Women's Lacrosse

Syracuse looks to improve defensive approach heading into ACC tournament

Frankie Prijatel | Photo Editor

Erica Bodt and the rest of Syracuse will need to improve its defensive approach to have more success in the ACC tournament on Thursday.

Syracuse head coach Gary Gait took SU defender Caroline Grosso’s stick on the sideline and demonstrated how to position the stick to block a pass, nearly knocking Grosso to the ground in the process. Albany had just scored on an easy pass in front of the net.

“We were just talking about their back-door cuts and making sure you’re in the right position on those,” Gait said after the Orange’s win over the No. 19 Great Danes on Sunday.

But then Albany scored again two minutes later, prompting Gait to yell “Someone get in front of the other person’s man.” to his players on the field.

Albany was having plenty of success against SU’s defense moving away from the ball and setting picks. The Great Danes only turned the ball over nine times and scored 12 goals on the day.

The Orange defense, whose 10.7 goals allowed per game ranks 62nd in the country, will need to be more effective when No. 7 Syracuse (11-6, 3-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) heads to Charlottesville, Virginia to take on No. 3 Boston College (14-2, 5-2) in the first round of the ACC tournament on Thursday at 6 p.m.



For associate head coach Regy Thorpe, who works with the defense, the improvement needs to start with his players’ defensive approaches.

“We’d always like to be under 10 (goals allowed per game), but it’s about getting wins now,” Thorpe said.

Syracuse normally runs a backer defense, a zone pressure known for its aggressiveness and ability to cause turnovers.

But just 10 minutes into the game on Sunday, Syracuse fell victim to that aggressiveness as starting defender Mallory Vehar received two yellow cards almost within a minute of each other, forcing her to miss the rest of the game.

“We’re really feisty,” SU defender Brenna Rainone said. “We can be mean sometimes, but I think we have that attitude. We want the ball. We don’t want you guys to score.”

At the end of the first half, though, Albany had only committed three turnovers — the third time an SU opponent has accomplished the feat this season. Syracuse’s 8.2 caused turnovers per game are only good enough for 48th best in the nation.

Albany’s off-ball movement led to several open back-door goals.

In the second half, Albany midfielder Rachel Bowles and attack Dakotah Savitcheff hovered just beyond the 8-meter arc. Savitcheff set a pick on Rainone who was closely guarding Bowles. SU defender Kathy Rudkin stood flat-footed as Bowles raced past her, received a pass and scored nearly undefended.

“It’s all about having good approaches,” Thorpe said. “A lot of times … we’re standing up straight and we don’t have that good athletic approach.”

Not having a good approach or being in a good position makes it easy for the offensive players to dodge the initial defender, Thorpe said, and puts more pressure on the other defenders to help recover.

But at a point in the season when the team could play four games in a seven-day span, Thorpe said much of the time is spent prepping players with film and scouting reports for the games. A lot of the mechanical and playing adjustments, he said, have to be made “on the fly.”

SU’s defense will be focusing on four players on Thursday — midfielders Mikaela Rix, Sarah Mannelly and Caroline Margolis and attack Covie Stanwick. The key is for none of them to tag SU for three or four goals, like Margolis did in BC’s overtime win at SU earlier in the year, Thorpe said.

And an SU defense that replaced three starters at the beginning of the season and has been searching for its identity needs to step up when the stakes are the highest.

“We just got to get some stops,” Thorpe said. “We’re a couple goals away on the (defensive) end, but we’re right in the money we think.”





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