In the fourth minute of play against Miami, sophomore Sydney Brackett lined up for a corner kick. She connected with the ball, arcing it toward the goal. As it fell in front of the net, Miami goalie Phallon Tullis-Joyce ran out and the ball fell into her outstretched hand.

Syracuse (7-5-2, 2-3-1 Atlantic Coast) beat Miami (4-8, 0-6 Atlantic Coast), 1-0, in its second conference win this season. Despite the win, SU struggled to capitalize on set pieces.

“Set pieces have a large impact on the game,” Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon said. “They often decide games.”

Luckily for the Orange, they did not Wednesday afternoon at SU Soccer Stadium.

The Orange had three corner kicks, two by Brackett and one by Jessica Vigna. They all ended in a change of possession instead of a goal.

Early in the second half came Brackett’s second corner kick. It sailed into the crowd of players in front of the goal. As it came down, a Miami player knocked it away and Miami gained possession. The Hurricanes then charged the ball down field, where UM’s Bayleigh Chaviers shot, but SU goalie Courtney Brosnan deflected it.

“Miami put us under a lot of pressure in the second half,” Brosnan said. “I give a lot of credit to the defense, we made a lot of adjustments in the end there and they limited the number of chances they had on me.”

Vigna’s corner late in the second half ended in the hands of Miami’s goalie. The Orange also struggled to capitalize on free kicks. Taylor Bennett, who scored the only goal of the game, took a free kick from only feet in front of the midline. She sent the ball sailing over the heads of all the players in the middle of the field. It fell, just like Brackett’s first corner kick, into the outstretched hands of Tullis-Joyce.

“We had a lot of free kicks from distance,” Wheddon said. “We didn’t have a lot of free kicks that were inside our shooting distance.”

Vigna took a free kick late in the game from Syracuse’s defensive side of the field. Senior Alex Lamontagne stood a couple yards in front of her with one Miami player in front of and beside her. Vigna got her foot under the ball, sending it up and toward Lamontagne but it sailed over her head. Instead, Miami took possession and gave the ball to the UM goalie.

“That’s something we are going to look at,” Wheddon said, “how can we maintain possession on our set pieces.”

Published on October 11, 2017 at 5:56 pm

Contact Kaci: klwasile@syr.edu