Last-second losses tend to sick to the memory of any team – unless that team is the Syracuse women’s soccer team.

With just 7.9 seconds remaining in the second and last overtime, Rutgers broke a scoreless tie with Syracuse to steal a 1-0 win on Friday night. But last night, the Orangewomen rebounded to earn a 2-0 win at St. John’s.

After the loss to Rutgers, though, a win on Monday was tough to predict.

‘We’re obviously upset and a little disappointed,’ defender Erica Mastrogiacomo said Friday. ‘We came out really psyched up and the score was 0-0 in a two-overtime game. It came down to the last minute and that’s always a heartbreaker.’

Rutgers (7-3-2, 1-0 Big East Mid-Atlantic Division ) outshot SU (8-3, 2-0 Big East Northeast Division), 16-5, and consistently controlled the ball.

‘I don’t know if I would say (the game) dragged,’ goalkeeper Emily Kowalczyk said. ‘We were just waiting to get into a rhythm and it just never came. It was a weird game, the wind was kind of a factor, but it was just a frustrating game to play.’

The most frustrated of the Orangewomen, though, was midfielder Anne-Marie Lapalme. For the entire game – 90 minutes of regulation plus both 10-minute overtimes – Lapalme marked Rutgers star Carli Lloyd. Lapalme contained Lloyd until Lloyd headed in a cross to score the winning goal.

‘I marked her my sophomore year and I totally took her out of the game that time,’ Lapalme said. ‘But she did great and played hard the whole time. She’s a lot more mature than she was. It was really frustrating because she scored the winning goal. She’s a really good player and it’s really hard to stay with her the whole time. I could have probably done better but she didn’t really do anything until the end of the game.’

The Orangewomen, though, praised Lapalme for her efforts.

‘Anne-Marie played very well,’ Mastrogiacomo said. ‘She was tight on Lloyd and didn’t give her anything. She practically couldn’t walk when she got off the field, she had been running so hard.’

Instead, the Orangewomen blamed their lack of ball control for the loss.

‘As a team, we didn’t keep possession well and we were making it too easy for them and let them control the game. We played well, but we definitely could have played better. Obviously, it wasn’t good enough for a win. In the past, games like this have hurt our chances at the postseason.’

But it was an interdivision game for SU, so it didn’t affect its Big East record – just its overall one.

Monday’s game at St. John’s (5-7-1, 1-2 Northeast) was an in-division game, though. And SU found a way to quickly recover and win on Sunday.

SU beat the Red Storm 2-0 in their sixth shutout of the year with Lapalme scoring the opening goal.

So, after a combined 200 minutes of solid play, the Orangewomen finally had a win to show from it.

‘Our defense continues to play solid,’ Kowalczyk said Friday. ‘It just sucks that Lloyd scored in the last few seconds.’

Published on October 6, 2003 at 12:00 pm