No. 14 Syracuse (8-7, 1-5 Atlantic Coast) ended its regular season with a 5-2 loss against No. 12 St. Joseph’s (16-2, 8-0 Atlantic 10) Saturday in Philadelphia. The Orange entered the game having lost two straight and looked to find their winning form again headed into the ACC tournament.

Despite their worst conference regular season record since joining the ACC in 2013, the Orange came into Saturday 8-1 in non-conference games. After six minutes, SU had its dream start.

Kira Wimbert didn’t start the game for SU, but within 30 seconds of coming on, she gave the Orange the lead in the sixth minute. An SJU green card gave the Orange a man advantage, and Wimbert slotted home the opening goal.

Syracuse’s lead turned into a deficit in less than one minute. Senior back Roos Weers said on Wednesday it was important for the Orange to “stay focused.” Saturday, St. Joe’s’ scored twice in 56 seconds. First, Anna Wilocks fired a shot past SU goalie Borg van der Velde. Then, SJU pressed the Orange into another turnover, and Emily Henry gave the Hawks the lead.

The wide open play continued throughout the half, when Syracuse earned a penalty corner.  SJU committed a foul off the corner right in front of the goal, giving Weers a penalty stroke. She converted to tie the match at two with seven minutes to go in the opening half.

Syracuse’s penalty corner defense remained stout on SJU’s first four corners, but the Orange couldn’t keep the fifth attempt out.  SJU recaptured the lead eight minutes into the second half on a Tonya Botherway goal.

Van der Velde then fouled a St. Joe’s attacker in the penalty circle, directly in front of goal, giving SJU a penalty stroke of its own. Wilocks added her second goal of the afternoon from the penalty spot.

The Orange continued to press higher and higher to get back into the game, and Botherway broke through on goal off a counterattack. All alone with Van der Velde, she added her second goal of the afternoon, to cap off a dominant SJU second half where the Hawks outscored SU 3-0 and outshot the Orange 10-2.

Five goals is tied for the most the Orange have allowed all season. SU also conceded five goals against No. 1 North Carolina on Sept. 29.

Syracuse enters the ACC tournament as the No. 7 seed and will take on No. 2 Duke in the quarterfinals on Thursday in Chapel Hill, N.C. Last time the two teams met, Syracuse failed to register a shot in a 1-0 loss.

Published on October 27, 2018 at 4:49 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo