Two years ago, Katrina Dowd broke the hearts of the Syracuse players.

The Northwestern attack scored with just 88 seconds left, breaking a 12-12 tie and allowing the top-ranked Wildcats to escape a near-upset from the Orange in a regular-season contest on March 21, 2010.

‘Obviously, that was a very exciting game,’ Dowd said. ‘Syracuse scouted us well, played a great game.’

But on Wednesday, Syracuse has another chance to ‘shock the world,’ as junior attack Michelle Tumolo said Monday. And this time, Dowd will experience the rivalry from the opposite perspective — now serving as an assistant coach at SU.

‘I’m all in here at Syracuse,’ Dowd said. ‘I’m all Orange all the time.’

With Dowd on the sidelines, No. 9 Syracuse (1-1) will look to avenge that defeat Wednesday when No. 1 Northwestern (2-0) visits the Carrier Dome at 7 p.m. To do so, the Orange must play its best lacrosse and, more specifically, improve its offensive efficiency.

But beating the top team in the country is a tall task, and Northwestern is a powerhouse even greater than its No. 1 ranking indicates.

Arguably the most dominating program in collegiate athletics in the last decade, the Wildcats are the defending national champion and have won six of the last seven NCAA titles. Only six teams have beaten NU — seven losses — in that span.

And starting this season, they haven’t missed a beat. An 18-6 thrashing of then-No. 6 Stanford to start the campaign was followed by a convincing 13-5 victory over fifth-ranked Duke. In a preseason scrimmage, NU handily defeated Team England 9-3 — the same squad SU played to a 9-9 tie.

‘They’re certainly the standard in the game right now, the best of the best,’ SU head coach Gary Gait said.

The Orange will have to be near-perfect in every facet of the game to even have a chance at knocking off the Wildcats. Gait said maintaining possession and taking advantage of offensive openings will be the key factors offensively, while exercising patience and avoiding fouls defensively will be integral in keeping the game close.

Those opportunities up front can potentially be exploited, as NU pressures the ball very aggressively. Tumolo and sophomore attack Alyssa Murray both said they will look to beat the double teams, as they did in the team’s season-opening 23-12 victory over then-No. 13 Boston College on Feb. 21.

Attacking the right side of the Eagles midway through the first half, Tumolo drew a second defender. With Murray cutting down the middle, Tumolo found her as she filled the void in front of the net. One quick, backhanded flick of the wrist later and the ball was sitting in the back of the net.

‘We know each other like the back of our hands,’ Tumolo said after the game. ‘When we’re near each other, I try to draw the double and dump it to her like you saw we did. It worked perfectly. We know that. We knew that was going to happen.’

But against No. 6 Virginia on Sunday, the Orange shot just 28 percent and failed to challenge the Cavaliers goaltender on eight of 25 attempts en route to a 9-7 defeat.

Murray said SU was uncomfortable playing in front of 1,011 in Klöckner Stadium on Sunday, and the environment shook the same players who seemed to exude confidence against Boston College.

‘If we had a rematch, we could definitely beat them,’ Murray said. ‘We didn’t play to our full potential, and that’s just something that we’re going to have to work on.’

But sitting in the locker room after the loss to the Cavaliers, the Orange quickly put the loss behind it, Tumolo said. A date with the nation’s best in only three days meant there was no time for grieving. No time for looking back on the loss to Virginia or the loss at the stick of Dowd from two seasons past.

For Tumolo and the Orange, it’s their chance to shock the world.

‘It’s my No. 1 priority right now to beat them,’ Tumolo said. ‘I feel like, yeah, they might be a little nervous, but I think they go in here with a high horse and don’t think that we can beat them. So hopefully we shock the world.’

sebail01@syr.edu

 

Published on February 28, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1