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With three minutes left in the first quarter, Syracuse’s Quirine Comans had taken possession away from a Columbia defender to create a counter attack. She brushed past the lone defender, side-stepped Lions’ goalie Katie Wimmer and put the ball in the back of the net, giving Syracuse a commanding 3-0 lead.

In No. 10 Syracuse’s (4-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) 6-2 win over Columbia (1-1, 0-0 Ivy League), the offense flourished, tying the most goals scored in a game in this early part of the season. The Orange quickly jumped on the Lions, scoring three goals in the first quarter alone. While Columbia was able to score in the second half, SU added to its offensive performance with three more scores in the second half. The Orange outshot the Lions 25-4 on the afternoon. While the Orange had Comans’ hat trick, they also got scoring help from Charlotte de Vries, Lieke Leeggangers and Willemijn Boogert.

In the first nine minutes of the game, SU was only able to register one shot. It came in the seventh minute when Joy Haarman had her goal called off by the referees. Two and a half minutes later, De Vries opened up the scoring by sending a hard, low shot from the right side of the circle, just squeaking past Wimmer’s foot to give Syracuse a 1-0 advantage. The Orange have been the first team to score in each of their first four wins.

“I think that’s what we’ve been doing,” Comans said. “It’s something we really focus on — going out strong. And we do that so I’m really happy about that.”

Syracuse put together a dominant perforce on both defense and offense. Less than a minute after de Vries’ goal, Leeggangers scored her third goal of the season after receiving a pass from Comans down the right side. Finally, Comans’ defense-to-offense goal ended the highest-scoring first quarter of the season so far.

After a slower than usual end to the first half, the Orange came out strong in the second half and Comans scored her second goal of the game three minutes into the third quarter. Syracuse’s offense was fast and persistent, consistently applying pressure to Wimmer and Columbia’s defenders.

The Orange excelled in possession, limiting their turnovers. They also passed the ball well – three of SU’s six goals were assisted. 

“I think (it was) a lot better today, it went really good,” Comans said of the team’s passing. “We found each other.”

Late in the third quarter, Boogert scored quickly off a rebound to give SU a 5-1 lead. And with over ten minutes left in the game, Comans scored her third goal to put Syracuse back up by four after another Columbia goal off a penalty corner, securing Syracuse’s fourth straight win to open the season.

“Scouting reports, press reports. We tried something new today so we’ll see how it goes,” Comans said.

Published on September 4, 2022 at 5:28 pm

Contact Michael: mdphilip@syr.edu