Six Syracuse teams are in action as the fall semester opens — volleyball, women’s soccer, men’s soccer, football, cross country and field hockey. Highlighted by SU football’s home opener against No. 1 Clemson on September 14, these teams will compete over the next three months.

Here is a statistic to know for each team heading into the 2019 season.

Karleigh Merritt-Henry | Digital Design Editor

This is the number of assists that SU needs to replace after the graduation of setter Jalissa Trotter. Last year, the Texarkana, Texas native appeared in all 28 matches and was the backbone of a Polina Shemanova-led offense — more often than not, it was Trotter lightly pushing the ball onto the outside from a Shemanova kill.

Against Miami on Oct. 12, Trotter tallied a career-high 57 assists in a 3-1 win, a mere 2.3% of her 2,520 assists stretched across her four years with Syracuse. Now, the responsibility to lead the Orange’s attack will likely fall to senior Dana Valelly. At times last year, SU head coach Leonid Yelin chose Valelly over Trotter in matches, including an upset victory over then-No. 22 Louisville.

“You’re not as timid and you kind of know the ways around the place and you know how the system works in the ACC,” Valelly said last season.

Karleigh Merritt-Henry | Digital Design Editor

The Syracuse women’s soccer team scored just 11 goals last season in 18 games for an average of 0.61 goals per game. Struggling with both creating and finishing chances, the Orange managed just 7.4 shots on goal a game and finished the season shooting 8.2% to their opponents’ 16.6%.

Junior Kate Hostage led the scoring with four goals in 15 games, and three others managed two goals. All four return this year with new head coach Nicky Adams looking to apply a more attacking philosophy. In SU’s first game against Colgate this season, it managed 17 shots, one shy of last year’s season high. Redshirt sophomore Laurel Ness, the lone goal scorer in the Orange’s season-opener, said the forwards are having more fun this year not being required to sit back and help the backline. Senior Sydney Brackett added that Adams has given the front three freedom to create.

Karleigh Merritt-Henry | Digital Design Editor

The last time Syracuse won ten games in consecutive years was 1992, 27 years ago. The Orange have a chance to do it this year after defeating West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl last year. Yet, the Orange have to replace offensive skill players in starting quarterback Eric Dungey, wide receiver Jamal Custis and running back Dontae Strickland.

SU is replacing them with redshirt sophomore quarterback Tommy DeVito, Oklahoma transfer running back Abdul Adams, and Michigan State transfer wide receiver Trishton Jackson. DeVito played in eight games last year, highlighted by a 181-yard and three touchdown performance in a victory over North Carolina.

Syracuse only plays one team ranked in the preseason AP poll: No. 1 Clemson. SU opens its season on Aug. 31 at Liberty.

Karleigh Merritt-Henry | Digital Design Editor

Since a national championship in 2015, the Syracuse men’s cross country team has added more than 175 points in the team’s final race each of the last three seasons. Three years after SU’s first place finish with 82 points, the Orange finished last season’s national championships in Madison, Wisconsin with 609 points and a 26th place finish.

The regression started before the loss of SU’s star-studded class of 2017 squad — Justyn Knight, Colin Bennie and Philo Germano — but continued into the first year of head coach Brien Bell’s tenure.

Leading Syracuse this season will be Aidan Tooker and Joe Dragon, who finished 90th and 123rd in NCAA’s, respectively. Without a clear No. 1 like Knight — who won an individual 10-kilometer national title in 2017 — for a second straight season, it’ll be difficult for Syracuse to compete for a title right away. But the Orange’s top-five runners from the NCAA Championships are expected to return for 2019. SU women’s cross country will look to return to the NCAA Championships after the Orange missed them last season.

Karleigh Merritt-Henry | Digital Design Editor

Syracuse won just one of its six ACC games in 2018, the fewest the Orange have won since joining the conference. With the graduation of Roos Weers — SU’s top defender and leading goal scorer — the Orange enter 2019 needing their returners to step up offensively. For the first time since 2007, Syracuse failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament, just three years after it won the national championship.

One game proved to be the difference between the Orange making the tournament and not, as Virginia, who beat the Orange 2-1 in overtime last season, claimed the final at-large spot in the NCAA tournament.

Karleigh Merritt-Henry | Digital Design Editor

The Orange will have to replace their leading scorer, Tajon Buchanan, in 2019. Buchanan tallied eight goals and 47 shots with 20 total points in 2018. Buchanan is playing for the New England Revolution in the MLS now, and midfielder Ryan Raposo and forward Massimo Ferrin will need to improve their goal numbers to make up for the lost production. Defender Sondre Norheim also chipped in five goals from the back line last season. He’ll be a big target for the Orange again this season as the leading target on set pieces.

Published on August 27, 2019 at 12:17 am