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Clemson forward Emma Wennar lined up to take a shot just at the edge of the goalie box. The closest Syracuse defender was freshman defender Grace Gillard, who had her back turned, focused on Clemsons’ Renee Lyles. As Wennar got ready to kick the ball, Syracuse head coach Nicky Adams yelled from the sideline, “Gilly, behind you,” and Grace reacted just in time, turning around to block the ball off her hip and causing a Clemson corner. 

On the corner kick by Clemson, Gillard was again in the middle of another impressive defensive stand. As the corner came flying to the goalie box, Gillard watched it, intent on stopping a Clemson attack, and she did just that. With the ball landing at her feet, she sent it toward the sideline for a Clemson throw-in. Syracuse came out of this Clemson attack unscathed after a deep boot by goalie Shea Vanderbosch.

Clemson (7-4-3, 3-3-1 ACC) was held by Syracuse (8-5-2, 1-4-2 ACC) to just one goal, despite consistently penetrating the first levels of defense, often reaching the final level in Syracuse’s defense. Clemson outshot Syracuse 17-14, with six and five going on goal, respectively. Vanderbosch played a stellar game, diving multiple times to save goals from the Clemson attack. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, a good result for Syracuse, seeing as it scored its lone goal with just 15 minutes left.

One Clemson breakaway led to forward Caroline Conti having only Vanderbosch to beat. After Gianna Savella gave the ball up to a Clemson defender at midfield, Conti secured possession with an open field in front of her. Placing her shot in the top corner, Vanderbosch could barely get a finger on it and sent it out of bounds for a Clemson corner.

“(Vanderbosch) is a big time shot stopper, so we know we are always going to get that from Shea”

Forward Erin Flurey didn’t feature. After the game, Adams said that she had gotten injured during the Boston College game but that it was nothing serious and she would be back with the team within the next few days. No exact timetable was given, though. 

Kylen Grant was running down the sideline in the 72nd minute after passing the ball back to Vanderbosch when she fell down, clutching her knee, but she walked off under her own power.

In the first ten minutes of the game, Syracuse played an aggressive but methodical style of soccer, passing the ball well around the Clemson defense. In the 12th minute, Blue Ellis got through the Clemson defense and fired a shot that was blocked by Clemson defender Harper White. However, this aggressive play backfired for Syracuse, and just two minutes later, Lyles netted a goal off a Vanderbosch misplay, which saw the ball bounce off her gloves into the waiting Lyles. 

Defensively, SU allowed 13 corner kicks throughout the game, but Clemson didn’t convert on any of them. Many were cleared by the duo of Jenna Tivnan and Grace Gillard.

Despite a lackluster offense from Syracuse throughout the game, Tivnan sent one to the back of the net with just 15 minutes left on the clock. Off a corner kick from Kate Murphy, Tivnan rose above the mass of bodies and got her head on the ball, equalizing the score at one, following a recent Syracuse trend of tying the score late into the game. Adams said Tivnan was awarded player of the game.

“From top to bottom, our defending was really good, it planned, it’s not us just throwing girls out there and saying, you’re marking her, we are trying to do something really specific,” Adams said of the defense.

Published on October 15, 2022 at 12:01 am

Contact Preston: ptsickle@syr.edu