The Syracuse Orange are on a roll, having won six straight games after losing their first three to begin the season.
The defense has been the headliner, especially lately, as they’ve held two Top 10 (at the time) teams to a combined 11 goals in the last week-plus. They’ve allowed 17 goals in the last four games, and only two opponents all season have reached double-digits on the scoreboard.
Today, they’re back into ACC play after a pair of huge non-con wins over Northwestern and Yale. They’ve traveled
down to Charlottesville for a matchup with the No. 20 Virginia Cavaliers on a big day at UVA.
The women’s game is the back half of a doubleheader taking place at Virginia’s football field, Scott Stadium, as a kind of dry run for UVA hosting this year’s men’s Final Four. The men’s game goes first at 11 AM, followed by the women at 2 PM, or roughly 45 minutes after the conclusion of the men. It’s also the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first women’s varsity lacrosse game in school history, so ‘Cuse is coming down for a festive weekend.
It’s probably also notable that this will be just the second game all season, after Stanford, that SU plays on a natural grass field.
The game will stream on ACC Network Extra at 2 PM or possibly a little bit later if the men’s game goes long.
Virginia came into the season with high expectations, ranking No. 8 in Inside Lacrosse’s preseason poll.
But they got off to a rough start that Syracuse fans can empathize with, losing their first three games of the year against Navy, Richmond and Maryland. They bounced back with wins over Liberty and Notre Dame on the road in their first conference game, but then lost by eight to Stanford at home to close out February.
The calendar change was a good thing for them, as they won three in a row to open March against Pitt, Florida State and Princeton. Their winning streak came to an end last weekend in a 12-10 home loss to Clemson. On the year, they’re 5-5 overall and 3-2 in the ACC.
Virginia is a middle-of-the-pack ACC team by the numbers, ranking ninth (of 13) in the conference in scoring offense at 11.1 goals per game and eighth in scoring defense at 10.8 goals against per game. This Syracuse team has obviously gotten used to low-scoring games, and we could be in for another this weekend.
Probably Virginia’s best attribute as a team is on draw controls, where they rank 32nd nationally with a .564 win percentage.
Junior midfielder Kate Galica leads them in that and many other regards as their draw taker and best all-around player. She’s a typical d0-everything midfielder who has 20 goals, nine assists, 29 points, 80 draw controls, 23 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers so far this season, leading the Cavaliers in goals, draw controls and ground balls (and second on the team in assists, points and caused turnovers).
While UVA has a much better draw percentage than SU’s .438, it’s an interesting matchup between draw takers in Galica and Molly Guzik. Galica, who has more draws individually than ‘Cuse does as a team, wins roughly 61 percent of Virginia’s draw controls to herself. Meanwhile, Guzik has won 54 percent of Syracuse’s draws, so we’ve got an intriguing duel between two players who like to win draws to themselves.
We’ll see how much influence the circle players have on these restarts or it it’s more of a one-on-one matchup than usual at the draw. When the circle players do get involved, Jenna Dinardo (22 DC) and Alex Reilly (21 DC) are strong contributors for them, as well.
Attacker Madison Alaimo is the main offensive catalyst, leading the team with 41 points and 29 assists. Her 2.9 assists per game is good for second-best in the ACC, and her ability to pick passes through SU’s zone might be one of the main X-factors in this game for UVA.
In addition to her work on draws, attacker Jenna Dinardo is one of their best offensive players. She’s second on the team with 17 goals and third with 22 points. She’s taken the most shots on the team with 59, but is having a sub-par time of it with a .288 shooting percentage. Even so, she’s been one of their most dangerous offensive weapons since she got to Charlottesville.
Gabby LaVerghetta (12 G), Addi Foster (12 G) and Cady Flaherty (9 G) play strong supporting roles for their offense and have combined for 33 goals on just 61 shots (.541 percent) this season.
In goal, graduate student Elyse Finnelle took over as the starter for Mel Josephson after two games, and has retained it in the eight games since. Her numbers are decent with 61 saves, a 10.29 goals-against average and a .401 save percentage.
