Syracuse Women's Soccer Comes Up Short in Hard Fought Battle With #3 Florida State

The Orange lost a second half lead as it fell to the Seminoles.

On Thursday nigh the Syracuse Women’s soccer team hosted the third nationally ranked Florida State Seminoles in the Orange’s ACC home opener.

The Orange started off their upset bid with a wild goal less than three minutes into the game when a crazy sequence in front of the Florida State goal led to a wide open net for Syracuse midfielder Liesel Odden, who took full advantage and gave her squad a 1-0 advantage.

It wasn’t long till FSU responded, however. Beata Olsson was the beneficiary of some surgical inside passing by Ran Iwai and Jordynn Dudley, as she snuck one past ‘Cuse goalkeeper Shea Vanderbosch.

From here, the Seminoles took control of the game in almost all aspects. They dominated time of possession for the remainder of the first half, forcing Vanderbosch to make huge saves in both the 25th and 26th minute.

Almost… The unexpected of unexpecteds hit with under a minute left in the first half when a centering pass off the foot of Syracuse defenseman Alyssa Abramson ricocheted in for an own goal, putting the Orange on top 2-1 heading into the break.

Sadly, the excitement of the first half was somewhat overshadowed by an injury to Kendyl Lauher late in the half, when she went down holding her left knee before being helped off the field by staff. Lauher did not return to the game.

Early in the second half the Orange seemed to play some of their best soccer of the night, hanging tight for the first 12 minutes of the second half before the statistics righted themselves once again, as a Florida State corner kick was deflected in for an own goal that snuck by Vanderbosch, tying the game at two.

The Seminoles seemed to feed off this, racking up nine shots over the next 17 minutes of play. Unfortunately for the Seminoles, Shea Vanderbosch was in goal, and boy did she make her presence felt. It seemed at times as though there was a forcefield in front of the Syracuse goal, except it wasn’t invisible, and it wore number 30.

Coach Nicky Adams spoke on her starting goalies’ stellar performance; “She’s a stud, I mean I regard Shea as one of the best shot stoppers in the nation…” Said Adams “I can’t say enough about her, she is a leader, her strength, her bravery, everything is unreal with that kid.”

The Orange continued to battle, as their gritty defensive effort took them into the final minutes still tied at two. Eventually though, the Seminoles showed why they’re the third ranked team in the nation, as they continued to batter Vanderbosch until Onyi Echegini finally struck gold, putting her squad on top for good in minute 84.

Coach Adams told us how proud she is of her squad and what they’ve had to battle through; “This team has been dealt a really crappy deck of cards in terms of numbers (of players available to play) unfortunately this year, but, I mean the positives you take away is just the guts and bravery that they played with, and the momentum that that creates going forward…”

The Orange fall to 2-7-1, and are next in action this Sunday at 1 p.m. right here at SU Soccer Stadium vs Virginia Tech.

The Seminoles advance to 7-0-0 and will travel to Chapel Hill on Sunday to take on the number one nationally ranked Tar Heels in a clash of unbeatens at noon eastern time.