Florine Hogendoorn ran toward the folding chair on the sideline. As she approached it, the freshman threw her stick against fence, folded her arms and dropped into the seat. On the field, North Carolina prepared for a penalty corner and assistant referee Judith Strong put her yellow card back into her pocket.

Hogendoorn’s caution came with 5:34 left in regulation with Syracuse down, 2-1, to the Tar Heels. It marked the sixth caution the Orange received in the contest, compared to just one for Carolina. Although, SU tied the game and forced overtime, the referees left their mark in Saturday’s game.

No. 6 Syracuse (8-2, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) fell to No. 7 North Carolina (8-2, 2-1), 3-2, Saturday at J.S. Coyne Stadium in a matchup of two of the country’s premiere teams. Since Ange Bradley took over the SU program 11 years ago, the two had split 12 games. The Tar Heels now hold a one-game lead over Bradley, and much of it Saturday came because SU players had to watch from the sidelines as UNC scored.

Bradley was not made available for media after the game.

Both sides played physically from the opening whistle: pushing, shoving, tripping. Head referee Stephanie Judefind repeatedly stopped play to settle tiffs between the two teams. In the 12 minutes in, Judefind decided she had seen enough from Erin Gillingham and gave her a green card. Over the next 20 minutes, neither side received a card, but both continued to receive warnings.

The physical play prevented offense. Through the first 30 minutes, the teams shot three times, two for Carolina and one for SU.

In the 32nd minute, Eef Andriessen received a green card, giving SU an advantage, but the Orange couldn’t capitalize. As Andriessen returned to play, Laura Hurff received a green card, followed by Lies Lagerweij. With less than two minutes in the first half, Syracuse was two players down and defending its own half of the field.

UNC capitalized where SU could not. The Tar Heels scored a penalty corner as time expired in the first half. This marked the first time this season the Orange was outshot in the first half and the first time it trailed.

“We didn’t expect it to be that physical,” Roos Weers said.

In the second half, tensions only heightened. Gillingham received another green card in the 50th minute and as soon as SU was relieved of the caution, the Tar Heels scored.

Elaine Carey immediately answered to bring the game back within one. From the time of Gillingham’s second green card, the Orange was down a player for 12 of the final 20 minutes. Gillingham and Hogendoorn each received yellow cards in crunch time.

“There’s nothing I can change now,” Gillingham said. “I don’t even know what to say.”

The Orange forced overtime before falling to UNC in the second minute of the extra period, but North Carolina didn’t score this Saturday with Syracuse at full force.

Some of that was because the Orange hurt itself with cautions.

Published on September 23, 2017 at 6:34 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu