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With the game tied as the halftime horn sounded, the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team trudged into the locker room. But one player, goalie Asa Goldstock, stayed on the field. Goldstock spent almost the entirety of the 10-minute break facing shots from a trainer.

Goldstock allowed seven first-half goals on just nine shots on goal. Four of those goals came off free-position plays for Virginia Tech, so Goldstock was practicing for those moments.

The halftime practice paid off, as Goldstock’s work in net led to Virginia Tech going 1-for-6 on second-half free-position plays. Goldstock and Syracuse (6-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) stifled the Virginia Tech (3-6, 0-4) offense in the second half for a 17-10 comeback win. Syracuse trailed by two near the end of the first half but scored nine unanswered goals while holding the Hokies to just three in the second half.

“We were not clicking on all cylinders in that first half defensively,” head coach Gary Gait said. “We weren’t anticipating the passes, we weren’t using a full effort to get to every spot, and we were kind of sluggish.”

With the Virginia Tech bench shouting to warn their teammates of the waning shot clock, there was no rush from the Hokies. They worked the ball from the top of the zone to the right side of Goldstock’s goal. As the SU zone shifted over, the Hokies played a quick pass behind the net and then another to Sarah Lubnow on the left side of the goal. With Syracuse scrambling back over, Emma Crooks ran right in front of goal and received a quick pass from Lubnow to score and start the rally.

The following three goals were all free-position plays. With four opportunities in five minutes, the Hokies punished the Orange by scoring three goals, and Syracuse found itself trailing in a game for just the second time this season.

“It allowed them to get some easy opportunities, a lot of 8-meters because we weren’t getting out of the eight, or we were in shooting space,” Gait said. “So the second half, we changed up the defense a little bit and went with more of a less-pressure (zone), protect the middle a little bit more, and I thought we improved.”

But in the second half, Syracuse’s defensive adjustments showed. While there was a lot of space in the middle of the goal in the first half, Syracuse started sending two defenders to block an attack’s path to the goal in the second. Virginia Tech was stuck taking shots from further away that Goldstock easily gobbled up in net.

Even the free-position opportunities did not work the same as in the first half. Grace Nelson charged forward for her free position shot and watched as Goldstock stood tall and flashed to the right to swallow the ball into her stick. Nelson then turned to see that Goldstock had launched a long pass down the field to Emma Ward, who passed to Emily Ehle, who put the ball in the back of the net. In just 12 seconds, Syracuse had scored after turning a Goldstock save into a counter.

“A bunch of the saves that (Goldstock) has, they’re very up close, usually for them that’s a low-percentage save for goalies,” Meaghan Tyrrell said. “But she’s always making those tricky saves that you don’t really expect. And that creates huge energy moving forward down the field.”

After a 7-0 second-half run from Syracuse, the closest Virginia Tech came was a five-goal deficit. Sarah Cooper led the defense with three caused turnovers as the zone closed in to protect Goldstock’s goal. Even when Virginia Tech finally scored, it was a product of the tough defense as a deflected shot floated over the head of Goldstock and into the net.

With a trip to Chapel Hill, North Carolina and a matchup with No. 1 UNC on the dock, the Syracuse defense will need a performance reflective of Saturday’s second half to give the Orange a chance.

“It’s huge having their energy when they have a stop, when they cause turnovers,” Tyrrell said. “It’s huge for the offense. It definitely pushes our energy. The defense works for us, (so) we’re going to work for them to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Published on March 27, 2021 at 10:07 pm

Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu