Saturday Wrap

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — From the beginning of Saturday’s game, Syracuse’s energy never wavered.

It didn’t matter that the team learned Thursday night they would be taking a six-hour bus ride to College Park instead of playing their final game in the Carrier Dome before it closes for renovations.

It didn’t matter that the Orange’s 10 seniors would have no senior day, foregoing the ideal indoor conditions of the Carrier Dome for a day in the 30s that felt like it was at the end of a Syracuse winter.

It didn’t waver as the Terps rallied to cut a 4-0 halftime lead to 5-4 with 19:06 remaining.

When the final horn sounded, senior goalie Asa Goldstock sprinted to midfield and leapt into the arms of her teammates after a 10-5 victory.

“It’s been crazy,” senior attacker Emily Hawryschuk said. “But at the same time, with all the craziness, it’s brought us together so much more than what we were two days ago.”

It was quite the result considering what had happened since Thursday afternoon.

The game was originally scheduled for Feb. 28 at 3 p.m., but as Maryland was getting ready to leave on Thursday, Maryland head coach Cathy Reese said postgame that a representative from the school’s Department of Transportation Systems said it wasn’t safe to travel due to the snowstorm projected to hit upstate New York this weekend. Reese said her team was prepared to stay the extra day or two in case the team was snowed in.

Syracuse missed the brunt of the storm, which dumped as much as four feet of snow in areas north of the city, according to Syracuse.com. Even after Maryland refused to travel, Syracuse still wanted to play and the game was rescheduled at Maryland.

“We wanted to play either way,” Goldstock said. “When we heard they were going to cancel on us (Hawrsychuk and I) got together and went to the coaches office with the two other captains Kerry (Defliese) and Vanessa (Constantino) and said, 'Let’s drive down there and play them on their home field.'”

It was Syracuse’s first win over Maryland (1-3) since 2012, when the Orange were the last team to hand Maryland a home loss before Florida ended the Terps' 86-game home winning streak on Feb. 15.  Maryland has now lost three straight games for the first time since 2006, which was also the last time it lost multiple home games in a season. The Terps are also 1-3 for the first time since 2002 and lost to Syracuse for just the second time in 25 all-time meetings.

Syracuse (6-1) was locked in early, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first half. The Orange got two goals from Hawryschuk, one each from Meaghan Tyrrell and Sierra Cockerille, and were rock solid on the defensive end. They clogged the area around the goal, and Maryland was hesitant to get into the thick of the defense to try to get off shots or draw free position opportunities.

“We need to step up,” Reese said. “With a team that has a lot of new people that haven’t had as much experience, we need them to step up quickly. We need them to put the team on their shoulder almost and not be afraid to attack and wait for someone else to do it because there’s not someone else to do it.”

Maryland also struggled to take care of the ball, committing 11 turnvoers in the first half and 20 for the game. Some passes to the middle were ones previous Maryland teams had finished, but today they ended as a Syracuse ground ball. When the Terps did get shots, Goldstock was there, making eight saves on 13 shots on goal while becoming the second-ever Syracuse goalie with 500 career saves. 

Maryland’s defense held its own on the other end, getting a breakout game from goalie Maddie McSally. McSally has traded time in net with freshman Emily Sterling, but the sophomore stepped up to make a career-high 13 saves.

“Honestly, I just said I was a badass,” McSally said of her mentality. “I just wanted to go out there and save the ball.”

The Terps had more energy to start the second half, getting a goal from Hannah Warther on their first offensive possession. Syracuse started to get sloppy as well, and Maryland capitalized cutting the lead to 5-4 and then 6-5. Following that goal, the Terps turned it over after winning the draw, which led to an easy goal from Hawryschuk. The senior scored five goals, including her 200^th career goal. The Terps wouldn’t score the rest of the afternoon.

“They finished the game like a veteran team,” Syracuse head coach Gary Gait said. “They took control and made the plays down there."