Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Tar Heels overpower Orange, 19-9, in ACCT Semifinals

Emma Muchnick and Alexa Vogelman found the most success, with Muchnick leading with a hat trick and Vogelman adding a pair. Together, they scored on five of their six shots, but were unable to generate more looks even though they were finishing with efficiency. Mileena Cotter and Bri Peters added goals from the midfield, while Mackenzie Rich handled the entirety of the attack scoring with two goals against her former school.

For the game, the Orange scored nine un-assisted goals as they finished without a helper for the second loss in a row.

It started off normally enough, with Chloe Humphrey opening the scoring on a free-position two minutes in, followed less than a minute later by Emma Muchnick thanks to a very nice hesitation move on an alley dodge with a low finish.

That goal came 2:53 into the game, and in truth it was the last moment the game was competitive, because after that UNC began their 6-0 run and the score board would read 7-1 before SU would touch the ball again. At 4-1, after an explosion of terrific ball and player movement that led to three Carolina goals in 48 seconds, the Orange called timeout and emerged with a face-guard on Humphrey.

It didn’t change much, mostly because that meant the ‘Cuse defense was left to defend the rest of their talented offense 6-on-6, making movement in the zone even more difficult with more open space to cover. They quickly scored three more goals, delivering a swift end to that experiment.

That 6-0 run took place over the course of 3:07 of game time as the UNC offense effectively put the game out of reach with ninja-like efficiency before we even reached the mid-point of the first quarter.

Muchnick ended the run with a nice shot on a free-position in which she deceptively dropped her stick head before firing high and sneaking it under the bar for her second of the game. In a positive takeaway, ‘Cuse went 4-for-4 on FP chances on the evening.

Humphrey answered off a free position of her own a minute later, in which Dan Guyette actually made the save but the rebound went straight to Chloe who finished on the open net. A little over a minute after that, Alexa Vogelman scored on a free-position in which her stick got checked and the ball lofted just on the inside of the left pipe before deflecting in to make it 8-3 by the end of the first.

The second quarter was a pile-on by North Carolina, who won the quarter, 4-1, to extend their lead to 12-4 at the halftime break. A Mileena Cotter free-position goal was SU’s lone tally.

On defense, Guyette had an improved quarter, making four of her eight saves on the night in the second. In the first quarter, it felt like she was struggling with the sun in her eyes, as she barely reacted on their shots and just wasn’t seeing the ball at all. She settled in nicely during the second, but there’s only so much you can do against the onslaught of the Tar Heels’ offense.

Meanwhile, all four UNC goals were scored on the power play as the Orange committed three cards in the second, the last two of which were unreleasable yellow cards on hit-to-the-head penalties. On both fouls, the Carolina player who absorbed the hit to the head ended up scoring the ensuing goal. They made ‘Cuse pay for their frustration transgressions.

The third quarter actually got off to a very nice start, with the defense starting to look more like themselves after giving up a dozen in the first half. They were getting stops and forcing the Heels deeper into the shot clock with a more substantial zone presence.

In the meantime, Vogelman scored her second on a very nice roll dodge where she planted and changed direction to evade her defender and score in the middle of the eight-meter arc. That was followed by Muchnick getting her hat trick on another free-position to bring the deficit down to 12-6.

But there’s only so much you can do in terms of holding them down. After going scoreless for more than 10 minutes to open the half, UNC scored three in less than two minutes to get within one of the running clock at 15-6.

Bri Peters held them off with an alley dodge and a smooth finish on-the-run from just inside the eight-meter. About a minute later, Mackenzie Rich closed the third quarter scoring with a beautiful question-mark dodge from X that finished with a turn-around jump shot. It was probably the best individual moment of the game for ‘Cuse, and it made the game 15-8 heading for the final frame.

Just like in the second, the fourth was all UNC as they scored three in a row and four of five to turn a game that already wasn’t close into a full-on blowout complete with a running clock at 18-8 and the final score of 19-9.

The Orange will now have a little over a week to sit and wait before they find out their postseason fate during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday, May 3 at 9 PM on ESPN U.