Matt Harris collected a groundball at midfield and carried it past a parted Bryant defense right to the doorstep.

But as he reared his pole over his head to bounce a shot past goalie Gunnar Waldt, the Bryant sophomore went into a half split. Then covered his five-hole with his stick. Then personified a wall.

With less than three minutes left in the game, the Bulldogs clung to a two-goal lead and somehow, Waldt made a save worth a tad more than his other 12 on the night.

“I was just trying to run down and make a play, and to be honest kind of closed my eyes like I always do,” said Harris, a senior, with swelled eyes. “Now I can’t say that because I’m not playing anymore.”

In a staggering upset, Waldt helped Bryant (16-4, 5-1 Northeast) hand second-seeded Syracuse (11-5, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) a first-round exit from the NCAA tournament in the Carrier Dome on Sunday night. The Bulldogs edged the Orange 10-9, and Bryant leaned on the play of its sturdy netminder throughout — most notably in the fourth quarter, when Waldt made eight saves on 18 SU shots.

Waldt, who stands 5 feet, 10 inches and weighs 235 pounds, forced Dylan Donahue to hit the post in the final seconds of the Orange’s season, punctuating the win and sending his teammates flying about the field.

That was the moment Waldt was asked about, repeatedly, as he beamed through Bryant’s postgame press conference. Yet it was his work in the other 59 minutes and change that made the last-second heroics possible.

“It’s something we’ve grown accustomed to,” Bryant head coach Mike Pressler said after the game. “I’ll say it again here, he’s the best goalie in college lacrosse and I haven’t seen anybody match him week to week.

“He seems to always rise and play at his best on the big stage when we need him most.”

That was Sunday, as the Bulldogs looked to pull off a first-round upset of the Orange after falling to SU in a nearly identical situation a year ago.

In that game, Waldt yielded 11 goals — including two of the Orange’s three fourth-quarter goals before being pulled for the final three minutes — as Syracuse mounted a late comeback to win 12-7.

From the start of Sunday’s game, his thirst for revenge was palpable.

“They played a great game,” SU head coach John Desko said. “Especially the goaltender.”

When Bryant broke its pregame huddle, Waldt sprinted to the crease and smacked his hand into the netting of his stick before bobbing between the pipes.

Syracuse took a lot of first-half possession thanks to strong play by its defense and goalie Dominic Lamolinara, but couldn’t muster more than four goals in the first two frames. Because Waldt was seeing the ball so well, Bryant felt comfortable settling into a compact zone that forced SU to shoot from long range — a defensive approach BU continued throughout the game.

SU attacks took what the Bulldogs gave them but struggled away from the crease. And as the long-range shots kept soaring above the cage, the SU offense tried to beat Waldt low but didn’t fare any better.

“I was seeing the high shots really well,” Waldt said. “For the low ones I just lowered my stance, was also seeing the ball well and just tried to get my big body in the way.”

After holding Syracuse to four goals in the first half and five goals through three quarters, he elevated his game even as he let in shots. After Kevin Rice drew SU within a goal at 9-8 with 3:56 to play, Waldt turned away Harris. Minutes later, he shouldered Syracuse into an early offseason as the final whistle sounded.

But that time it wasn’t a save. Instead, Waldt’s first-rate performance ended with the ringing of a point-blank shot hitting the post.

It was just that kind of night.

“Just hold the pipe,” Waldt said. “I knew he was going low so I just went to my knees and held the pipe. Thank God he hit the pipe.”

Published on May 12, 2014 at 12:45 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse