On the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team’s first possession against Binghamton, junior Melody Agnew received the ball behind the net, ducked under a defender’s stick as she turned the corner and lofted a shot over Bearcats goalie Christa Quon.

The Orange, after losing the ensuing draw, stole the ball and rushed down the field on attack. Once again Agnew scored, this time on a Caitlyn Dragon assist, and it quickly became apparent SU would easily handle its second straight opponent.

No. 12 Syracuse defeated Binghamton, 20-1, Wednesday night at the Carrier Dome. The Orange attack followed an impressive showing versus Albany with an even more dominating showing. The margin of victory was just one goal shy of the largest in Syracuse history.

‘Clearly, Binghamton is a little behind us in developing their program,’ said Syracuse head coach Lisa Miller. ‘I’m pleased at our ability to dominate a game like this. It’s hard (to maintain focus). It’s easy to have lapses in games like this where they’ll have no consequences.’

SU’s attack controlled the ball so frequently the Bearcats only managed three shots, and didn’t score in the first half. Binghamton’s first goal came with 12:20 left in the game. At the time, the Orange led by 17 goals.

Syracuse (2-0) fired 35 shots in the game, 30 in the first half. Binghamton (0-2) tried to disrupt the attack as much as it could, but SU’s mix between ball control and aggressive attack proved too powerful. The Orange only took five shots in the second half, but scored five goals.

And it wasn’t just the usual names scoring for Syracuse. Nine different players had goals for the Orange, led by sophomore Gaddy Fortune and senior Monica Joines. Both players recorded four goals.

The freshman class also made contributions for SU. Defender Bridget Looney scored a goal in the second straight game and middie Kristin Brady scored her first and second collegiate goals against her hometown team.

‘Everyone gets involved (against weaker opponents),’ Joines said. ‘The real test getting everyone involved when you’re playing a top 10 team. As long as the younger kids feel comfortable taking the ball to the net, we can be very successful.’

Still, Syracuse wasn’t totally pleased with its performance yesterday. SU consistently lost draws, and only beat the Bearcats in that area by a slim 12-10 margin. It also turned the ball over seven times, most of those coming while setting up the attack.

And after the game, the team’s attention immediately turned to its next game against No. 1 Virginia on Saturday. SU realizes it cannot make those errors and expect to win this weekend.

‘I wouldn’t say I’m happy (with the way the team’s started),’ Dragon said. ‘There’s always room for improvement. We’ve been playing weak opponents, so we’re just trying to work out the kinks. We want to win more draws, we want to win more groundballs. We’ll work on that the rest of this week.’

Published on March 1, 2005 at 12:00 pm