Syracuse downs Columbia 6-2 with Comans’ hat trick
SU downs Columbia 6-2 with Comans' hat trick
The Orange was welcomed home by a bumper crowd as they played its first game of the year at J.S. Coyne Field. Syracuse (3-0,0-0) got its home slate underway with a tough test against the Columbia University Lions (1-0, 0-0).
Although the Lions challenged the Orange and dominated parts of the contest, the Orange was able to cruise to a 6-2 victory.
How it Happened
Eight minutes into the first quarter of a surprisingly both sided affair and suddenly the Orange was on the attack. Syracuse midfielder SJ Quigley carried the ball down the right side before being intercepted. After it seemed Quigley won the ball back, she was able to center the ball to Syracuse midfielder Joy Haarman. Haarman then took a shot and appeared to score, but the ball deflected off the foot of Syracuse forward Sabine Van Den Eijnden. The goal did not stand and so the game went on, scoreless.
Making the first goal of the game and claiming the lead, Syracuse forward Charlotte de Vries slotted one home unassisted. Less than a minute later, Quirine Comans assisted Lieke Leeggangers who in turn tipped the ball in for a goal. Comans followed by scoring a hat trick, which is scoring three goals in a single game.
Orange Head Coach Ange Bradley was pleased with the team’s performance.
“Proud of the team today,” Bradley said. “They came out and made some adjustments from Friday’s game and I think we did a good job today representing our past on Coyne Field and I am happy we were able to get the result.”
Syracuse's Charlotte de Vries (10) battles with Columbia's Katie Wimmer (54) near the goal box on Sunday.
SU's Jannemijn Deutman (14) moves the ball downfield against Columbia.
Struggles from the corners
Penalty corners were the death of Syracuse’s shutout streak as the Orange had not conceded in almost fifteen quarters of play. The Lions were able to tap home a penalty corner midway through the third period of play.
Columbia added another goal also off of a penalty corner in the fourth quarter as the game finished 6-2. This marked the fourth game where Syracuse scored five or more goals.
“First your best prevention is to limit the amount of corners that you’re giving and that is the part where I am saying we need a lot of work defensively,” Bradley said. “Then once we get those things happening we will look at our corner defense. Both were low angle shots and at the low angles that’s the goalie responsibility to be able to handle that.”
Penalty corners were not just a weakness for the Orange defense and goaltending, but the offense also struggled with them as it only converted eight penalty corners into one goal.
“That’s not good enough, one for eight isn’t where we need to be,” Bradley said. “That’s an area where we had been doing OK on and today we did not and we will definitely have that ready for Friday.”
Big day for Comans
The star of the game for the Orange was Comans who had herself a seven point afternoon netting three goals and one assist. The graduate forward from Bergen, Netherlands leads the team in both goals and assists with earning six goals and three assists. She shares the assist lead with de Vries.
“I think this year we have a lot of attacking players and people can get me the ball in the space I want to so that’s good,” Comans said. “Just happy that we won, happy with the team that we won. It’s great that I could score those goals but if it’s (it was) someone else I was (would) also (be) really happy, happy with the outcome.”
Comans and the Orange next take the field at 4 p.m. Friday against Princeton at Bedford Field in Princeton, N.J. The team’s road trip concludes at noon Sunday against the Monmouth Hawks at So Sweet A Cat Field in West Long Branch, N.J.
is a contributor for The NewsHouse.
is a photographer for the Infodemic project.
