The ACC Nightmare of Syracuse Women’s Soccer
By Timmy Weiss | @TimmyWeiss3
8 games into the season it was all sunshine and rainbows for Syracuse women’s soccer. The team was off to one of its best starts ever at 6-1-1, had scored 16 goals, and had only allowed 3 (2 of which came in a loss to Cornell). It was no secret that competition would pick up when league play started, but there was genuine hope that the Orange would compete hard against some of the best teams in the nation. Once the team fell to 0-3 in ACC play after a 5-1 loss to then No 2 Florida State, there started to be some doubts. The number one RPI team in the nation North Carolina was up next and all hopes were glim.
Except Syracuse proved something in that game that they haven’t done the rest of the season. The Orange went toe-toe with the currently No 4 team in the country. Except SU fell 1-0 in brutal fashion, after a penalty kick was awarded in the 65th minute. The Cuse was unlucky to lose to one of the best teams in the country, which showed the level of play this team has in them.
But ever since that game that spark has left the squad. Syracuse has now lost 3 games in a row by the score of 3-0. Not one of these games has even been close and honestly, Syracuse is lucky that all of them were only 3-0. In the span of just 3 games, SU has allowed 95 shots… I’ve never seen that happen in the span of 3 games in soccer.
If the team did not have all-ACC goalie Shea Vanderbosch I don’t even wanna know what these scorelines could be. On last Sunday Vanderbosch tallied 14 saves, which was one shy of her career high. The game before that she also bagged 12 saves. She’s doing everything. But the problem is, you want your goalie to have to do as little as possible. There’s only so much Vanderbosch can do and although she leads the ACC in saves, the net is too big for her to stop them all, especially when the team faces nearly 100 shots in 3 contests.
So where does the team go from here? Well, NCAA tournament hopes and ACC tournament hopes are long gone. So there are just 3 regular season games left for this team to get an ACC win. There’s actually some good news since the team plays NC State tonight at 7 at SU Soccer Stadium. The Wolfpack is winless in ACC play and only has 1 tie. This is the best opportunity Syracuse has to get a win in league play.
The last time the team beat an ACC foe was in 2022. The last time the Orange won this season was September 8th. Could today be the day to finally break that streak? Come out and support the Orange at 7 and see if the team gets the job done.
