Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon shouted to Alex Lamontagne during the early minutes against Virginia to speak with her as the Cavaliers played the ball back to Courtney Peterson in the lower left flank. He wanted to talk tactics.

Normally, he communicated her on offensive adjustments, but on Thursday night, he coached her as a defender. Gone was the three-back, wingback system Wheddon had favored all season, replaced by a 4-4-2 formation. Normally on offense, she moved to defense.

“Tight,” he said, meaning he wanted Lamontagne right on the ball, as the Orange awaited its chance to counterattack, its chance to turn the season around.

By the end of the night, Syracuse (7-7-2, 2-5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) executed to tie the game on a transition play set up by Taylor Bennett, who moved from defense to offense where Lamontagne usually plays. The Orange abandoned the wingback system to match up with Virginia (9-3-4, 4-1-3 ACC). It resulted in the team’s best goal of the season, but still a 3-1 loss to the Cavaliers.

“We looked to the way Virginia played,” Wheddon said. “What they’re looking to do, and decided to put our team in this formation based on their personnel but also our personnel and how we can counter what they’re trying to do. It’s something that this team has done in the past.”

It was a different mentality and fun, Bennett said. Wheddon indicated earlier in season that the team could use her on offense. She scored the lone goal in the win over Miami as a defender, and played offense before the collegiate level. That versatility allowed them to go away from the system they played all year for this match, Wheddon said.

Virginia possessed the ball heavily early. Less than five minutes in, Montana Sutton dribbled around Lamontagne into the box and shot at Courtney Brosnan, who saved the rolling ball.

“As you saw they played a 3-4-3, they tried to outnumber you on the flanks,” Wheddon said. “We knew we were probably going to have to sit a little bit deeper and absorb their pressure and then try and counter out of it.”

That pressure felt, Virginia’s Hana Kerner hit a cross pass toward Lamontagne in the box. She headed it out, a routine defensive play soured. On the other end of the header, Betsy Brandon kicked the ball by Brosnan from feet away to take the lead.

Syracuse regrouped, huddled together as a team while play stopped and prepared to counterattack.

Twelve minutes later, Bennett recovered the ball in the defensive end and sparked the equalizer.

“I got the ball towards the midfield,” she said. “I saw that Syd (Brackett) was making a heck of a run coming up the flank on the opposite side so I rewarded the run.”

She passed to Brackett in stride. Brackett battled with Brianna Westrup for the 30-yard sprint into Virginia’s zone. Then she stopped, saw Georgia Allen running toward the box and passed by goalkeeper Laurel Ivory.

Allen knelt low, waited, then headed the low ball through the net for her second goal of the year. She rushed toward her teammates and pointed toward her sideline in jubilation. For the moment, the new system worked. Allen said it didn’t matter that she got the goal, but that the Orange finally converted.

The adjustment’s success was short-lived. After the second half in the 60th minute, Virginia swarmed Sheridan Street at midfield, got the ball left of the box and Megan Reid looped the ball to Veronica Latsko in the box who headed a ball high over Brosnan into the net.

In the 78th minute, a foul call prompted a penalty kick and visibly frustrated Brosnan. Westrup’s shot sailed just over her on the left side. She went that way, but couldn’t save it. Down 3-1, Syracuse needed to abandon the new gameplan it had brought.

“We then had to make a few more adjustments and play a little bit more direct and push more numbers forward,” Wheddon said.

Lamontagne came up to the midfield again, but with 13 minutes left time was too thin for Syracuse to mount a comeback. Bennett said the penalty kick call was “devastating.” On a night where the team produced what may have been its best-executed goal of the season, it still fell short.

Wheddon said they were on equal terms for 75 minutes, but as Kate Donovan’s final-second shot rolled to the right of an opening in the net, the scoreboard on the opposite side of the field read Virginia 3, Syracuse 1.

Published on October 19, 2017 at 11:56 pm

Contact Bobby: rpmannin@syr.edu