Lysianne Proulx lay behind her own goal crease tangled in the netting. She covered her head with her hands. Beside her on the ground was midfielder Kailee Coonan. 

Moments before, Shannon Aviza had turned the ball over in the Miami box and the Hurricanes began their counterattack. Kristina Fisher ran onto a long through ball and came in one-on-one against Proulx. The Syracuse goalie made the first save, but the ball bounced to another Miami player’s head. The second attempt on goal bounced off the top of the crossbar and fell back into the six-yard box.

Bayleigh Chaviers, on the third attempt, headed it past Proulx as she scrambled back into the net. Miami regained the lead, 2-1, and this time didn’t let Syracuse equalize.

After beating Wake Forest on Thursday, Syracuse (3-8-2, 1-4-1 Atlantic Coast) head coach Nicky Adams said, “It makes the girls believe again.” The Orange had a chance to win two-straight conference games and earn six points in a weekend for the first time since October 2017. Instead of continuing its momentum, Adams said the Orange looked tired on Sunday afternoon at SU Soccer Stadium. Syracuse fell to Miami (4-6-2, 1-4-1), 2-1, which came into the matchup as one of two winless ACC teams.

“I thought in the second half, Miami wanted it a bit more than we did and that’s the disappointing part,” Adams said. “We let ourselves down, honestly, technically. We defend really well, and then we just kept giving the ball right back to them instead of knocking it around and trying to force them to defend.”

The comeback win against Wake Forest showed what Adams preached all year — that her team was creating chances which would eventually turn to goals — was true. Syracuse moved one step closer to changing “the brand image” of the program.

In the second half against Wake Forest, SU changed to playing the ball forward more and outshot the Demon Deacons 11-8 in the second half.

Sunday was the reverse. Syracuse managed nine shots in the first half while limiting Miami to just one, a 10th-minute goal. A minute later, the Orange responded. Meghan Root’s effort from outside the box curled into the top corner.

“Meg’s been great this weekend,” Adams said. “She’s been dangerous because she’s putting herself in dangerous situations.”

Miami dominated the second half, outshooting SU 16-1. The Hurricanes had multiple chances that nearly grazed the top of the crossbar. On one occasion, Fisher skipped past Proulx, but she missed the empty net.

Even while dominating possession in the first half, Syracuse held the ball in mostly non-threatening areas of the pitch. The Orange midfielders and striker Marisa Fischetti looked to play balls back to the centerbacks, Jenna Tivnan and Taylor Bennett.

Only once did the Orange have a nice collection of passes near the Miami box. In the 14th minute of the first half, Georgia Allen played a pass to Mackenzie Vlachos who tried to thread the ball through two defenders to Fischetti. The Hurricanes defenders cut off the pass, but Adams said “right idea” on the sideline.

“Just executing the simple things and not making and not overthinking the small stuff,” Sydney Brackett said. “That’s how you’re going to be successful, and I think that in a lot of ways we had some people that weren’t the sharpest today.”

Syracuse started the game in a 4-3-3 and pressed heavily with the forwards and tried to pen in Miami players in the midfield. Doing so for nearly the entire first half “nipped us in the butt a little bit,” Adams said. SU forced the Miami goalie and defenders to kick the ball out of bounds on multiple occasions, earning back possession in the Hurricanes half.

But the finishing, like most of the season, wasn’t there. And without much movement from the forwards, most of the SU shots came from well outside the box, easily picked up by the UM goalie or shot wide of the net.

“You’re going to make mistakes, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the world,” Adams said. “We made plenty of mistakes against Wake Forest. That’s what’s crazy about soccer. Ups-and-downs, and we gotta be able to be disciplined enough going forward that little moments like that can’t define the rest of the game for us.”

As Adams walked back to the SU bench at the game’s end, her lips were pursed. She bit her fingernail once before disappearing behind the bench for a few seconds. Then with her hands behind her back, Adams walked toward the “ACC” logo near the sideline with her head bowed. After a glance to the far side boards, she shook her head and stood on top of the logo.

On Sunday afternoon, the Orange were back to looking backward, not just with their passes, but on the season. Like two years ago, Syracuse again failed to do so.

“I know these changes aren’t going to happen overnight,” Adams said. “We knew it would be a bit of a rollercoaster, but I don’t think that will define the future of the program.”

Published on October 13, 2019 at 6:54 pm

Contact Arabdho: armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder