2023 Women's Top 30: How Syracuse Fared vs. Projections

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2024, our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking one last look at 2023.

After all, you have to look at the most recent results before making projections for what’s to come. To do that, we’re taking a journey through the top 30 teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse — what went right, what went wrong and what we should all think of that team’s season.

Was it a success? A failure? A mixture of both? You’ll find out our thoughts over the next month or so.

SYRACUSE WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Nike/USA Lacrosse Preseason/Final Top 20 Ranking: 6/3
2023 record: 18-3 (8-1 ACC)

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Syracuse’s offense was utterly gorgeous for 15-plus games. It was as if the game slowed down for the Orange. Between Emma Ward’s no-look scoop passes from X, Meaghan Tyrrell’s low-key dominance and Meg Carney’s casual sidearm rockets, the game flowed easily for the Orange.

Delaney Sweitzer looked fantastic in net, finishing the year eighth in Division I in save percentage (.505).

For the first time in two years, Syracuse stayed almost completely healthy. When draw specialist Kate Mashewske went down, a matchup with NCAA draw control leader Maddie Jenner and Duke looked like a trap game. Nope. Syracuse won 16-10 because of how well Olivia Adamson stepped up.

Syracuse edged defending champion North Carolina 14-12 in Chapel Hill and looked sure to finish the regular season with a perfect record when it took an 11-7 halftime lead over Boston College in the final game. (We’ll go there in a sec.)

After some bumps and an ACC semifinal exit, the Orange got the No. 2 seed and a bye into the second round of the NCAA tournament. Syracuse rebounded with a school-record 25 goals against Johns Hopkins and beat James Madison in the quarterfinal round to return to the Final Four.

Tyrrell was a Tewaaraton Award finalist for a second straight year, finishing her fifth year No. 4 in Division I in points per game (5.10). She also became the program’s all-time points leader.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Syracuse was nearly perfect and destined for Championship Sunday for 15-plus games. But the wheels started coming off at the wrong time. In the final game of the regular season, Boston College outscored Syracuse 11-5 in the second half, including a seven-goal fourth quarter, to claim a share of the ACC regular-season crown and the top seed into the conference championship.

Just a blip, right? Then came a head-scratchingly close 14-12 win over Virginia Tech in the quarterfinal. Then came the Orange’s worst loss of the season. North Carolina raced out to an 8-0 lead in the ACC semifinal and went on to win 15-9. The NCAA tournament selection committee looked at the totality of the Orange’s work and gave them the No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. After beating Hopkins and James Madison, the Orange got another shot at Boston College in the Final Four. Once again, Syracuse led 7-5 at the end of the third quarter. But BC scored the game’s final three goals and won by one.

SEASON HIGHLIGHT

Syracuse’s opening-game win over eventual champion Northwestern was a blast. We got our first look at Delaney Sweitzer, who split time with Kimber Hower in 2022, as the Orange's top netminder. She made 11 saves in the back-and-forth affair that ended with Syracuse winning 16-15 (and marked Northwestern’s only loss of the season).

VERDICT

The doom-and-gloom interpretation is that Syracuse peaked at the wrong time. And there’s truth to that. But I’ll leave calling a year that ended in a one-goal loss in the Final Four an “F” to what’s left of Twitter (X?). The Orange offense put on clinics nearly every game this season — something the next generation of players can watch on repeat. With Emma Tyrrell, Ward, Adamson and potentially Sweitzer back for 2024, the Orange will likely get another crack at the ACC and national titles.