Syracuse defeats Columbia 3-0 with 22 shot attempts
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After Syracuse beat Columbia 3-0 on Sunday, head coach Ange Bradley unfolded a stat sheet. Two numbers stood out.
“The pro is we scored three,” Bradley said. “The con is we took 22 (shots to do it).”
No. 11 Syracuse (8-2, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) peppered 22 attempts against a Columbia (6-3, 0-2 Ivy League) defense which allowed the Orange to continually penetrate the scoring circle. Still, SU was only able to find the back of the cage three times. Pleun Lammers led Syracuse’s offense with two scores on four shot attempts.
The last time Syracuse cracked at least 20 shots in a game was on Sept. 12, when it beat UConn 5-3 with 25 attempts. In the following games, against ranked opponents, the Orange competed against tight defenses that limited their shot counts. With the 3-0 win against Columbia, Syracuse continues a six-game win streak and posted its fourth shutout in a row. Still, it failed to fully capitalize on all the shots the Lions’ defense allowed.
On Sunday, the Orange maintained the majority of possessions at the start of the game and first tested Columbia’s goal with Lammers. Lammers drove into the inner circle, brought up her stick and swiped it toward the cage only for her shot to be blocked by Columbia goalkeeper Alexa Conomikes’ leg guards. She shot again 25 seconds later, but her attempt missed entirely.
But the third attempt from Lammers went in when Sienna Pegram lasered a pass to her at the penalty mark. Lammers grabbed the ball with her stick, twisted herself around while two defenders approached her and rifled the ball into the back of the goal. Syracuse maintained a 1-0 lead and shot seven times throughout the first quarter, but it didn’t capitalize on three penalty corners in the period.
Before the first quarter ended, Bradley called out from the sidelines to Charlotte de Vries, yelling at her to extend Columbia’s defense. De Vries, who normally plays forward, has moved back to the midfield as Lammers and Quirine Comans have surged in their offensive output at the front of the offense in recent games. But de Vries began to create more shot opportunities as Syracuse entered the second quarter.
De Vries first shot with nine minutes remaining in the first half, but she was blocked. Her second shot, which she sent at the cage after beating off Columbia’s Jaimie McCormick while in the inner circle, met Conomikes’ left leg guard.
At five minutes, Syracuse increased its lead to 2-0. Lammers scored her second goal of the game when a pass from outside the circle entered into the junior’s possession. Lammers then drove into the right side near the post and chipped a reverse shot. De Vries would later score as well, stationing herself at the top of the inner circle before twisting her stick backward to release a reverse shot into the back of the cage.
With a 3-0 lead at halftime, Bradley switched out Brooke Borzymowski for Louise Pert at goal in the second half. But even with the switch, Columbia still couldn’t breach the Orange’s defense, and their lead into the fourth quarter and continued its shot production until the very end of the game. The last shot, the 22nd, came with a Marie Sommer penalty corner. Carolin Hoffmann collected the ball with 13 seconds left and fired, but the shot went wide.
While Syracuse had 22 shots throughout Sunday’s shutout win, the Lions could only create one. With two minutes left in the fourth quarter, Columbia’s Sophie Rockefeller lofted a shot — which only reached nearby Syracuse defenders — on the right side of the circle.
“I’m disappointed that we did give up a shot,” Bradley said. “Honestly our lines at the end were a little messy and that was just stuff that we need to get cleaned up.”