow bounce shot to Goldstock’s right. While Rahal tallied the last goal of the half after taking the ball from midfield to score herself, Syracuse clung to just a 9-6 lead heading into the break.

Natalie Wallon looked poised to score the first goal of the second half early on, but when her free position shot was stopped, the Gators immediately turned the save into a goal. Cara Trombetta cleared the ball, taking it upfield before finding Grace Haus, who cut SU’s lead to two.

While Ronbeck scored soon after off a won draw, Levy quickly doubled the gap off an underhand shot minutes later. The ensuing five minutes saw an uptick in chances for Florida, who was stifled by Goldstock until Ronbeck found an opening in the Syracuse zone and scored with 16:31 left. After a Hawryschuk shot attempt ricocheted off the goalpost, the Gators converted on the other end off a goal from Shannon Kavanaugh, who also scored from the middle of the zone.

The goal knotted the game at 10, the first time the teams were tied since the opening minute of the game. The goal pushed Florida’s run to 9-3 since SU had gone up six goals. The teams then alternated goals, with Syracuse scoring two and the Gators one, before the Orange finally regained their two-goal advantage. The insurance came via the stick of Levy, whose second goal came of the game with 5:11 left and pushed the score to 13-11.

But just like they’d done all game, the Gators came back. Ronbeck scored twice in a row, including the game-tying goal with 44 seconds left in the game. Morgan Widner won the ensuing draw for Syracuse, who called a timeout six seconds later. Wallon pushed the ball upfield and passed the ball to Tyrrell, who was fouled in inside. That set up the game-winner, the first of her career.

Syracuse is back in action on Sunday, when it travels to Lousiville for its third ACC game of the season. Last year, the Orange defeated the Cardinals 19-8 in their regular-season finale.

Published on March 13, 2019 at 10:22 pm

Contact Eric: erblack@syr.edu | @esblack34