Syracuse received the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA tournament Tuesday, two days after winning its second consecutive Big East championship.

The Orange will play Richmond in the first round Saturday, Nov. 12, in College Park, Md., at a time to be determined.

For Ange Bradley, this weekend will serve as a homecoming of sorts.

The Syracuse head coach will return to Maryland, where she served an assistant coach for four years. Richmond, SU’s first-round opponent, is the school where Bradley first became a head coach and ran the show from 2001-06. And if SU wins, it will play the winner of Maryland and Iowa, another one of her former coaching stops.

‘I started coaching Division I at the University of Iowa, won some (Atlantic Coast Conference) championships and a national championship at Maryland and now we’re starting the tournament out with the Richmond Spiders, my former employer,’ Bradley said. ‘So my past is right there, and it’s really exciting. It’s a great opportunity.’

But Bradley and her third-ranked Syracuse (18-3, 5-1 Big East) squad can’t afford to be looking backward. Though the Spiders (16-6, 5-1 Atlantic-10) are not nationally ranked, they’ve reeled off eight consecutive victories and won 11 of their last 12 games overall. And although SU earned an automatic bid for winning the Big East tournament, Richmond had to fight its way into the bracket by defeating No. 11 California in a play-in game Tuesday.

The Spiders present an interesting matchup for SU in that they are arguably better at the aspect of the game SU has leaned on in crunch time — defense.

The Orange held Connecticut to just one shot in the second half of the Big East championship game Sunday, holding a one-goal lead for all 35 minutes. During the course of the season, opponents have averaged just 1.1 goals per game against Syracuse.

The Spiders allow just 1.05 goals per game and haven’t given up a goal in three games. On Tuesday, it held the favored Golden Bears to just nine shots, five of which tested sophomore goalkeeper Anna Zarkoski. 

In the NCAA tournament, SU senior midfielder Martina Loncarica knows a strong defense is crucial. And Syracuse will need to match that of the Spiders.

‘We know that to be up there we have to defend our best because you can’t leave gaps, and that’s when other teams can score,’ Loncarica said. ‘We have to minimize every opportunity they have, so we have to be very focused and make sure that we’re solid defensively.’

And although that defensive dominance is intimidating, Bradley said there won’t be any major adjustments made at this point in the season. In her mind, the preparation and play of the Orange far outweighs the tactical strengths of the opponent.

After watching video Tuesday night, she’ll establish a game plan and map out this week’s practice schedule.

‘Every game we play, it’s about us,’ Bradley said. ‘I’ve looked at our Connecticut game and seen the adjustments that we need to change there. And it’s just about us getting better and making sure that mentally and physically we’re OK. We’re not going to change much at this time of year.’

It’s an approach that has worked thus far for the Orange, and an approach that earned them a top-four seed in the tournament this season.

But Syracuse has fallen short in each of those postseason runs, losing in the second round to Ohio State last year and to Princeton in 2009. The closest SU has come to a national title came in 2008, when the Orange suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat to Wake Forest in the final four.

If Bradley wants to get back to the national semifinals, which will be held in Louisville, Ky., her Orange has to go through two of her former employers.

When asked what it will take to do just that, Bradley responded without hesitation.

‘Win,’ Bradley said firmly. ‘We need to just keep playing good hockey, playing together and making the most of the opportunities that we create for ourselves.’

sebail01@syr.edu

Published on November 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1