Monmouth defender Casey Higgins slammed her stick into the cage in frustration as she walked to fasten her mask for the ensuing penalty corner. Syracuse led 5-0, but with less than three minutes on the clock it had earned yet another corner.

The insertion from forward Emma Russell came to Alma Fenne who stopped it cleanly. She found Laura Hurff to her left and passed her the ball to shoot, but Hurff’s shot knocked off a Monmouth defender’s stick.

The Orange had earned a penalty corner one final time, but once again it wasn’t successful.

“We earned them and that’s great, but it’s not scoring them,” said Roos Weers. “… We know we can be much better executing.”

Syracuse (10-0, 3-0 Atlantic Coast) earned 12 penalty corners and converted a pair of chances in its 5-0 win over Monmouth (3-8) Friday afternoon at J.S Coyne Stadium. With six chances in each half, the Orange exceeded its average number of corners a game – just over seven a game entering Friday – but the conversion rate fell far below the one-in-three mark expected by head coach Ange Bradley.

“Statistically it’s not where we want it to be,” Bradley said. “But we were able to get 2-for-12 and it’s better than 0-for-12.”

Liz Sack said that the team has been working on earning more corner opportunities by shooting more, driving the baseline and creating one-on-one opportunities. Bradley was happy with her team after it tied the second-most penalty corners it had earned this season.

With the SU offense controlling possession and limiting Monmouth to only one shot and one corner on the game, the ball was frequently in the offensive half and plenty of chances presented themselves.

The Syracuse offense found no trouble creating opportunities for itself against the Hawks in the first half, earning 15 first-half shots and six corners. All but one was squandered.

On the first corner, Weers’ shot went wide left. At about the 11:30 mark, Weers forced an off-balance shot on the team’s second penalty corner of the night.

The sole goal of the first half came on the fourth corner of the night. Fenne received the insertion, passed toward Weers in the back who rocketed a pass to Hurff crouched by the right corner of the goal with a pass that the midfielder poked in.

“Being aggressive really helped us earn corners,” Weers said. “… But patience is important once we have (a corner).”

Syracuse played more aggressively in the second half, Weers said, which led to six more penalty-corner chances. Caroline Cady earned multiple corners off the bench in the second half after playing less than two minutes of the first 35 minutes.

The fourth of SU’s goals came on a penalty corner. Alyssa Manley stopped the insertion and passed the ball to Lies Lagerweij who drove hard into the net and let off a hard shot that found its target.

“The more opportunities that we create, the easier it is to get a result in the end,” Sack said. “Sometimes it’s a matter of a shot finding its way through. It can be hard to convert.”

The Orange fell short of the established “one-in-three” mark for converting. After the game, Bradley wasn’t sure whether the problem lay with timing on the insert, the stick stop or the strike but will know more after watching film.

No matter the hiccup, Syracuse’s runaway victory could easily have been a much more convincing win.

“We want to win by as much as possible so it’s really frustrating when you get 12 corners and just score two of them,” Weers said. “We didn’t do that well today.”

Published on October 2, 2015 at 8:29 pm

Contact Liam: lpsull01@syr.edu