Women’s soccer struggles continue in a loss to #5 Wake Forest

Syracuse women’s soccer was looking for their first ACC victory of the season, but they had a tough task when they invited #5 ranked Wake Forest to the SU soccer stadium on Sunday.

Unfortunately for the Orange, Wake Forest dominated the contest 3-0 and is now 0-5-0 in ACC Play. 

“This is the best Wake team they’ve had,” Syracuse Head Coach Nicky Thrasher Adams said about the tough opponent they faced. “They did not take a second off that entire game.” 

Wake Forest had their stamp on this one from the beginning, with Emily Murphy’s early assist to Caiya Hanks in the third minute. 

Syracuse struggled to get anything going, defending for the majority of the half. 

The Cuse was finally able to provide offense coming out of the halftime break, with both shots on the net coming within seconds of each other not even a minute into the second half. 

These chances turned into fast break opportunities on the other end, with Murphy finding Hanks for their second link-up of the game in the same fashion as the first.

The third Wake Forest goal was scored straight up the center of the field, and Coach Adams showed her frustration with her team struggling to defend that play.

“We allowed them to cut in centrally,” Adams said. “They’d play the ball central, then play it back outside. We were poor at marking in the box”.  

Hanks, a Junior from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, had a point in all three of her team’s scores, with two goals and one assist. 

Murphy’s two assists got the senior from England her third and fourth of the season. 

Winning hasn’t been a problem for Wake Forest recently, as they knocked off both #1 Stanford and #2 Virginia en route to their top 5 ranking. 

ACC teams such as North Carolina, a team Syracuse lost a heartbreaker to in their last contest, are a big part of why Coach Thrasher Adams isn’t worried about their standing right now.

“Our RPI is really good still,” she says. “We have played quality opponents”.

Thrasher Adams noted the Ratings Percentage Index of future opponents Notre Dame and Pittsburgh, who sit at number 17 and number 12. Syracuse currently holds the 76th spot. 

One of the major bright spots in this contest for the Cuse was Goalkeeper Shea Vanderbosch, who added eight total saves in the game. 

The junior keeper has now made 34 saves in their five ACC games this season, for an average of 6.8 per game. 

“We were not organized well in the box,” SU’s coach said about why the defense wasn’t supporting their keeper on the three goals. “When your hips are facing the ball, you don’t know what’s behind you.” 

Syracuse has struggled to help Vanderbosch offensively, with two goals scored in five ACC matchups and only one multi-goal game in their last nine matches. 

The team is now 6-6-1, still awaiting their first ACC victory. 

The Orange looks to move forward as the conclusion of the regular season nears. They have five more ACC dates, hosting Notre Dame on Saturday, October 5th at 1 p.m. at the SU Soccer Stadium.