WLAX Crawls Back in 2nd Half to Beat Virginia 16-15

By Ally Heath

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse women’s lacrosse went into halftime down 11-4 and nobody in the crowd would have guessed it would come roaring back to beat ACC rival Virginia 16-15.

The Orange’s return to the Carrier Dome started off looking like it would be a blowout in Virginia’s favor; the Cavaliers scored four goals in two minutes, forcing head coach Gary Gait to call a timeout.

His speech in that huddle was not the spark that ignited the Orange’s offensive attack.

“We were just flat,” Gaid said of the first half. “If you looked at our players, there was no bounce in their step and we certainly played like that.”

Six minutes later, Natalie Wallon finally scored to put SU on the board, but that was no spark either. Virginia would go on to score six goals after Wallon, but Syracuse managed to add three of its own to the board. Two of those came in the last five minutes, and the tables began to turn.

The Orange began roaring back in the second half, scoring 12 goals while allowing just four.

Devon Parker led the way with a team-high five goals, all five of which game in the second half. She was the one who got the ball rolling just one minute into the half for SU.

“In the first half I know that I personally came out a little flat on the movement side,” Parker said. “My focus was…constant movement and go hard to net because it opened up many opportunities and by doing that it sparked the offense.”

Quick ball movement and pushing through pressure in the eight led to the Orange’s 24 shots in the second half, more than double its chances in the first.

“That was an effort that came from some incredibly tired athletes that dug down deep within themselves, found what they had and gave their all and made some great plays at the end of the game,” Gait said. “They believed in each other and finished that game.”

The Orange will get a hard-earned six-days of rest before traveling to College Park to take on the first ranked Maryland Terrapins on Saturday at 1 p.m.