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With just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter, Sol Simone fired a penalty corner into a cluster of her UConn teammates at the top of the circle. Julia Bressler gathered the ball and fired toward the Syracuse goal, but it was deflected by goalie Brooke Borzymowski. The rebound went to Madi Herb, positioned beside the net, who slapped the ball toward the goal. Borzymowski denied Herb for her second save in three seconds.

The penalty corner was the first of the day for the Huskies and the shots by Bressler and Herb were UConn’s first two shots of the game. Those two shots were the only ones that made it on target all game.

Syracuse Field Hockey (5-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) defeated UConn (1-5, 0-0 Big East Conference) 3-0 boosted by a strong defensive showing. The SU defense held UConn scoreless on five shots and four penalty corners, for its first shutout of the season.

“We talked yesterday about what we wanted to do defensively and they implemented it right away,” Coach Lynn Farquhar said. “The whole unit did an amazing job and they created and initiated an attack off that great defense. They held strong.”

In the first quarter Syracuse registered two shots while holding UConn to none. The Huskies were able to push the ball into the Orange’s defensive zone but were unable to threaten. After 15 minutes, the game was scoreless.

Syracuse’s defense held strong in the second quarter, again not allowing any shots. Lieke Leeggangers was given a green card for a stick foul at the 3:31 mark of the quarter and received her second green less than three minutes after returning to action.

Still, the SU defense remained solid and pushed the ball upfield to the attackers. Syracuse registered four penalty corners in the quarter and converted on the fourth opportunity. Willemijn Boogert dished the ball to Eefke van den Nieuwenhof, who struck the ball towards the net. After her shot was deflected by Natalie McKenna, Boogert was right there to finish the play, finding the back of the net and giving Syracuse the 1-0 lead less than three minutes before half.

In the third quarter, SU scored to make it 2-0 after Leegangers found van den Nieuwenhof on a penalty corner. Van den Nieuwenhof’s shot found the bottom left corner at the 8:39 mark of the quarter.

Less than two minutes later, Borzymowski and the SU defense stopped the two consecutive shots by Bressler and Herb to maintain the 2-0 lead heading into the final quarter.

With 6:07 remaining in the game, the Huskies turned up the offensive intensity. AiYi Young passed a penalty corner to Sanne Stout. Her shot was blocked by a group of Orange defenders forcing another penalty corner. Young set up the play for Bressler. Bressler fired towards goal, but again, the Syracuse defensive unit applied pressure, blocking the shot before the ball made its way to Borzymowski.

UConn forced their third-consecutive penalty corner fourteen seconds after Bressler’s blocked attempt. Young passed to Stout, but Pieke van de Pas was there to make sure the ball never came close. Van de Pas sprinted out of her position on the goal line and met Stout to block the shot.

“(Van de Pas) is really good at getting out there fast, putting a strong defensive line on the ball,” Borzymowski said. “She’s somebody who’s good at putting pressure on from the start, not afraid to put their body in front of the ball to keep the ball out of the back of the net.”

After the onslaught of three penalty corners, Syracuse stopped any more threats from the Huskies. Amber Coebergh made the game 3-0 with seven seconds left after a pass from Charlotte de Vries. The Orange defense forced the shutout despite facing a season-high five shots.

“Stepping in line of the ball, especially outside of the circle (was key),” Borzymowski said. “First thing we need is pressure on the ball and I think we did a really great job of that.”

Published on September 10, 2023 at 4:35 pm