It was a position Syracuse hadn’t found itself in this year. With one minute remaining in the first half, losing by one goal, Orange head coach Ange Bradley was forced to throw everything she had at No. 9 Connecticut.

Clenching her fists, the coach screamed ‘Lets Go!’ as she paced the sidelines, putting the No.1 Orange into a full-field press and attack offense, an agent of desperation for a team used to steamrolling its opponents.

The Orange got one more chance to shift the momentum heading into the second half of its 1-0 loss to UConn after drawing a corner. But just like the Huskies had done all game, they pestered, frustrated and ultimately stopped the Orange, as UConn defender Katie Semanoff busted through a seam and deflected midfielder Shannon Taylor’s attempt on goal.

Syracuse went into halftime knowing it needed to find a way to break down the UConn defense. The Orange never found a solution, dropping its first game of the season to Connecticut Saturday at J.S. Coyne Stadium in front of 862 fans. Just days earlier, Syracuse (15-1, 3-1 Big East) had moved up to No. 1 in the nation, becoming the first women’s program in Syracuse history to be ranked first in a national poll.

‘The ball just didn’t fall for us today,’ a somber Bradley said following the loss. ‘Connecticut has a tradition, they’re the Big East champions and they’re not reigning Big East champs for nothing. But my kids will learn from that, evaluate, and we’ll get there, don’t worry.’

Syracuse came out in the second half determined to forget about the first half, but instead succumbed to a game in which nothing seemed to go right.

Five minutes into the game, Anne-Sophie Van der Post received a pass off a corner attempt, made a cut toward the middle of the cage and buried a wide-open shot, appearing to tie the game for the Orange.

But as the team celebrated the game-tying goal, the officials emerged from a huddle well after the goal and called the score off because the shot hit a foot. A shot is only allowed to hit another stick. The call drained the momentary surge of momentum for the Orange.

The Huskies struck early in the game, when All-American forward Melissa Gonzalez stormed down the right side of the cage and fired a shot toward the goal. The ball cut through the defense and eventually deflected off an Orange player and into the net, giving UConn (13-1, 2-1 Big East) a 1-0 advantage. The quick lead allowed the Huskies to implement their gameplan.

‘When they got that goal, all they had to do was drop back on us and play defense,’ sophomore back Maggie Befort said. ‘They just tried to prevent us from scoring – they stopped playing offense all together.’

Following the goal, Connecticut shot only five more times the rest of the game, instead focusing on stonewalling the Orange attack.

Whenever Taylor touched the ball she was mobbed by UConn defenders, forcing her to look for second and third options.

‘Stopping (Shannon) was important,’ Connecticut head coach Nancy Stevens said. ‘She’s the head of the dragon. We had her matched up against our All-American Meg Wheeler, but we still had to double-team her.’

Whenever the Orange did manage to get past the immediate wave of defenders, the team had trouble capitalizing on breakaways, or any of its 13 corner attempts.

‘We needed to clean up our corners,’ Bradley said. ‘We were having some issues with that, we were also too narrow in our attacks, and we were creating too many narrow passing lines – we have to work to fix that.’

In the final two minutes of the match, Bradley and her team tried to reverse their fortunes, pulling goalie Heather Hess and pouring 11 players in attack on UConn’s goal. But the Syracuse attack was no match for a compact and experienced defense, as the Huskies intercepted pass after pass, spreading the ball around while working time off the clock.

Following the game, a visibly frustrated Bradley remained positive. Although she admitted there were circumstances beyond her team’s control in the loss, she would try and turn the loss into a learning experience.

‘It’s never good to lose,’ Bradley said. ‘But we’re going to work hard to make the best of this situation, look at some tape, learn the lessons this game taught us and make it into a win.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on October 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm