Thanks to a dominant 12-goal second half, No. 19 Syracuse defeated ACC rival Louisville 19-8 for its first conference win of the year in its regular season finale.
The Orange finish 1-6 in conference play and have a 9-8 overall record heading into the ACC tournament on Thursday, where they will meet fifth-ranked and second-seeded North Carolina in the quarterfinals. Syracuse takes the No. 7 seed, while Louisville is No. 8 with Sunday's loss.
"Louisville played a very good first half and matched our intensity," said Syracuse coach Gary Gait. "At halftime, we challenged our team to step it up, let them know the importance of this game and the players rose to the challenge. We had a very good second half – came out and put the game away."
The first six minutes saw two goals apiece for the Orange and Cardinals before Syracuse went on a three-goal run to go up 5-2 at the 19:48 mark, thanks to four assists from Molly Carter.
Louisville had a 3-1 advantage over the next 10 minutes, but Alie Jimerson assisted Cara Quimby with 2:39 left in the first to hand the Orange a two-goal lead heading into halftime.
Jimerson again got an assist to open the second half, this time to Mary Rahal, to extend Syracuse’s lead to three.
Louisville then went on a comeback surge, scoring three straight goals from Caroline Blalock, Ally Hall and Emily Howell to knot it at eight with 25:15 to play.
Yet Howell’s goal was the last for the Cardinals.
The Orange exploded in the Carrier Dome with an 11-goal spurt in the final 21:50, sparked by Emily Hawryschuk, who had two goals in the run along with Nicole Levy.
Carter led the Orange with five points on five assists, while Jimerson and Levy had four points apiece. Levy and Sam Swart starred on offense with hat tricks and Hawryschuk had a team-high four draw controls.
Syracuse won both 50-50 battles with a 23-13 edge in ground balls and 18-11 edge on the draw.