After an impressive 16-2 record to date in the 2023 season, Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse earned an at-large bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament and is locked in as the No. 2 seed.
This also earns the ‘Cuse a first-round bye and gives the Syracuse Orange at least one more home game.
Last year, Syracuse made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, where the Orange lost to Northwestern.
https://twitter.com/CuseWLAX/status/1655573104251338754
This ‘Cuse team knows it has the players to go all the way to the finals and win it, as the Syracuse Orange was the No. 1 team in the country for most of the 2023 season before it lost a stunner to Boston College in the final game of the regular season and then lost to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament.
Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse is a significant NCAA Tournament title contender.
LOOKING BACK AT THIS SEASON
It’s no secret in the world of women’s lacrosse that ‘Cuse was a force this season, and its attackers made opposing goalkeepers’ lives miserable all season long. The Syracuse Orange ranked 5th in the nation in scoring offense with 292 goals and averaged 16.2 GPG (all statistics here are courtesy of cuse.com and the NCAA’s Web site).
They also were ranked 2nd in the nation in points per game with 25.4. Syracuse also had two attackers who were in the Top 5 in the nation in assists this season. Emma Ward is in third place with 52 assists on the season and Meaghan Tyrell, who was tied for 5th, had 47. Tyrrell, a senior, was also 4th in the nation in points this season with 96 after also scoring 49 goals.
Since I’m on the topic of assists, ‘Cuse led the nation in assists per game with 9.2 and was 13th in SOG per game (Shots on Goal per game) with 24.33. They also had the second-best shot percentage this season, at .500 from the field, which is .08 percent less than Clemson, which had the best. Clemson, though, didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament, so the Syracuse Orange has the best shot percentage in the tournament.
KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH
With how good the ‘Cuse team was this season, there are a plethora of players you need to watch. Let’s start with someone I already mentioned. Meaghan Tyrrell is arguably the go-to attacker on this team. Her 96 points lead the team and her 101 shots taken lead the team as well.
Her sister, Emma Tyrrell, and she are ‘Cuse’s dynamic duo, and the team works a lot better when they’re playing at the same time. The Tyrrell sisters have accumulated 153 total points for the team out of 458 of the team’s total points. Another player you should look out for is Megan Carney, who finds ways to score whether she’s covered or not.
She is ‘Cuse’s leading scorer with 52 goals on the year but only has 56 points as she only has four assists. The most fun player to watch this season in my opinion is Emma Ward. Watching what she can do whether it’s fitting in tight passes or scoring even when sticks are flying is mesmerizing. I even saw her breaking ankles in the ACC Tournament game against North Carolina that led to her scoring an easy goal.
All those players are important, but the most important piece of this ‘Cuse team is senior goalkeeper Delaney Sweitzer. I’m going to be honest, she had her worst game in net this season in the ACC Tournament semifinals against North Carolina, where she allowed 15 goals with six of them coming in just the first quarter.
Now, if you watched that game as I did, it looks like Sweitzer is only as good as her defense in front of her, which you can say for any goalie in lacrosse or any sport that has a goalie. That being said, ‘Cuse needs to have a better defense than they had when they played North Carolina or even when they played Virginia Tech in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
In these last two games, it looks like the team didn’t get over that gut-wrenching loss to Boston College in the final game of the regular season, as the defense looks like it’s not playing to its normal strength.
The Syracuse Orange will play its first NCAA Tournament game on Sunday, May 14, at 3 pm from SU Soccer Stadium. The ‘Cuse will take on the winner of UMass versus Johns Hopkins. If you can’t make it to the game, you can watch it on ESPN+.