The theme of the weekend for the Syracuse women’s soccer team was traveling and playing on a turf field. Syracuse played four away games in eight days after facing St. John’s and Colgate on Friday and Sunday, respectively.

The Orange (4-3-2, 0-1) came out of the weekend 1-1, losing, 1-0, to St. John’s and winning, 2-0, against Colgate.

The game at St. John’s took place on top of a parking garage, with old turf that is fast and hard. How the ball reacts varies from turf to turf, so at St. John’s (6-0-1, 1-0) the ball had high, big bounces. Colgate (5-3-1) had a new turf, so the ball rolled slower with less bounce and a different type of roll.

‘The environment at St. John’s was very bizarre,’ SU head coach Pat Farmer said. ‘Playing on top of a parking garage was a new one. The team is used to a field, so it’s hard to play on so many different types of fields and play with consistency. I think it showed Friday that the turf was affecting their play. St. John’s was the first team that I really thought outplayed us.’

The game was tied 0-0 until the 60th minute, when St. John’s senior Krystle Jalalian took a rebound and scored.

In order to prepare for the weekend’s matches on turf, the team practiced Wednesday in the Carrier Dome so they could hopefully react to the artificial surfaces better.

Farmer saw the Orange’s many travels over the past eight days as a disadvantage because the team was tired and there weren’t many opportunities to practice. However, despite having only one day in Syracuse to recover for the match against Colgate, SU had a successful shutout.

SU senior midfielder Jen Taormina and junior forward Amanda Arcuri both scored for the Orange. Taormina scored 3:30 into the game off a corner kick, the fastest goal scored by Syracuse in three years.

Arcuri scored after a long throw in, when she managed to kick it down with one tap and then volley it in with the second. It was Arcuri’s second career goal. Freshman midfielder Dana Bergstrom assisted Arcuri, tallying her first career point.

Despite the score, the Raiders outshot the Orange, 16-14, and led in corner kicks, 7-4. Still, Farmer was pleased.

‘During our game against Colgate, the team had a lot better attitude and was a lot more proactive,’ Farmer said. ‘The offense, defenders and midfielders all possessed the ball a lot better and used it to go forward, that was something we didn’t do Friday vs. St. John’s.’

Farmer described the shots the team took on Friday as ‘wasteful,’ and the shots taken on Sunday as ‘planned out with more intent to score.’

Sophomore Eliza Bennett-Hattan had her 10th shutout of her career, making eight saves during the game. The effort moved Bennett-Hattan into third place in Syracuse’s all-time shutout list.

‘They got really psyched up for this one,’ Farmer said. ‘The team had a very good experience, and they really took charge in the first half and continued their dominance to the second half.

‘They really wrapped the weekend up well. They learned from some of Friday’s mistakes and came out with a win on Sunday. Hopefully, we can play off this win for next weekend.’

Published on September 24, 2007 at 12:00 pm