Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Orange fall to Tar Heels, 16-8, for first loss of season

This one was never all that close after an early Carolina explosion put the game out of reach.

The Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse team were handed their first setback of 2025 on Saturday in their 16-8 loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels down in Chapel Hill.

The Tar Heels got their revenge after last season’s beatdown in the JMA Dome, getting up big and staying there as the Orange never got closer than seven goals after the early moments of the second quarter.

The outcome was decided quickly on a morning where UNC’s offense simply couldn’t be stopped. They used a seven-goal run to take a 3-2 game and turn it into a 10-2 score at the 11:00 mark of the second quarter.

The Tar Heels were relentless in the game’s first act. They scored on their first five possessions and, by my count, on 10 of their first 13. The Carolina offense essentially ended the game before SU knew what ran them over.

To be clear, UNC’s offense is a machine. They possess seemingly endless five-star talent and they put it on display in easily breaking down and exploiting SU’s zone to start the game they way they did.

It’s not just their offense either, as their draw unit dominated early to help them control possession, their defense and goalie are incredibly stingy, and their ride game is aggressive in a way that, even if you don’t turn it over, makes you waste a large portion of the shot clock just settling into your offensive set. They’re probably a top-two team talent-wise this year, at worst, alongside BC.

I do, however, think the Orange deserve credit for the way they adjusted in this game. They took a handful of significant body blows in this game, but found a way to pull themselves back up and keep fighting.

UNC got up 10-2 just 19 minutes into this game, looking like they were going to get close to a 30 burger in an absolute demolition. But ‘Cuse was able to stem the tide, and while they never got closer than seven the rest of the way, they did play the Tar Heels evenly for the final two-thirds of this game. The score was 6-6 in the final 41 minutes after that early onslaught.

The defense finally came out of their zone and went woman-to-woman to improved results. Carolina wasn’t so easily able to find open cutters after that switch.

The real hero of the game, if that’s even possible in an eight-goal loss, was goalie Daniella Guyette, who keeps getting better every time out. For the third game in a row, Guyette set a new career high with an incredible 16 saves to keep UNC from putting up a much bigger number on the board.

To make that many saves and finish with a .500 save percentage in a game where North Carolina put 51 shots up, 32 of which went on net, is simply outstanding. She was under constant pressure and stood up extremely well to it. All of that from a goalie making her fourth career start. Guyette is offering promise for a young defense that’s looked suspect at times in the early going of the season.

The offense had a tough time in this one. Playing without Olivia Adamson, most of the first half was marked by a lack of possession due to Carolina’s dominance on draws while playing make-it-take-it. There were some turnovers and missed chances in the first half, but I actually thought they did okay to score five against that defense with limited chances.

In the second half, they started to get more chances as the ‘Cuse defense started to get more stops. Unfortunately, they couldn’t do much with it as they turned the ball over more and wasted away some extra possessions. They only mustered three goals in the second half.

Emma Ward led the way with four points on two goals and two assists. Molly Guzik and Alexa Vogelman were the only other Orange to finish with multiple points, each netting two goals.

Draw controls were an issue all day, getting doubled-up by UNC, 18-9.

The Orange have a quick turnaround to another very difficult matchup as they return home to host the Northwestern Wildcats on Tuesday, February 25 at 3:30 PM on ESPN U.