After slow starts in its only scrimmage and first game of the season, the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team made a point in practice of starting strong.

Less than two minutes into Monday’s home opener against Albany, it looked like the Orange had not learned its lesson. Albany scored the contest’s first goal before SU could blink, and the Orange was playing from behind again.

It was not behind for long.

No. 15 Syracuse (1-1) used a balanced scoring attack to explode for 10 first-half scores to beat the Great Danes, 19-6, in front of 301 at the Carrier Dome on Monday night. Syracuse now leads the all-time series, 5-0, by a combined score of 94-24-although SU’s dominance didn’t start right away.

‘I think I need to hire the Albany coach for her pregame talk,’ Syracuse head coach Lisa Miller said. ‘This is such a happy group sometimes it doesn’t get itself ready for that competitive battle right off the bat. We’ve started to change our practices and warm-up routine so we can dive right into it.’

The Orange was disappointed with ball control in Saturday’s 11-10 loss to then-No. 6 Dartmouth. The Big Green controlled 13 of the 23 draws, including several key opportunities down the stretch to seal the victory.

The opposite was true Monday. Syracuse won the draw-control battle, 11-2, in the first half alone – 16-11 overall – and spent most of the game on the offensive end. By dominating possession and using its superior team speed, Syracuse created scoring chances seemingly at will.

‘We did draw-control drills for about an hour yesterday in practice,’ said senior Ashley Pike, who added two goals and an assist Monday. ‘It sounds simple, but when we have the ball, they don’t. So we were able to come out strong and get up on them.’

Albany hung tough for the first 10 minutes. Albany midfielder Sarah Spillett added her second goal to tie the game at two at the 20:13 mark in the first half. Syracuse was unable to capitalize on its shots in front of the net early in the game because of several impressive saves by Great Danes goalie Jen Daly. But Daly could not handle the barrage of shots to come.

SU managed 27 shots in the first half, 23 on target, to Albany’s nine. In the final 18 minutes of the half, four Orange players combined for eight consecutive goals. Eight different Syracuse players scored, including five in the first half – a big change from last year’s squad, which relied primarily on Katie Rowan and Gaddy Fortune.

‘You cannot defend this offensive unit if you’re going to key-in or face-guard someone,’ Miller said. ‘There are more people to cover, and when you have so many options, they’re all going to score if you don’t focus on everyone.’

Though Rowan scored three goals and Fortune scored one, it was two rookies who were especially impressive. Christina Dove and Halley Quillinan scored goals within two and a half minutes of each other to give Syracuse a 4-2 lead. The two freshmen combined for five of the eight goals during SU’s scoring stretch.

Dove recorded a hat trick in her first career game against Dartmouth, and followed it up Monday with a four-goal, one assist performance against Albany. Quillinan topped her two-goal game Saturday by notching a hat trick of her own.

Senior Jill DePetris broke the game open just after Quillinan’s goal by scoring two goals in less than two minutes. DePetris scored a career-high four goals – one-third of her total from all of last year.

‘Last game at Dartmouth I had a tough day, so I knew I had to step up my game today,’ DePetris said, ‘It was really nice to have such a good game, a four-goal game, something I hadn’t done in the past. It meant a lot.’

Senior Melissa Pearsall scored her second-career goal and freshman Jackie DePetris scored her first to round out Syracuse’s scoring attack.

Though SU was able to bounce back from a slow start against Albany, one of the weaker teams it faces this season, it will need to get off on the right foot against top-10 teams Virginia and Georgetown in the next two weeks.

‘The lapses are getting shorter at the beginning of the game,’ Miller said. ‘It’s good we can come from behind, but I’d prefer we score first, start chipping away and get out to an even bigger lead.’

Published on February 28, 2007 at 12:00 pm