HAMILTON – Joanne Lombard called Wednesday night’s field hockey game at Colgate a warm-up for this weekend’s pivotal meeting against Connecticut. Judging by her play against the Raiders, one can only imagine what she’ll do for an encore in the game that really matters.

The sophomore defender registered a seven-point effort, including a hat trick, to pace Syracuse to a 5-1 win. Defender Michelle Sola scored the other two goals for Syracuse.

‘I think this was a warm-up game for us to really get out all of the jitters and anything that we had fear of,’ Lombard said. ‘And to see what’s going on before the UConn game so we can fix it.’

Syracuse (6-9, 1-3 Big East) forced 16 penalty corners during the game, setting up Lombard and Sola with numerous scoring chances. Four of SU’s goals came off such opportunities.

‘We had hoped to get goals off of them,’ Syracuse head coach Kathleen Parker said of Lombard and Sola. ‘(Colgate’s) goalie was short, and we thought that it would be hard for her to defend good, strong corner hitters. And it was.’

Parker also shook up the roster before the game, making three major changes. Freshmen Meg Ricker, Ashley Fry and Jess Wreski all made their first-career starts while junior Meredith Gettel and freshman Meg Stuart sat on the bench to start the game for the first time this year. Junior Lindsay Peirson also didn’t start, marking the second time that’s happened this year.

‘I’m trying to give people chances, opportunities and just trying to find something to get them going,’ Parker said. ‘I was happy with the way they played, but I thought when Peirson and Meredith went into the game, they played really well.

‘I don’t know whether that’s because they get mad at me so they want to show me, which is fine, but I wasn’t necessarily punishing anyone. ‘

Syracuse took the lead off Lombard’s first goal at 20:43. Sola set up the play with a strong drive to the cage, and after her initial shot was deflected, Lombard took control and put the ball into the cage.

Late in the first half, Lombard secured her second goal off another play by Sola. After Peirson forced a penalty corner with just over a minute to play in the half, Sola had her shot saved by Colgate goalie Jacque DeMarco. But the rebound bounced to Lombard, who put it in the cage for a two-goal halftime lead.

‘We’ve been really working on our corners,’ Lombard said. ‘Our entire corner unit, we’re out there before practice, practicing constantly and we really want to get it down. Sola’s been just awesome, working hard and pushing everyone.’

Colgate (5-9) scored its only goal off a broken corner play. Kath Shelley scored on a feed from Kristen Merkle to cut the deficit to 3-1 with 26:14 remaining in the second half.

Syracuse added two more goals in a two-minute stretch late in the game. Sola scored her second goal of the game off a Lombard assist with 12:49 to go before Lombard netted the hat trick with 11:28 to play on a Gettel assist.

‘It’s nice to score,’ Parker said. ‘It gives us some confidence and it makes us feel a little bit better about ourselves.’

Published on October 22, 2003 at 12:00 pm