COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Emma Russell collapsed to her knees and buried her face into her arm to cry into.

Syracuse had just lost, 1-0, to Connecticut. The fourth-seeded Orange had chance after chance throughout the game, but could not convert on any of its seven shot attempts in its first-ever national championship appearance in field hockey. The third-seeded Huskies converted on their first corner opportunity 25:33 into the game and that was the difference.

“It was a fantastic season,” said Russell, a junior captain. “Obviously, not exactly the finish we wanted.”

With only four shots taken in the national championship, the Huskies set the record for the fewest shots attempted in a Division 1 field hockey semifinal or final.

Syracuse dominated possession in the first half, although it only had one shot on goal. About eight minutes into the game, Russell was able to get it into the circle off of a pass from Lieke Visser, but the Huskies’ defense had its sticks out and stopped her.

A few minutes later, all-NCAA tournament player Alyssa Manley got it into the circle for the Orange and was able to get the ball around the goal. She stabbed at it and tried to poke it in, but the Connecticut defense would stifle the Orange once again.

“They had every player behind the ball,” SU head coach Ange Bradley said. ”UConn plays a very slow game. It was an effective style of play and they won.”

The Huskies’ strategy was to earn corners and capitalize on those corner opportunities while playing sound defense, Connecticut head coach Nancy Stevens said.

Their first corner opportunity came after the referees called a hard foul on all-NCAA tournament player Lies Lagerweij when she collided with a fallen Connecticut player.

Stevens noticed on film before the game that on SU’s corner defense, the Orange plays a certain player at one spot when running a 1-3 left defense and move that player over when it’s a 1-3 right or a low-box heavy defense.

With this knowledge, Stevens called a play that utilizes a player she called her best “tipper,” McKenzie Townsend, who ended up scoring the winning goal off SU goalie Jess Jecko’s pads and into the back corner of the goal.

“The hours of game film paid off,” said Stevens. “That showed us that that was the corner we needed to call at that time. And that was how we won the national championship.”

The Orange seemed to finally figure out how to deal with the Huskies’ slow pace throughout the second half, getting six shots on goal compared to the one SU attempted during the first.

Though SU players like Visser, Laura Hurff and Kati Nearhouse continually drove the ball into the circle, the Huskies seemed to always poke their sticks into the right holes and find a way to get the ball out of danger.

“Time ran out on us today,” Bradley said. “If we had been able to play them in overtime, or have another 30 minutes, the outcome could’ve, should’ve, would’ve, but it wasn’t.”

The Orange seemed to get some last-second life as the team was awarded a penalty corner with just 21 seconds remaining in the game.

Visser inbounded the corner to teammate Jessica Ross who fired the ball to Lauren Brooks by the goal, but the referee blew his whistle as sticks collided and awarded possession to Connecticut.

Bradley yelled at Russell to run to the referee to review the call he made, but by the time Russell heard her and ran to ask for a review the game was over.

Although the moments after resulted in tears from leaders Russell and senior Jordan Page all the way down to the freshman, the future is bright for Syracuse.

The team only loses three seniors and will return its impressive 10-player freshman class with this year of experience.

“It’s great to have another season,” Russell said. “We’re losing three great seniors, but we have a lot of returners.”

Published on November 23, 2014 at 5:41 pm

Contact Ryan: rlraigro@syr.edu