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Up 3-0 less than five minutes into the first quarter, Syracuse was awarded a free position against Binghamton. Meaghan Tyrrell started with the ball on the right side of the 8-meter arc as players tensed up waiting for the whistle.

Once she heard it, Meaghan flipped a routine pass to a wide-open Natalie Smith in front of the net. Smith caught it as she ran towards the net and wound up for a shot. She tossed the ball in her stick for a split second before firing the ball over the right shoulder of goalie Emily Manning, who had next to no time to react. Smith recorded her first point of the season on that play.

“Everyone wants to score their first goal so I was really trying not to rush it,” Smith said. “I think with the help of my teammates boxing out I was able to get open on those eight meters and just finish them off.”

Smith’s three points against Binghamton (1-2, 0-0 America East) allowed Syracuse (3-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) to take care of business on Monday with a 17-10 win. Before facing the Bearcats, Smith entered the contest with no points and had only gotten off one shot through two games.

Tonight, the midfielder found the back of the net twice and notched an assist against the Bearcats. Her point total during the contest trailed only that of Meaghan and Megan Carney. Last season, Smith played in all 21 games in 2022, averaging over a point per game. Despite going through a brief stretch of four games without tallying any points early on in the season, Smith achieved season highs of three points against North Carolina, Cornell and Temple.

Following a successful clear by the Orange in the middle of the second frame, Smith had an opportunity to score her second goal of the half. She fielded a pass from her right side and drove up toward the goal before ripping a hard shot. It had a lot of speed on it, but missed wide of the goal.

Nonetheless, Smith continued her memorable performance in the opening minutes of the second half. Olivia Adamson forced her way through Bearcat defenders inside the 8-meter, but it was too crowded. So, she decided to go to her left and whipped the ball behind her to Smith, who instantly delivered a pass to Emma Tyrrell just barely outside the crease. With her back to the net, Emma quickly spun around and rocketed a shot past Manning to put the Orange up 13-3.

“I think we were just moving the ball really well,” Smith said. “We’re trying to look for those inside looks. It was just great timing. Her defender slid off of her and she was wide open, so I just hit her in the middle.”

On the defensive end, Smith impressed with her ability to stay in front of the Bearcat offense. Even after coughing up the ball during Syracuse’s moves going forward, Smith immediately tracked back, bothering Binghamton’s midfield and attack by swiping with her stick. Positioned in front of the 12-meter, she and Maddy Baxter dealt properly with any attempted passes to infiltrate the defense, standing strong and moving laterally with pace.

Syracuse continued to roll as the second half wore on. But not too long after Smith’s assist to Emma, another free position was given to Syracuse following a shooting-space penalty. The Orange set up Smith with a very similar free-position play to the one she scored on at the beginning of the game.

But this time, head coach Kayla Treanor put in Adamson to play the role Meaghan did. This time, however, Smith was set up completely on the left side of the goal instead of right in front. From the right side of the net, Adamson heard the whistle and passed the ball across the goalie’s face and into Smith’s stick. Smith gathered the ball as she ran towards the net. She easily finished the job by rifling one home just a few feet away from Manning to extend the lead to 15-3.

As time wound down in the third quarter, Binghamton possessed the ball for a while in the Orange half. That’s when Smith showed up on defense too. She forced her fellow Long Island native, Binghamton midfielder Kristen Scheidel, to give up the ball for a turnover. This disrupted the Bearcat offense, and they eventually let SU goalie Delaney Sweitzer pick up a ground ball. Syracuse successfully cleared the ball.

Smith will look to build off this on Saturday when the Orange take on Pittsburgh. Last year, she assisted Meaghan for a game-tying goal against the Panthers in the second period. But she was glad she finally got her first goal after a quiet pair of games to open the year.

“Everyone wants to score their first goal, so I was really trying not to rush it,” Smith said.

Published on February 20, 2023 at 8:40 pm

Contact Matthew: mahassan@syr.edu