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Syracuse will look to avoid its second three-game losing streak of the season when it faces No. 6 Cornell on Monday night in the Carrier Dome. SU lost to UAlbany 14-12 on Thursday and also fell 22-6 to Notre Dame the week prior.

Here’s what our beat writers predict will happen between No. 6 Cornell (9-1, 3-1 Ivy League) and unranked Syracuse (4-6, 1-2 Atlantic Coast):

Alex Cirino (5-5)
Long road ahead
Cornell 17, Syracuse 12

Syracuse had the perfect opportunity to bounce back from its worst loss since 1977 against an unranked UAlbany on Thursday. The response: a defensive collapse that saw the Orange lose 14-12. Now SU has a schedule full of ranked opponents to round out its final four regular season games. Cornell is currently the highest ranked of that group, as it has lost just once so far this season. The Big Red and the Orange are statistically the same offensively, with 0.19 goals per game separating the two teams.

Syracuse’s defense allows an average of 3.26 more goals than the Big Red, which ranks 60th nationally. UAlbany, for the most part, figured out how to contain SU’s top scorers like Brendan Curry and Tucker Dordevic by double-teaming and face guarding them, head coach Gary Gait said. Cornell’s defense will likely prioritize those two players, too, which will force the Orange into their second three-game losing streak of the season.

Roshan Fernandez (5-5)
The resilient ‘Big Red’
Cornell 13, Syracuse 12

Syracuse has been everything but consistent this season, which almost makes me want to pick the Orange here. They upset Duke, then got shredded by Notre Dame. They should’ve beaten UAlbany but couldn’t mount enough of a comeback. I honestly have no idea what Syracuse team is going to show up on Monday night to face Cornell. SU is certainly capable of upsetting the Big Red, and it seems to play better at home than on the road.

But the Orange have suffered too many injuries this year, and Gait made it clear that the thin lineup leaves SU with too many inexperienced players. Cornell, on the other hand, has pulled out three wins this season in one-goal games. To me, that shows resilience. Syracuse is resilient too, but I don’t think it’ll come away with a win against a Cornell team that seems to be able to adapt when it doesn’t win much at the faceoff X. It’s really a toss up because Syracuse can be so unpredictable, but I trust the Big Red more in that toss up.

Anish Vasudevan (7-3)
Down-and-up
Syracuse 16, Cornell 13

The Big Red have only dropped one game this season, and they opened their year defeating UAlbany 16-8, which narrowly defeated the Orange last week. Still, Cornell has had a relatively easy schedule in the Ivy League, and it heads to the Dome on a three-game winning streak. But coming back off of that, Syracuse should be able to give the Big Red some competition indoors if Dordevic can get going again.

Gait also said Owen Seebold looked like one of the best players in practice heading into the Orange’s game against the Great Danes, and he finished with three scores. Seebold will be vital against Cornell, which has the 18th-best scoring defense in the country. Bobby Gavin is also coming off an okay performance with a 44.0% save percentage, and he will need to be a wall in the cage to help SU’s defense whenever it makes mistakes on slides or switches.

Published on April 10, 2022 at 8:49 pm