Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Orange slip past Notre Dame, 12-11, in Dome thriller

It was an exciting, back-and-forth game, but ‘Cuse made just enough plays late to take the win.

If you’re going to play in front of the largest home crowd in program history, you may as well give them something to remember.

The Syracuse Orange did just that on Sunday afternoon, where they defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 12-11, in a thrilling ACC clash in front of a program record 3,622 fans inside the JMA Dome to move to 7-4 overall and 3-2 in ACC play.

Those fans were treated to a show, as the Orange and Fighting Irish went back-and-forth in a game that was played within three goals or closer the whole way and featured six ties and four lead changes.

The Orange got out of the gates first with a strong first quarter featuring a couple woman-up goals and a 4-1 lead at the end. The second quarter was mostly controlled by Notre Dame, as they started to find pockets of space to attack the ‘Cuse zone and went on a 4-0 run that gave them their first lead at 5-4.

SU had the final say before the break, however, thanks to a smart free-position bounce shot by Gracie Britton and a waning seconds on-the-run goal by Emma Ward as she was fading away from the goal with seven seconds left to give ‘Cuse a 6-5 halftime lead.

ND came out strong in the second half, scoring a pair of goals to re-take the lead a 7-6 before some very nice end-of-shot-clock execution from Emma Ward to Emma Muchnick tied it back up midway through the third. A little more than a minute later, Caroline Trinkaus snaked through the middle of the defense to put SU back in the lead, 8-7. The Irish would grab one late in the third to send the game to the fourth tied up at eight.

The Orange put their foot down to start that fourth quarter, scoring three times in a little over four minutes to take an 11-8 lead thanks to a pair of nicely executed woman-up goals. But in a game where the teams traded momentum in quick bursts, the Irish were far from done. They scored two straight to bring it back to 11-10 with 5:13 to play.

With the ball back and needing a little breathing room, Gracie Britton found a cutting Caroline Trinkaus for a beautifully executed connection and bounce shot on-the-run to secure that extra cushion at 12-10 with 2:33 left in the game.

The Orange had the ball back again with a chance to run the clock most of the way down, but they lost it and then committed a green card in transition, leading to a Notre Dame goal with 30 seconds remaining to keep the game in doubt a little longer.

After a timeout, there was a mad scramble for the all-important draw control, which was eventually corralled by Alexa Vogelman just as she was getting fouled. The Orange were able to run the clock out from there and secure a win thanks to a fourth quarter in which they made just enough plays to eek out the win.

This was an exciting game of lacrosse between two ranked teams that featured a lot of back-and-forth on the score board and a lot of up-and-down on the field.

It also featured two incredible goalie performances that kept the momentum turning with every save that was made. ‘Cuse’s Daniella Guyette and ND’s Isabel Pithie combined to make as many saves as goals allowed, 23 in total. Guyette finished with 11 saves while Pithie made 12, each goalie having a 50 percent day.

The Orange had their ebbs and flows throughout the day, but the offense produced some really nice team goals and did enough against one of the best goalies and defenses in the country.

Crucially, the offense also had a fantastic day on the woman-up, scoring on four of five opportunities to make Notre Dame pay for their accumulation of cards (not counting two ND cards in the final 10 seconds as SU was trying to run the clock out). Without their excellent woman-up execution, the Orange probably don’t win this game.

Emma Ward (2G, 4A) had one of her best days of the season. She was throwing skip passes over the top of the ND zone all game, and her ability to see through a defense to find her teammates on the other side paid off to the tune of four assists, including two beautifully thrown and timed ones in the fourth quarter.

Carolina Trinkaus (4G) had a career high with her four goals, including the perfectly-placed bounce shot that proved to be the game-winning goal. Gracie Britton (1G, 1A) and Ashlee Volpe (1G, 1A) both had a goal and an assist. Joely Caramelli (1G, 9DC), Carlie Desimone (1G) and Alexa Vogelman (1G) all scored their only goals of the day in that critical fourth quarter to help push the Orange into a lead they’d never give up.

Caramelli also had a nice bounce-back day on draws, leading SU to a 15-9 advantage on restarts while securing nine to herself. Vogelman (2DC), Kaci Benoit (2DC) and Mileena Cotter (2DC) grabbed two each on the circle.

For the second straight game, Caitlin Defliese switched up her defensive strategy for the fourth quarter, perhaps in an effort to confuse the opponent. Against Loyola in the last game, the Orange played woman-to-woman all game and switched to zone for the fourth, which worked beautifully in helping secure that win.

Today, they did the opposite, playing zone all game before switching to woman-to-woman for the fourth. It didn’t work quite as effectively as it did against Loyola, but the Orange still made just enough stops to hold off the Irish at the end. It’s an interesting series of moves that last two games on the defensive end, and it’ll be very interesting to monitor moving forward.

Coco Vandiver (3GB, 3CT) had another stand out game leading the Orange defense, finishing with three ground balls and three caused turnovers, including a crucial interception late in the fourth quarter. Coco’s been a starter since she got first got here, but she’s taken it to a whole other level this season as she’s stepped into the void of leadership left by the graduation of her three elder defensive teammates.

The Orange will be back in action next weekend when they host the Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday, March 29 at 12 PM on ACC Network Extra. It’s not ‘Cuse’s last home game, but it is their last regular season game inside the JMA Dome, so it will double as Senior Day.