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Erin Flurey cut to her right and past the center circle and gave Ashley Rauch a lead pass in the middle of the Tar Heel zone. Rauch took big strides with the ball, but as she approached the goal box North Carolina defenders collapsed on her and she dished the ball to her left.

Freshman forward Maya McDermott fielded the pass on the left wing, but UNC defenders made her stretch farther and farther towards the sideline. McDermott wound her foot back to try to chip the ball back to center, but before she knew it, the Tar Heel defender had forced her out of bounds. 

“They are so quick every time you get the ball,” head coach Nicky Adams said. “it seems like you have three to four players swarming you.”

Syracuse (7-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) gave No. 3 North Carolina (8-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) all they could handle in a 1-0 loss on Thursday night. This is the Orange’s second straight loss after going on a record-setting six game win streak. Ultimately, SU were outshot 19-7 and couldn’t create enough chances on offense.

Syracuse hadn’t gotten a shot on goal 22 minutes into the game until Koby Commandant brought the ball across midfield and then deep into the North Carolina zone. She sent a lead pass in front of McDermott who had a defender in her hip pocket. UNC kept McDermott out of the goal box before she got flushed out of bounds left of the goal. Syracuse still had zero shots.

Just five minutes after that, the Tar Heels got three chances in a row at a corner kick. The first one was a low arcing cross from the right side of the goal that Jenna Tivnan kneed out of bounds. The second deflected off Kate Murphy and then was pushed out of bounds. Tivnan then lunged in front of the third corner and launched the ball out of the Syracuse zone. 

“You just got to be kind of psychotic to head the ball as much as I do,” Tivnan said. “I don’t know why they kept hitting it at me. I kept winning them.”

The only significant defensive hiccup for the Orange came in the 32nd minute. Tori Dellapruta stepped horizontally past defenders in the goal box, crossing the nose of goalkeeper Shea Vanderbosch. Dribbling to the left of the goal, Dellapruta tapped in a goal that tipped off the hand of a diving Vanderbosch. This gave UNC the only goal of the match.

The Orange came out of intermission pressing deep into the North Carolina zone. In the 52nd minute, the ball was bobbing up in the air as both teams struggled for the ball towards the right corner of the Tar Heel end of the field. Eventually, McDermott took control of the ball and got a hard shot off from a difficult wide right angle. The ball went out of bounds to the right of the goal post.

Only a minute or so later, McDermott was dashing up the left sideline with a lot of space in front of her. She found herself deep in UNC’s zone but Hansen quickly caught up with her. She chased down McDermott and made a clean steal on the ball before passing out to a teammate. 

Although the Orange continued falling behind in shots, she also kept putting pressure on the Tar Heel defense. In the 77th minute, Chelsea Domond made a short pass to McDermott just on the left of the UNC zone.

McDermott juked to her right past a defender and looked to Rauch, who had no one in front of her on the opposite side of the field. She delivered a cross to Rauch, but it was a little too far ahead of her. Rauch slid for it but couldn’t quite make it there and the ball rolled out of bounds. 

McDermott saw another opportunity with five minutes left in the match. She made a pass from the right side of the field all the way to the top left of the goal box to Blue Ellis. Ellis had a clean shot at the goal and booted a shot that made UNC goalkeeper Emmie Allen slide to her right and muff the save. The ball trickled in front of her as Syracuse players closed in for a rebound. But, a UNC defender kicked the ball out of bounds before the Orange could get another opportunity.

After a foul on McDermott in the 88th minute, referees gave Gianna Savella a set piece from the center of the North Carolina zone. Savella sent a long ball over Tar Heel defenders and straight to the top left corner of the goal, forcing an immaculate save by Allen, continuing to press the third-best team in the country.

“This is such a great tempo for my team right now and they are feeling really good about themselves and what they’re trying to do,” Adams said.

Published on September 22, 2022 at 11:41 pm

Contact Matthew: mahassan@syr.edu