Tom Perevegyencev set his teammate up perfectly in front of the goal. But when the ball failed to land in the back of the net, he could do nothing but scream in frustration in the corner of the field.

The frustration on Perevegyncev’s face erupted as a symbol of the team’s struggles.

With Syracuse’s 2-1 loss to Adelphi in its final non-conference game of the season, the team finished the 2009 campaign with its worst non-conference record (1-6) since the Big East started in 1984.

Despite the daunting statistics, the players – still in the midst of a chase for the final spot in the Big East tournament – consider each game of equal importance.

‘Every game for us is a big game,’ Perevegyencev said. ‘We want to win every single game. It was a non-conference game, but we want to improve our record. Every game is just as important as the next game or the game before that.’

Syracuse came into this season with a 19-game non-conference unbeaten streak, the longest stretch in the nation at the time. But the Orange dropped its first game of the season at Binghamton to snap that streak, and then lost six of its seven non-conference matches on the season.

Since Big East play began, Syracuse has finished with a losing non-conference record only three times: In 2004, the Orange finished at 2-5, and in 1993, tallied a 4-6-1 record out of conference.

The poor non-conference record showcases the struggles Syracuse has faced during this grueling season. In the last four seasons under head coach Dean Foti, Syracuse has started each season without a single non-conference loss before heading into Big East play.

But this year, the Orange lost four of its first five games, all outside the Big East, before diving into conference competition. The cushion Syracuse has usually built for itself was not there at the early portion of the 2009 season.

The players can point to one factor that led to this year’s lack of non-conference success.

‘We didn’t finish them,’ senior defenseman Brien Chamney said of this season’s non-conference games. ‘They weren’t, I wouldn’t say, any better than they were last year. We had our chances and we just didn’t execute well, and that’s the end of the story.’

Now that non-conference play has drawn to a less than satisfactory close, Syracuse can look ahead to its final three games of the season. The team will have to prepare itself to meet the challenge.

‘We know what we have to do for the next three games,’ Perevegyencev said. ‘We’re going to try to play the best we can, especially because I’ve got three games left, and all the other seniors, as well.’

Syracuse will now have to take the lessons learned from its seven non-conference games and carry them into the last three Big East games of the season. The Orange will have to avoid the pitfall of looking back at its misfortunes this season, and must look forward to the end of the season.

Even with the dark shadow of history hanging over its head.

‘First things first, we’ve got to come out to play,’ Chamney said. ‘Today we (had) a poor showing, especially at the beginning. If we’re going to win games, we’ve got to come out with some more intensity.’

azmeola@syr.edu

Published on October 20, 2009 at 12:00 pm