Although J.S. Coyne field was soaked from the driving rain Saturday, Syracuse head coach Ange Bradley saw her team in the middle of a fire against Massachusetts in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Bradley was looking for a player to throw the team on her shoulders and carry the rest of the Orange through the flames.

With the score tied at halftime, Bradley chose the one player who had been there all seasona- senior midfielder Shannon Taylor.

In an all too familiar scene, Taylor drilled a corner attempt off the goalie’s mitt and put the Orange up 3-2 with 20 minutes remaining. Taylor’s second goal was eventually the game-winner, as the Orange defeated UMass to advance to the national quarterfinals.

‘I think our team really relied on her (today),’ Bradley said of Taylor. ‘During halftime I told her you need to step up and play, get us on your back and let’s go.’

The victory earned the Orange a matchup against Princeton Sunday at 2 p.m. at J.S. Coyne Field after the Tigers defeated Penn State, 2-0. A win would send SU to the final four for the first time on program history.

‘Well we did it,’ Bradley said. ‘I’m really proud of the way kids competed because that’s always the toughest game in a tournament format.’

Making it past the first hurdle wasn’t an easy task. On Saturday, Syracuse saw a Massachusetts team that it had snuck by, 5-4, on Sept 28. That day, the Minutewomen scored more goals against SU than any other team this season.

‘We actually played (Syracuse) differently the first time,’ UMass head coach Justine Sowry said. ‘We actually did a little more homework, they’re No. 9 (freshman back Ann Sophie Van Der Post), she can handle the ball quite well so we tried to intercept the ball from her…and we definitely tried to target their other fullback.’

The strategy paid off, as UMass stormed down the field and drew a corner three minutes into the first half. UMass junior forward Cher King took a blocked corner attempt by SU senior goalie Heather Hess and drilled it into the net to put the Minutewomen up, 1-0.

The Orange responded the only way it knew how: By playing what it refers to, day in and day out, as fun, fast Syracuse hockey. Minutes later, freshman midfielder Martina Loncarica scored on a cross from Taylor to tie the game.

‘I asked Shannon what are we doing, and she goes (play No.) 7,’ Loncarica said. ‘(Shannon told me) ‘Sophie’s going to pass it to me’ and I go ‘Yeah and ill put it in the cage’ – she said OK and it was exactly that.’

Like she does following every goal, Loncarica spiked her stick to the ground and found Taylor, jumping in the air to give the senior her signature hug.

‘Well you know for us the best way to start off is a win,’ Bradley said. ‘It’s really about us and overcoming our own demons being able to get the results we want and for ourselves.’

Sticking to their signature style of hockey would mean placing the ball in Taylor’s hands to ride it out for victory, even in the face of a daunting UMass attack.

Forwards Katelyn Orlando and King hounded the SU backfield looking for loose balls. At times sophomore backs Maggie Befort and Kim Coyle suffered from a breakdown in communication as UMass intercepted passes in the backfield, contributing to its eight shots on the game.

However, the defense was able to relay the ball to Taylor in the midfield, who distributed the ball out to SU’s attacking trio of forwards, and kept the ball out of its own circle.

And at the end of the day, Taylor provided the heroics for the Orange. She scored in the 26th minute to put SU ahead 2-1, and in the 48th minute to break a 2-2 deadlock.

‘We were a little slow to start,’ Taylor said. ‘But it was a matter of could we make the change and we did and that showed at the end of the game when we came out on top.’

The victory revealed an Orange team seemingly un-rattled by the magnitude of its NCAA berth. As Loncarica said after the game, the team sticks to what it knows best.

‘We’re really excited (to be in the NCAA’s),’ she said. ‘We were coming from the hotel in the van and we were singing. It was great.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on November 15, 2008 at 12:00 pm