Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Orange trounce Great Danes, 21-9, to kick off new season in style

‘Cuse came out of the gates on fire with a strong showing to open their 2025 campaign.

The 2025 preseason was dominated by questions of personnel for the Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse program.

Who would play where, and how would they do filling in the vacated spots?

With their convincing, 21-9 win over Katie Rowan-Thomson’s UAlbany Great Danes on Friday afternoon, a game that wasn’t even that close when the starters came out, ‘Cuse came out of the gates and answered a lot of those questions with a strong positivity.

Sure, UAlbany is on the low end of opponents SU will face this year, but that’s exactly how you want to start your season when you have such a young team. It gives them a chance start off feeling good and strutting their stuff.

And strut their stuff they did, especially on the offensive end of the field, where the Orange asserted their superior athleticism and overall class all afternoon long. They ran up and down the turf every chance they got, scoring eight goals in transition either from defense or draws. Their speed was way too much for Albany to keep up with.

On the whole, the SU offense dominated. They scored 21 goals on an amazing 62 percent shooting (21-of-34), and shared the ball beautifully with 14 assists (67 percent of goals).

They also overwhelmed with their depth, as 11 different players scored a goal, 10 players scored multiple points and eight players scored at least three points.

Olivia Adamson (3G, 3A) and Emma Ward (3G, 2A) led the team with six and five points, respectively. But the story of the day, in my opinion, was the impact of the new players on this game.

In total, six players who are either new to the team or new to the lineup scored in this game, and all six of them scored at least two points. Freshman Mileena Cotter (3G), redshirt freshman Alexa Vogelman (2G, 1A), freshman Caroline Trinkaus (1G, 2A), freshman Molly Guzik (1G, 2A), and Princeton graduate transfer Sam DeVito (1G, 2A) all had three points, while sophomore Carlie Desimone (2A) had two.

They did more than just light up the scoreboard, as well, as the above group combined for eight ground balls, seven draw controls and four caused turnovers. It was an impressive day to be making your ‘Cuse debut to say the least. I thought Vogelman and DeVito especially stood out in their roles as do-everything midfielders who impact the game everywhere on the field.

Emma Muchnick (3G) surprisingly started on the bench in this one and didn’t appear until almost 20 minutes into the game with a sleeve on her leg, but ended up with a hat trick. Gracie Britton (2G) started and rounded out the multiple-point scorers with her two goals.

The Orange started the game hot with a 6-0 run in less than seven minutes, with the first three goals being scored by newcomers to put a little extra emphasis on the role they’ll be playing this year.

Those six goals included a transition goal that started from the defense, a nice split dodge between defenders, a woman-up goal with a beautiful cross-crease pass, a fantastic diagonal pass moving downhill off a draw control, and a pair of goals initiated from free positions.

After the fast start, the only lull of the game set in for the home team, as the goals went quiet and Albany went on a 4-2 run to make it an 8-4 game early in the second quarter.

‘Cuse’s eight minute scoring drought (an eternity by the SU standards in this game) came to an end a little more than three minutes into the second, and it kicked off a 10-0 run that blew the game out of the water. The running clock started on an Emma Ward goal with five minutes left in the first half, and by the end of the run it was 18-4 ‘Cuse.

SU’s lead was 20-5 at it’s high water mark, but Albany capitalized on all the backups being put in and scored four straight goals in the fourth quarter to turn it into a 21-9 final.

Meghan Rode (11DC) took the draw controls as she gets the first crack at being Kate Mashewske’s replacement. It was a little inconsistent at the draws in this game, but overall a positive as the Orange led 19-14 for the day.

The defense didn’t give up much when the starters were in, although they had a few breakdowns at time. I think there will be growing pains for a defense replacing their three crucial central defenders along with their goalie. Although it’s tough to have too many qualms when a defense has as many caused turnovers (12) as shots allowed on goal (12).

Kaci Benoit (2GB, 3CT) led for the defense with a trio of CT’s. Daniella Guyette (3SV) had three saves in her first career start.

The Orange will be off for over a week before their immediately faced with their first test of the season when they travel down to College Park to face the Maryland Terrapins on Saturday, February 15 at 11 AM.