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On a celebratory afternoon for Syracuse, with Paul Gait’s No. 19 jersey being retired, it followed up by delivering one of its biggest wins of the Gary Gait era.

In a thrilling, back-and-forth affair, the Orange trailed early, dominated toward the middle and were forced to issue a roaring response in the game’s closing moments. They embarked on a 4-0 run late in the fourth quarter, erasing a 17-14 Virginia lead.

On the Cavaliers’ final looks at an equalizer, Billy Dwan poked the ball loose from McCabe Millon’s stick. The turnover set up a last-ditch effort from Jack Boyden, whose shot was stalled by Will Mark to clinch a massive victory and a positive Atlantic Coast Conference record for SU.

Here are some observations from No. 6 Syracuse’s (11-4, 3-1 ACC) 18-17 win over No. 4 Virginia (10-3, 1-2 ACC) in its regular-season finale:

UVA’s stars show out

It was abundantly clear on paper that the Orange would have their hands full Saturday pitted against one of the best attack units in the nation. The Cavaliers’ Connor Shellenberger, Payton Cormier and Millon entered the day with 57, 54 points and 47 points, respectively, including 36 assists for Shellenberger and a whopping 44 goals from Cormier.

The latter two were on fire early. Cormier opened the game with a transition goal. On the Cavaliers’ next possession, Shellenberger emerged from X, curled around a pick from Thomas Mencke and ripped a shot past Mark into the top shelf for a 2-0 UVA lead. Cormier then received a wide-open chance following a lapse from SU’s back end and netted his second goal of the day, putting Virginia up 3-1.

Even though the remaining portion of the first quarter and a large chunk of the second were dominated by the Orange, Shellenberger and Cormier willed UVA back into contention. Shellenberger dished to Millon at the 6:59 mark of the second for a goal. Nineteen seconds later, Virginia rapidly cleared off a short-lived SU possession and Shellenberger found Cormier on the right side for an easy finish.

Syracuse’s Matt Wright responded with his first goal of the year to give the Orange a 9-7 lead, but then it was the Shellenberger show. He netted two goals in 51 seconds to tie the game at 9-9 heading into the half.

Virginia’s triple threat in the attack reigned dominance upon SU in the fourth quarter as well. Shellenberger hit Cormier for a score to begin the quarter and a few minutes later, Shellenberger tallied his fourth goal of the game. Shellenberger finished with four goals and five assists for a game-high nine points. While the Cavaliers’ star trio combined for 11 goals and eight assists.

Syracuse puts Nunes in a blender early

While Mark was, at times, a brick wall between the pipes, the same could not be said for Virginia goalie Matthew Nunes. Especially early on.

Nunes came into the contest averaging a respectable 10 goals allowed per game on a 56.7% save rate. The Orange initially couldn’t muster much action against the netminder, repeatedly putting together short possessions that ended in turnovers or extremely errant shots. Though once they began winning their one-on-one matchups with consistency, Nunes had no answer.

He allowed a goal on each of the first eight shots he faced. It wasn’t until the 6:50 mark of the second quarter in which he had registered a single save. Nunes thwarted a shot from Joey Spallina on that play. Yet just moments later, he couldn’t stop a shot from Wright, who scored to put Syracuse up 9-7.

It was a foregone conclusion throughout the first half that any close or mid-range shot that the Orange sent Nunes’ way would find the back of the net. UVA’s long poles had limited relief during a 6-0 Syracuse run in the first and second quarters, as Nunes struggled to properly position himself to stop a fast-paced SU attack.

Hiltz, Mulé, Leo carry SU through shootout

The dangerous trio of Shellenberger, Cormier and Millon posed Syracuse with a daunting task of trying to match. But Owen Hiltz, Christian Mulé and Michael Leo answered the call.

The three combined for eight goals and six assists by the final buzzer, carried by a scintillating performance from Hiltz (three goals, five assists). Virginia long pole John Schroter man-marked Spallina all afternoon, bottling him up at X and forcing him away from the cage on any given dodge. As a result, Hiltz, Mulé and Leo were handed the bulk of SU’s offensive load and didn’t disappoint.

Syracuse did a lot of damage off screens and transition play to free up its deep group of goal scorers. Leo netted a goal to commence the second half after Hiltz picked Leo’s defender, which allowed him a wide-open shooting lane on Nunes that he capitalized on. Then, Hiltz caused a turnover on the ride from UVA’s George Fulton and hit Mulé for a quick score — making it 6-4 SU at the time.

Hiltz shined as a distributor, racking up the most assists he’s had in a game this season. He was calm with the ball in his grasp, keeping his eyes upfield to look for open teammates.

Hiltz found Leo on a man-up opportunity midway through the second quarter for a score. In the early stages of the fourth quarter, Hiltz passed to Mulé on the right crease during a transition chance which Mulé buried to put Syracuse up 14-13.

Late-game heroics

A man-up goal from Finn Thomson at the 8:50 mark of the third quarter gave the Orange a 13-10 lead over the Cavaliers. Memories of SU’s collapse against then-No. 13 Cornell and escaping what was nearly a disastrous loss versus North Carolina remained fresh in the mind. Naturally, the same scenario unfolded yet again. Virginia stormed back.

The Orange let up a 7-1 UVA run from that Thomson goal until 7:30 left in the fourth quarter. Their attack was stalled, Mason Kohn and John Mullen faltered at the faceoff X and their defense had zero response for the scorching performances of Shellenberger and Co.

Trailing 17-14 signified that Syracuse had allowed the contest to go from completely in its control, to severely in doubt. Though it issued a key response when it mattered most as Jake Stevens and Thomson netted back-to-back goals. Down 17-16 with under 5:00 to go, the Orange had little time and room for error to fix their prior mistakes.

Enter Dwan. The long poles had a knack for scoring highlight goals, and there wasn’t a better time for another edition. Dwan picked up a ground ball after a lengthy scramble in front of the net, raised his stick up and catapulted the ball backward past Nunes, who was caught off guard. It tied the game at 17-17.

Virginia’s next possession went awry, handing Syracuse a chance to take the go-ahead goal. Sam English capitalized, netting a shot from 15 yards out that squeaked by Nunes’ left side — which proved to be the game-winner. At last, the Orange came through in crunch time.

Published on April 20, 2024 at 5:02 pm

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews