Meaghan Tyrrell’s six assists facilitate Syracuse’s opening win over Northwestern
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With 2:30 left in the game, Syracuse and Northwestern were tied at 14 before the Tyrrell sisters came up big. Meaghan Tyrrell tried to drive right on her defender, but spun backwards after failing to find an open lane. Then, she passed to Emma Tyrrell down low on the right side of the 8-meter arc. Emma looped inside to dodge Johanna Kingsfield and fired toward net before Allie Berkery could converge on her shot. Syracuse went up 15-14 with 2:24 remaining.
Meaghan, who assisted her sister twice against NU on Saturday afternoon, said that having her back out there will help the team as well as her personal performance, as the two have such strong chemistry.
“She knows how to cut through those spaces, she can dive on people, so just having her back out there is so huge for our team,” Meaghan said.
Although it wasn’t a typical dominant scoring performance from the 2022 Tewaaraton Award finalist, Meaghan led the way for the Orange with six assists and two goals. Although she didn’t score herself until the third quarter, Meaghan consistently opened up space for teammates through her ability to draw the defense before passing. Eventually, she adjusted to Northwestern’s face guarding tactics, becoming a primary facilitator for the rest of the night. She led Syracuse (1-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) in points (eight) and assists (six) in the nail-biting win over Northwestern (0-1, 0-0 Big Ten).
Meaghan said that, before the game, she didn’t know what she would get from the Wildcats defensively. Head coach Kayla Treanor said that she wasn’t sure if NU would face guard the SU graduate student, but as soon as play started, it was obvious that it had her marked. As a result, Meaghan didn’t show up on the scoreboard until five seconds left in the first quarter.
With time winding down, Meaghan held the ball on the right perimeter. Then, she saw Megan Carney streaking inside from the left and threw her a touch pass. Carney immediately bounced a turnaround shot off the turf for the score, as goalkeeper Molly Laliberty went high. Syracuse tied it at two to close out the game’s lowest-scoring period.
“After the first quarter, we were noting things and made adjustments depending on where they were sliding,” Meaghan said. “Kind of just reading that and figuring that out definitely helped us.”
Treanor said that they were prepared for the face guard on Meaghan, so the lack of early involvement wasn’t altogether unplanned.
But then, Northwestern fought back, trailing just 8-7 after scoring on the first three possessions of the second half. “When we started to go to her more, that was an in-game adjustment,” Treanor said.
And sure enough, Meghan scored her first goal unassisted to respond to the Wildcats’ opening run in the third. Minutes later, she assisted Emma Ward to help SU build a narrow lead and close out the third.
Meaghan waited on the right side of the 8-meter while SU’s Acacia Connor drove down the middle. When Meaghan got the feed, she immediately sent a high pass to a cutting Ward, who shot across her body to score from point-blank range with 12.4 left in the third quarter.
That goal would give Syracuse a one-goal advantage going into the fourth, the same margin as the final would be.
“You never know who’s going to get face guarded. We had gone through a bunch of different scenarios preparing for Northwestern, and when she was being face guarded, the team was totally ready for it.”
In the second quarter, a scoring drought saw just one goal in five minutes, but Meaghan got the Orange going to finish out the half.
Meaghan was draped by two Northwestern defenders, Hannah Gillespie and Samantha White, behind and to the left of NU’s goal. She dodged Gillespie and drove a few feet inside before White converged, leaving Olivia Adamson wide open outside the crease. Meaghan pitched to Adamson, who, with a quick swipe of the stick, gave Syracuse a 6-4 lead with 2:46 left in the period.
In the limited time before the half, Syracuse scored twice more from the sticks of Tessa Queri and Maddy Baxter, both assisted by Ward.
The fourth quarter was the Meaghan show. She earned two assists before scoring the dagger with 1:10 remaining, giving Syracuse a 16-14 lead. She ducked around Mahoney driving on the left side, but with the goalie blocking her side, she crashed towards the middle late so that when Serafina DeMunno fell to her knees inside the crease, Meaghan went high above her head to thrust an awkward-looking shot into an open net.
Shortly after that, SU walked away with its first win of the season against the team that ended its season last year. Syracuse has played Northwestern in each of the last three NCAA Tournaments, winning just once in 2021. It has a 1-5 all-time postseason record against the Wildcats.
Before the game, Meghan said, “I think that’s definitely something that lingers in the back of our minds,” about Northwestern’s success over them in recent years.
In the second, Syracuse got a green card at 11:38 before Northwestern secured a green and yellow of its own less than 30 seconds later, creating a man-up opportunity for the Orange.
Outside the 12-meter, Meaghan searched for an open woman inside and found Emma in a vacant zone near the middle. After only playing 12 games due to injury last year, but still ranking third on the team in points, Emma came off the bench in the season opener. But when she entered the lineup, the points started pouring in.
Meaghan zipped a pass to her inside the 8-meter, where Emma had space to fire past a lunging Laliberty in goal for her first score in almost a year, assisted by her sister.
With two to her sister and one to Ward, half of Meaghan’s assists went to players who couldn’t play in last year’s postseason matchup.
“These are two different teams (compared to last year),” Meaghan said. “We have two different game plans and having those players who maybe weren’t playing the same roles they are now, having them step up into those roles has just been a huge change for us.”
