FH : Final four
The win still hadn’t settled in Ange Bradley’s mind, but she ran out anyway.
Bradley jumped on top of her pile of players and celebrated the Syracuse field hockey team’s 3-2, dramatic overtime win over Princeton in the second round of NCAA tournament.
Lying there in front of 322 spectators – on home turf for the last time this season – the pile of Orange players relapsed into comfort in front of Princeton’s cage. They had made it.For the first time in its 37-year history, the Orange had advanced to the Final Four.
‘I am in shock. Nothing has sunk in yet,’ Bradley said. ‘To say the Final Four is pretty amazing. It is a first for the team and for me as a head coach. … It’s unreal. It’s an innate feeling.’
Adrenaline trumped fatigue in overtime at J.S. Coyne Field Sunday, enabling Syracuse to weather the wind. Players kept their composure. Kept fighting the pressure away. This meant too much. With 1:04 left, Nicole Nelson shot at an open net and scored. And now Syracuse will travel to Trager Stadium in Louisville, Ky., next weekend to face Wake Forest in the semifinals.Saturday, SU had outlasted Massachusetts, 3-2, in a first round matchup.
The head coach, who wasn’t sure this team could reach the Final Four when it faced No. 10 Michigan State in the second week but was hopeful after the Orange beat No.1 Maryland, is now convinced.
‘Anything’s possible,’ Bradley said. ‘Anything can happen.’
For a moment, the possibility waned Sunday.Princeton pounced early, scoring 56 seconds into the game. The Orange answered with two quick goals and packed in its defense against the nation’s third-ranked scoring team that averages 4.81 goals per game.
The Orange started by winning the one-on-one matches for possession of the ball, and as a result racked up penalty corners. From SU’s own midfield, Shannon Taylor stripped the ball from an unwary Tiger in the first half and sent it straight upfield to a rushing Lindsey Conrad. When Conrad was tripped near Princeton’s arc, the following penalty corner gave Martina Loncarica the open rebound to put it in net. She rang the back of the cage.
‘We won the first half,’ Bradley said. Then came halftime.
In a tool shed behind the bleachers of J.S. Coyne Field, which the Orange calls its ‘locker room,’ Bradley told her team at halftime that it couldn’t rely on a one-goal lead.
‘That feeling of desperation. Your clock is ticking,’ Bradley said concerning the Tigers’ senior-dominated lineup. ‘You’ve got to expect everything.’
Princeton came out and ‘won’ the second half, drawing the Orange behind its own midfield. Should Taylor start a counterattack with a long pass to Conrad, the Tigers’ layered defense would eventually halt the forward.
‘Counter defense is the answer to a team like Syracuse,’ Princeton head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn said.
And they executed. The further the Orange was pressed back, the more corner penalties it gave up. Princeton’s leading point scorer, freshman midfield Katie Reinprecht, assisted Sarah Reinprecht on a penalty corner in the second half to tie the game at 2-2.
The Orange had never played overtime, never relied on going beyond 70 minutes. When it did Sunday, the adrenaline of facing elimination provided that rush of blood to the head, Taylor said.Huddled before the overtime, Taylor stood in the cold and refused to wear her blue Syracuse parka.
‘It’s just adrenaline,’ she said.Princeton ‘dominated’ in overtime, Bradley said. The Tigers had a flurry of scoring opportunities, pressing Syracuse into its own arc. Defenders Taylor and Anne-Sophie Van der Post withstood Princeton’s attack, waiting for a chance to spark a counterattack.
On the other bench, Princeton’s Holmes-Winn had faith. ‘I never felt nervous,’ she said. ‘I really felt like we were going to win that game.’
Tired, fatigued and desperate – the Orange found its moment.
Taylor’s strip and pass up the middle of an open field to a streaking Conrad drew a rare free hit from the left side of the Tigers half. Conrad rushed the net, drew and dropped Princeton goalkeeper Jennifer King at her right post then tipped to the ball to the front of the cage. Nelson saw it, swung and scored.
Piled face down on the cold turf of J.S. Coyne Field, Taylor exhaled.
‘Our work has finally paid off,’ Taylor said. ‘Now, we’re taking it to the next level, and why not win a championship? We’re gonna be there.’
Published on November 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm
