Last year’s Syracuse women’s soccer team needed 16 games to record its third win of the year. This year’s squad did it in three. Talk about a quick fix.

Yet somehow, even after a 3-0 win at Cornell on Sunday, the Orangewomen are having trouble finding time to celebrate.

‘We feel good about the three wins,’ senior captain Erica Mastrogiacomo said. ‘But we feel like we could have played better today. At times we played really well, but at times we were real sloppy.’

In the game against the Big Red, Syracuse’s strengths weren’t as visible as they had been in previous matchups. The Orangewomen’s defense had trouble stepping up to the ball, their passing game wasn’t as crisp and their offensive strategy wasn’t as effective as it was against Binghamton and LaSalle. The Orangewomen only had one more shot (18) than Cornell did (17). Still, they walked away with a victory.

‘I don’t know if I’d say we were lucky,’ Mastrogiacomo said. ‘I’d say (Cornell) was just more unlucky than we were lucky.’

Syracuse realizes that its win didn’t come, necessarily, because it was the better team. Junior goalkeeper Shannon Myers, who recorded her second shutout in as many games and has only allowed one goal all season, knows this as well as any of the Orangewomen.

‘Coming into the game, we knew that they were going to be a good team,’ Myers said. ‘Coach said that this is probably the best team they’ve had in eight years, and I would definitely agree. They were more perfectionists than we were.’

But the Big Red (0-1-1) wasn’t perfect enough. In the 38th minute, Myers roamed out of net and missed a catch on a ball that went right to a Cornell forward. Somehow, though, she managed to miss wide right.

In the 69th minute, Cornell forward Karne Hukee found herself with the ball on the outside of the box and let loose a blast that was well out of Myers’ reach. Instead of hitting the back of the net, though, the ball was rejected by the post.

Without their set offense working, the Orangewomen’s goals came mostly on the fly thanks to the speed of the new attack style. Sophomore Kristina Cristofori, junior Shana Thomas and junior Helen Fox – three newcomers to the team – used the speed they were recruited for to score Syracuse’s goals.

Thomas also assisted Fox on the last goal of the game.

To the newcomers, though, the undefeated start, which they are in many ways responsible for, is a somewhat of a surprise.

‘Obviously, we’re working really hard and practicing and all that,’ Cristofori said. ‘But it’s also kind of scary because we’re 3-0 and you don’t want to mess it up for the team.’

By having already tied last year’s win total, the Orangewomen have outplayed any negative comparison to last year’s team should they struggle down the road.

For now, the Orangewomen remain humble.

‘They were playing at our level, but our goals went in,’ Mastrogiacomo said. ‘It could have gone either way today.’

Published on September 7, 2003 at 12:00 pm