Amber Pardee-Hill walked off the field Sunday with a smile across her face. A celebration near Syracuse’s net had ended, and Pardee-Hill embraced her family waiting in the front row of the Carrier Dome bleachers.

As Syracuse’s sophomore goalie drew closer to the crowd, the raucous cheering tuned into a collective chant that swept through the stands. Pardee-Hill looked up, waved and pumped her fist in excitement.

The fans’ chant: ‘Am-ber, Am-ber.’

Pardee-Hill’s 13 saves helped second-seeded No. 7 Syracuse upset top-seeded No. 9 Georgetown, 12-7, in the inaugural Big East women’s lacrosse tournament championship game Sunday. The Orange’s goalie out-dueled Georgetown goalie Maggie Koch, the Big East defensive player of the year. Koch made seven saves.

The victory earned the Orange an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which begins May 7. Syracuse becomes the first team other than Georgetown to win the Big East since the conference began playing women’s lacrosse in 2001.

Although Syracuse is known most for its offense, its defense was the strong point Sunday, led by Pardee-Hill. With 13 saves against the Hoyas and 11 on Friday in the semifinal win over No. 17 Rutgers, Pardee-Hill won the tournament’s most outstanding player award.

‘I can’t even describe it,’ Pardee-Hill said. ‘I’m not used to things like this, but it just feels really good. I worked really hard, and it paid off I guess.’

Sunday’s performance was arguably the best of Pardee-Hill’s young career and demonstrates how far she’s come since the beginning of the season.

Last year, Pardee-Hill walked onto the team as a freshman, stuck behind starter Jen Kasel and backup Ashley Pike. She played only five minutes all season.

With Kasel’s graduation and Pike’s switch to midfield, the goalie job was wide open. Pardee-Hill has played every minute of Syracuse’s 16 games and has improved considerably throughout the season.

At the beginning of the season, Pardee-Hill’s showed her inexperience and struggled to find consistency between the pipes. She allowed at least 10 goals in seven of the Orange’s first 10 games.

Opponents have scored in double-digits just once since, a span of six contests. During this stretch, Pardee-Hill has averaged almost 12 saves per game. Her save percentage of 50.5 is second best in the Big East among goalies with at least 10 games played.

‘Amber has grown tremendously,’ Syracuse head coach Lisa Miller said. ‘She has come so far in the last year. I do think goalies and defenders are linked. The goalies are the eyes of the defenders because they can’t see, and she can see everything.’

The entire defensive unit saw the field well Sunday, especially in the first half. The Orange’s defense limited Georgetown to 12 shots and three goals in the game’s first 30 minutes, highlighted by a strong defensive stand on one Hoyas’ possession that lasted nearly seven minutes.

Pardee-Hill made nine saves in the first half, including several difficult stops on point-blank shot attempts. With the first half winding down, she robbed a seemingly easy scoring opportunity for Georgetown’s Megan Bloomer, who snuck fewer than five yards from the cage. A goal would have cut Syracuse’s lead to 7-4.

‘When she’s hot, she’s hot,’ Syracuse defender Shari Appollon said. ‘She was moving her feet in there, she was talking to the defense, and whenever the defense gets to talking with her, great things happen.’

It was a frustrating half for Georgetown, a team that lost only two games to Big East opponents in program history – both to Notre Dame. Before Sunday, the Hoyas beat Syracuse 10 consecutive times.

Georgetown’s Coco Stanwick, the Big East attack player of the year, managed one goal before halftime, two in the entire game. Stanwick’s lone first-half goal came off a rebound after Pardee-Hill made a sparkling save on a free-position opportunity.

‘I thought (Pardee-Hill) played a very good game,’ Georgetown coach Ricky Fried said. ‘Not to take anything away from her, we shot high an awful lot. And to her credit, she was able to save the shots.’

With the NCAA tournament looming, Pardee-Hill will be considered another weapon in Syracuse’s arsenal. The Orange has a goalie to anchor its defense, and Sunday showed just how far she’s come.

‘A lot of hard work, practice, teammates help me out,’ Pardee-Hill said of her improvement. ‘Coach, coach Miller and Battaglino always tell me what to do, teammates help me out, everybody just helps me out. And it’s not part of a team without them. It wasn’t just me out there.’

Published on April 28, 2007 at 12:00 pm