Early in Sunday’s second half, SU head coach Gary Gait called attack Emily Hawryschuk over to the sideline. Louisville was working the ball around on offense, but Gait had a message for his leading goalscorer.

“We were talking about defense,” Gait remembered, and then joked, “And she said I’ll just go score a goal instead, then I don’t have to play defense. Amazing how that works.”

In a tie game and with Hawryschuk only having touched the ball a handful of times, the Orange needed a spark. So SU gave the ball to the sophomore on the next possession, and she wouldn’t be denied.

A spin followed by a burst to the inside left her alone on goal with two defenders on her back. Hawryschuk scored, her 47th goal of the season, and SU never surrendered the lead again.

For about 30 minutes of game time, No. 19 Syracuse (9-8, 1-6 Atlantic Coast) allowed the winless-in-conference Cardinals (6-10, 0-7 Atlantic Coast) to hang around. Eventually, though, an Orange team with three ranked wins proved itself superior to a Louisville team with none and won, 19-8. The win won’t boost SU’s postseason hopes much. But Syracuse, on the back of five Molly Carter assists and an 11-goal run, avoided a disastrous defeat on Sunday at the Carrier Dome.

“It was the battle for an ACC win between the two schools that didn’t have one,” Gait said. “… Halftime, we challenged our team to step it up, let them know the importance of this game, and they rose to the challenge.”

The Orange still has the ACC tournament to pad its resume. Syracuse opens with two-seed North Carolina, a team it lost to 20-11 on April 14. But entering Sunday, SU was firmly on the NCAA tournament bubble. By RPI (rating percentage index) as of April 15, factoring in automatic bids, SU was one spot short of the 26-team tournament field.

“(A loss) would’ve made Carolina an absolute must-win or your season is ended,” Gait said. “Now, it gives you a chance to at least be on the bubble and keeps Carolina as important as any game we’ve ever had.”

Offensively, Syracuse seemed to get whatever it wanted in the first half. Even with Hawryschuk face guarded and neutralized, SU got open looks time and again. Its misses weren’t courtesy of great defending.

But the amount of misses allowed Louisville to stay in the game. With less than 10 minutes left in the first half, Alie Jimerson worked behind the net and Riley Donahue cut toward the goal. The seniors looked to set up a Senior Day assist and goal. But Jimerson’s dish wasn’t handled by Donahue, and the Orange was left wanting.

To begin the second half, Syracuse scored first. SU’s lead was three. Then Louisville woke up, temporarily. Caroline Blalock scored, and Ally Hall followed suit for the Cardinals. Emily Howell, listed as a defender, rifled a free-position shot past Asa Goldstock. The game was tied at 8-all.

“When the other team started putting a few goals right in the beginning of the second half,” Carter said, “we knew we had to put the game away.”

And that’s when the Orange’s top goal-scorer spoke to Gait, SU men’s lacrosse all-time leading goal-scorer. When Hawryschuk broke the 8-8 tie with her first goal of the game, SU’s offense found its groove.

“The second we got the first goal that started the run, we knew we needed to get the run going,” Hawryschuk said. “We needed to put the game away.”

Donahue scored soon after to give her sole possession of seventh place on SU’s all-time goals list, with 142. Then Neena Merola, a senior, scored for the second time. And Julie Cross, who spends almost all of her time on the field for Syracuse taking draws, ran a give-and-go with Vanessa Costantino, which culminated with Cross snapping her shot past Ball to make it four-in-a-row.

In less than nine minutes, SU had gone from tied to 12-8, and the thought of a crushing defeat could be put to rest. The run continued to the game’s conclusion, with the Orange eventually scoring the final 11 goals in a previously tied game.

Louisville had no response. The game turned into a blowout so quickly that, when Nicole Levy had an open look in front of the net with the Orange up nine, she didn’t just slot it past the goalie conventionally. Instead, she pivoted away from goal and shot backward between her legs. The shot, which Levy said was “just for fun,” summed up how easy the game had become for Syracuse.

“Once (the run) started three or four goals,” Carter said, “we had a lot of fun.”

Missing the NCAA tournament wouldn’t be as fun for the Orange. Last Tuesday, Gait said Syracuse just had to get in there to do damage, comparing his team to SU men’s basketball. A big second-half run on Sunday kept alive the Orange’s hope of doing just that.

Published on April 22, 2018 at 3:47 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3