She dove. She kicked. She pounced.

The only thing Betsy Wagner didn’t do was allow a goal.

While stopping nine Massachusetts shots on a variety of diving saves, the junior Syracuse field hockey goalie earned her second shutout of the season in the Orangewomen’s 3-0 victory over UMass on Friday at Coyne Field.

Unlike her first shutout of the season, a 4-0 win over Columbia in which Wagner didn’t face a single shot, the Minutewomen launched a barrage of shots at Wagner. She met the challenge, repeatedly coming out of the cage to stop UMass shot attempts.

‘Tonight we faced a better team with a lot better skills (than Columbia),’ Wagner said. ‘Normally coming out of the goal is my style of play. In the game where I didn’t face any shots, you didn’t get a chance to see that. But I tend to come out a lot more than most other goalies.’

The Minutewomen had a chance to take control early in the game. On back-to-back direct corners, Wagner turned away UMass shots. Following the saves, the Orangewomen (4-6, 0-2 Big East) seized control, scoring three unanswered goals to close out the half.

Wagner’s best play came in the second half, protecting SU’s lead. With just under seven minutes to play, the Minutewomen (2-9) had their best opportunity of the game, firing a shot from close range. But Wagner ranged far out of the cage to make the save. On the ensuing corner, Wagner once again came up with a key kick save.

‘As a defender you rely on your goalie so much,’ sophomore back Joanne Lombard said. ‘Betsy is amazing back there and we can always count on her for the saves.’

Said senior forward Ann-Marie Guglieri: ‘I’m not sure if (the saves were a) turning point, but it always builds your confidence because you know your keeper’s in it from the starting whistle.’

On offense, SU’s corner game finally came to life. Executing corners has been a focus for SU since the beginning of the season, and Friday, it finally paid off. The Orangewomen’s first two goals came off of corner attempts. Syracuse used a press which forced UMass into mistakes to set up corner attempts.

Unlike previous games, when the Orangewomen rarely took direct shots off corners, both goals came off of direct shots. On the first goal, with just over 20 minutes to play in the first half, Meredith Gettel inserted the ball into play. Guglieri then set it for Lombard who fired and scored her team-leading fifth goal of the season.

The Orangewomen used the same strategy on their second goal, 12 minutes later. This time, Jackie Sheaffer inserted the ball, Guglieri again set it, this time for Michelle Sola, who scored for the second straight game. Guglieri later added the Orangewomen’s third goal of the game. Parker said the direct shot was more effective because of the way UMass’s defensive unit set up.

‘Jo has a nice corner hit and she has nice direction on it,’ SU head coach Kathleen Parker said. ‘Sola has been working on her hit a lot in the last couple weeks. She was really hot in warm-ups before the game, so I wanted to give her a call to strike one also.

‘Man, if you can have two corner hitters like those two and they can get consistent, we could be deadly.’

Published on October 6, 2003 at 12:00 pm