It’s a Wednesday in late April, so that means it’s time for some 11 AM lacrosse in the ACC Tournament.
Welcome to the 2024 season, part two.
It’s been six days since the Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse team’s brutal overtime loss to Boston College brought their very successful regular season to an end at 12-4 and 8-1 in the ACC.
That record earned ‘Cuse their first ever outright ACC regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament, which begins in earnest today with a quadruple-header down in Charlotte.
SU will kick off the day’s festivities when they meet the No. 9 seed Louisville Cardinals for a little brunch-time lacrosse. Opening draw is set for 11 AM on ACC Network.
Setting the scene for the ACC Tournament pic.twitter.com/MRLy0XlHLp
— Syracuse Women’s Lacrosse (@CuseWLAX) April 23, 2024
- All-time series: 15th meeting; Syracuse leads, 13-1
- Last meeting: Syracuse W, 22-12, on March 30, 2024
- Louisville this year: 8-10 overall, 3-7 ACC
The Cardinals already have a game under their belt in this ACC Tournament, having opened up in the 8/9 play-in game on Sunday for the right to meet ‘Cuse today. They went on the road to Blacksburg and topped the No. 8 seed Virginia Tech, 13-11.
Scouting Louisville
The first meeting between these two was an offensive showcase for SU as they tallied their biggest production of the season with 22 goals in the 22-12 win.
The Cardinals have a handful of very talented players on offense, but their defense ranks last in the ACC in scoring (13.67 goals-against per game), hence the Orange’s 22 goals in the first game.
They’re led by a pair of veterans in senior Kokoro Nakazawa and graduate student Nicole Perroni. Just the two of them have combined to register 45 percent of the team’s goals, 43 percent of their points and 43 percent of their shots this season. They lean heavily on their two veteran leaders to carry the load for this team.
Nakazawa (60G, 21A, 81P) is their biggest offensive threat as she leads the team in all three of the major offensive categories. Her 60 goals actually lead the entire ACC and are good for third in goals per game (3.33). Overall, she ranks fourth in the conference in points per game (4.50) and shoots over 50 percent on both regular shots (.508) and free position shots (.531).
Perroni (45G, 9A, 54P, 47GB, 42CT, 71DC) is one of the best all-around players in the conference. In addition to her 3 points per game she contributes to the offense, she also ranks first in the ACC in ground balls per game (2.61) and caused turnovers per game (2.33). She’s also just outside the Top 10 in draw controls per game (3.94). I don’t think there’s a single player in the ACC who’s impacting the game as significantly all over the field as Perroni does for the Cardinals.
Their offense is rounded out by Kylea Dobson (29G, 11A, 40P), Kokoro’s younger sister Negai Nakazawa (24G, 10A, 34P) and Allegra Catalano (22G, 5A, 27P).
On the defensive end, goalie Sara Addeche (155SV) has a .408 save percentage, a 14.08 goals-against average, and 155 total saves. She leads the ACC in both saves and saves per game (8.61) due to how much pressure she’s under on a game-to-game basis.