The Syracuse women’s soccer team came into this weekend’s two home Big East matchups acting as confident as ever. Certainly, it would walk away with two wins.

Turns out, the Orangewomen thought wrong.

Georgetown shattered SU’s confidence early, stunning the Orangewomen 2-0 on Friday. Sunday, Syracuse was eager to prove itself a formidable Big East competitor against Virginia Tech, beating the Hokies, 2-1.

In the Georgetown game, the team looked lost and unenthusiastic. When the Hoyas (2-5, 1-1 Big East) blanked SU, the team morale took a nosedive.

‘We were completely controlling the game, but we couldn’t put the ball in the net,’ senior defender Maureen Tohidi said. ‘I don’t think we played awful. By all means, we played well. We just didn’t capitalize. We can’t let a team get two goals up on us.’

When the whistle blew Sunday against Virginia Tech (4-3, 0-2 Big East), the game looked like another loss. SU’s play in the first half was equally as dismal as Friday’s game. The Orangewomen gave up 10 shots compared to the five they took. They entered halftime down, 1-0.

Then something clicked.

‘We were just letting them break us down,’ defender Megan Huez said. ‘We just all needed to get on the same page and that’s what we did in the second half. Then it was a different game.’

The biggest difference was on the front line. At the start of the second half, SU head coach April Kater inserted Helen Fox, Shana Thomas and Molly McManus, three of the team’s fastest players, into the forward positions.

‘We knew they were a little slower,’ Thomas said, ‘and coach just wanted us to go at them.’

‘She just wanted us to wear down their back four and keep hustling,’ McManus said. ‘We came in here knowing it was a big game.’

The strategy worked. Nineteen minutes into the second half, Thomas scored on a breakaway after being hit in stride by senior midfielder Anne-Marie Lapalme.

The team’s bench – and the crowd – stood and cheered for much of the final 45 minutes.

‘The crowd was great today and our bench was real supportive,’ Huez said. ‘When you’re tired and you don’t want to make that last run, you do because of that.’

In the second half, Syracuse managed to get 10 shots on goal compared to none for the Hokies.

After the Orangewomen tied the game at 1, it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.

At 85:17, it finally did.

After throwing the ball in to Fox, Huez ran upfield to the Hokies’ baseline. After Fox returned the ball to her, Huez let loose a high ball that landed just past the far post of the Virginia Tech goal, right to McManus. She then tapped the ball in front of the net, where Kristina Cristofori hammered it home for the winning goal.

‘I saw Molly and Cristofori,’ Huez said. ‘I was just trying to get it far post, where our players were.’

And suddenly, they’re confident again.

‘It’s even more exciting to win when there are people in the stands to support you,’ Cristofori said. ‘I can’t wait until Thursday when we play again.’

Published on September 21, 2003 at 12:00 pm