The good, the Bad, and the Iffy a Month in for Syracuse Field Hockey
By: Dan Shalam | @dan_shalam
Syracuse field hockey’s 2024 campaign has been a rollercoaster. The Orange started off red hot winning their first two games, one of which was against 16th ranked Penn State. But, since then the squad’s results have been a mixed bag. Syracuse sits at 1-3 against ranked opponents this year. Those three losses are the only defeats on the campaign for the Orange, showing the struggle in finishing games against ranked teams. Not everything is bad though, Syracuse has not surrendered a goal in its last three games, and earned its fifth shutout of the year in nine games on Sunday. So now just over a month into the season, what has been the good, the bad, and the questionable for SU field hockey? Let’s answer that question and a whole lot more.
THE GOOD
Goaltending
The goaltending on this team has been superb in 2024. To start the season, Vera Hekkenberg and Louise Pert were splitting time in the cage, but now it seems like Pert is the everyday starter. Hekkenberg made the most of her time in the net though, winning ACC defensive player of the week around two weeks ago. It didn’t take long for Pert to catch her drift though, as the senior earned co-ACC defensive player of the week honors after her two clean sheets this past weekend. Syracuse now hasn’t given up a goal in over 200 minutes of play. While the offense might not be as sharp as last year, the goaltending in 2024 has been rock solid. ‘
Bo Van Kempen
You simply cannot say enough about Bo van Kempen’s play for this squad this season. Without her, the Orange could very well be a below five hundred team. So far this season, van Kempen leads the team with six goals, and has found the back of the cage in more than half the games she’s featured in. van Kempen single handedly won the Lafayette game for Syracuse, and has been a brick wall defensively.
THE BAD
Lack of Scoring Against Ranked Teams
When you’re counting a player like Bo van Kempen to score so much, it can be a struggle to get goals on the board. So far this year, Syracuse has been blanked three times. All of those contests in which the Orange have failed to score have been against ranked opponents. If you look deeper into the stats, you’ll see that SU is being outscored 2-11 against top 20 teams. That’s simply not good enough if the Orange want to make a true NCAA tournament push. Luckily, they’ll have a chance to change that this weekend against two more ranked teams at home in 16th-ranked Louisville and number 14 Princeton.
THE IFFY
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING
While this might not be a bad thing, it makes sense why Syracuse can sometimes get the nickname “cardiac ‘cuse”. Syracuse has scored eight of 20 goals this season in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. The Orange have scored in the final five in four of the nine games they’ve played this year. Again, while this might not be a negative, it might make Syracuse a little bit more confident to see the ball in the back of the cage earlier on and play with a lead.
