Erica Bodt threw her stick to the ground, Kayla Treanor lifted her arms up into the air and Ella Thorpe did cartwheels on the sideline.

Bodt just scored the go-ahead goal for Syracuse, breaking a trend that Gary Gait said plagued the Orange earlier this season.

“In the past, we’d have that same opportunity and we’d throw it in the goalie’s stick,” Gait, the SU head coach, said. “Today she buried it.”

Thanks to Bodt’s goal with seven minutes to play, the No. 9 Orange (11-6, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) beat No. 19 Albany (11-3, 4-1 America East) 14-12 on Sunday in the Carrier Dome on Senior Day in front of 997. Despite blowing a four-goal lead in the second half, Syracuse came away with the two-goal win.

In the Orange’s past three games decided by less than three goals, its record was 0-3. But against Albany, the slump finally ended.

“We keep talking about answering a run and stepping up,” Gait said.

Treanor, who’s been constantly double-teamed this season, dished out four assists, including the pass to a cutting Bodt, who shot sidearm from the top of the 8-meter arc into the top right corner for the game-winner.

Her four assists tied a season-high, a testament to SU’s evolving offense, which includes setting up other teammates when Treanor is covered.

“We really focused on popping out and helping her and getting the pressure of her,” said senior Loren Ziegler, who scored five goals. “And I think we did really well with that today… When the time was right to cut and help her out, we executed on that.”

While Bodt gets the recognition for scoring the game’s most important goal, it was Syracuse’s defense that also made crucial contributions in the final 10 minutes. Without senior captain Mallory Vehar, who was forced to leave the game with just more than 19 minutes left in the first half after receiving her second yellow card, the defense struggled early on, but made key stops late.

After Albany tied up the game at 12 with 11:42 left, the SU defense discussed associate head coach Regy Thorpe’s go-to phrase “calm is contagious,” defender Brenna Rainone said.

SU goalie Kelsey Richardson made two saves down the stretch, one with her body and one with her stick, causing the home crowd to chant her name.

“Give her credit,” Albany head coach John Battaglino said of Richardson, “We got a couple good shots off, she made a couple good saves.”

With just under five minutes left, Albany had a chance to tie the game, but Syracuse’s Kelsey Youmell forced a turnover and Richardson picked up the ground ball. During the ensuing clear, Thorpe cupped his hands around his mouth while yelling commands with the game still on the line.

Moments after Gait told his team to “just hold it,” Riley Donahue charged toward the net and shot, but the ball was saved and it deflected into the air. It was caught by an Albany defender, but attack Kailah Kempney checked it out of her stick and back into the air.

Donahue then scooped the ball in for the Orange’s final goal — a crazy sequence punctuating a back-and-forth game that had seven ties.

Though each of the last two goals were scored differently, both of them differed from SU’s recent tendencies.

“The final goal was just a bounce our way, which hasn’t happened much this year,” Gait said, “and it was nice to get one, finally.”

Staff writer Jon Mettus, jrmettus@syr.edu, contributed reporting to this article.

Published on April 19, 2015 at 6:25 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds