Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Loyola preview and game thread

The road trip continues in Baltimore against the Greyhounds.

The Syracuse Orange are down in the DMV for the second half of a two-game road trip to face the Loyola Greyhounds in a mid-week clash.

A lot of people probably anticipated this being a Top 10 meeting before the season started, but both teams have been inconsistent on their way to matching 5-4 records. ‘Cuse is hanging on with the No. 8 ranking in this week’s media poll, while Loyola has dropped down to No. 17.

The Orange and Greyhounds are set for an opening draw at 5 PM on ESPN+.

• All-time series: 26th meeting; Syracuse leads, 20-5
• Last meeting: Syracuse W, 16-13, on March 27, 2024
• Syracuse this season: 5-4 overall, 2-2 ACC
• Loyola this season: 5-4 overall, 2-0 Patriot

‘Cuse and Loyola have had very similar paths through nine games this season, with both dominating unranked teams and struggling against ranked opponents. SU is 3-0 against unranked and 2-4 versus ranked, while Loyola is 4-0 against unranked and 1-4 versus ranked.

Both teams don’t have any bad losses, but don’t have a ton of resume building wins; meaning this game is critical for both. Loyola’s biggest win came earlier in the year against Johns Hopkins.

Scouting Loyola

The Orange might have a problem on their hands as their young draw control unit goes up against one of the very best in the country in Loyola. The Greyhounds are second nationally in draw control win percentage (66.1) and third nationally in draw controls per game (18.00).

Joely Caramelli is going to have one heck of a challenge on her hands to combat 5’10” All-American Chase Boyle (85DC), a Tewaaraton finalist from a year ago. Boyle is a veteran draw taker, has a big height advantage and ranks ninth in the country in draw controls per game (9.44). Caramelli is learning as she goes, and doing a commendable job while she does, but this represents a whole new level of opposition. Can she muck it up enough to give the circle players a chance to get involved so Boyle doesn’t just win everything to herself?

A potential saving grace in case things go really bad on draws is that Loyola is a very turnover-prone team, ranking 63rd in the country with 15.22 turnovers per game. Of course, that number is still slightly better than SU’s 15.78 per game, but it does offer some hope even if the Greyhounds are winning the vast majority of restarts.

It’s going to be very interesting to see the defensive strategy the Orange employ against Loyola, an offense dominated by two players in Georgia Latch (20G, 30A) and Chase Boyle (35G, 3A). Latch ranks eighth in the country in both points per game (5.56) and assists per game (3.33), while Boyle ranks 15th in goals per game (3.89).

I don’t think playing their backer zone makes any sense given the presence of Latch, whose precision passing skills likely won’t have much issue finding cutters through the eight-meter arc in that scenario. Latch has amassed almost half the team’s assists this season (30-of-62) and needs to have someone guarding her uncomfortably close to make things more difficult on her. I think going woman-to-woman with a potential face-guard or two could be in line for this evening.

Part of why Latch has so many assists is she’s got three teammates who shoot the lights out on the receiving end. Boyle (52.2 percent), Elisa Faklaris (17G, 56.7 percent) and Ava Kane (12G, 52.2 percent) make for a lethal finishing trio for this Loyola offense.

Defender Lily Osborne is a force all over the field for this team, especially when it comes to helping win possession. She ranks first or second on Loyola in caused turnovers (13), ground balls (16) and draw controls (40).

Senior goalie Lauren Spence is a true veteran for this team in net. Now in her third year as a starter, Spence has started every game this season and has a 10.86 GAA with a 45.4 save percentage.