No. 4 Virginia Falls at No. 5 Syracuse, 4-1
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Oct. 5, 2013
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The No. 4 Virginia field hockey team suffered its second loss of the season, falling at No. 5 Syracuse, 4-1.
Syracuse had three penalty stroke opportunities in the game with Leonie Geyer converting all of them to account for three of the Orange’s four goals.With the loss, Virginia fell to 12-2 and 1-2 in the ACC while Syracuse improved to 9-1 and 1-1 in conference play.
“Games like today are gut-checks,” said head coach Michele Madison. “When things aren’t going your way, you have to find a way to make it go your way. The defense played pretty well today. It is very unusual to have three strokes in one game, so we are going to need to look at the film and see how that situation occurred.”
Trailing 4-0, senior Hadley Bell (Shaker Heights, Ohio) scored the lone goal for the Cavaliers, picking up a rebound off the Syracuse goalie’s pads after the initial shot by freshman Lucy Hyams (Whitstable, Kent, England) and knocking it into the net with 9:38 remaining. It was the third goal of the season for Bell.
Despite playing in a steady rain, Syracuse got off to a strong start, taking a 2-0 lead in the first 18 minutes of the game off two penalty strokes. The Orange finished the half with 11 shots to Virginia’s four. In the second half, the Cavaliers outshot the Orange, 6-5, and had five penalty corner opportunities to Syracuse’s two, with UVa scoring their goal after one of the short corners.
Junior goalkeeper Jenny Johnston (Paisley, Scotland) logged six saves, four in the first period and two after the break. Senior Elly Buckley (Scarborough, Perth, Australia) had her ACC-leading fifth defensive save of the season.
Virginia will be taking on its second ranked opponent of the weekend when they face No. 12 Albany (9-1) on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 2 p.m. in Albany, N.Y.
The Cavaliers return home on Friday, Oct. 11 when they host No. 9 Boston College (8-2, 1-1 ACC) at 6 p.m. in Charlottesville. Admission is free for all 2013 Virginia field hockey regular-season home games played at Turf Field.