Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Orange season ends with hard-fought loss to Yale, 9-8, in NCAA Second Round

‘Cuse hung tough, but didn’t have enough answers against Yale’s defense to finish the job.

The Syracuse Orange’s 2025 season came to an end on Sunday afternoon as they fell to the 7-seeded Yale Bulldogs, 9-8, in the NCAA Tournament’s second round.

It was a hard-fought game of runs that unfortunately titled Yale’s direction at the end. Both teams took their turn being in control, and the Orange did a much improved job on draw controls and defense from their first game with the Bulldogs back in April.

In the end, though, it was the more experienced Yale team that made all the plays down the stretch to make a second-half comeback and take the win to move on to the quarterfinals.

The Bulldogs looked like they were ready to dominate early with a 3-0 start out of the gates, but ‘Cuse executed nicely for a pair of goals late in the first quarter to initiate a run of their own that lasted until late in the first half.

SU scored five straight goals to take a 5-3 lead in the second quarter before Yale ended a 15-minute scoring drought late in the half to make it 5-4 heading to the locker room.

The Orange scored the first two out of the break, making it an extended, 7-1 run that lasted from the late first until the mid-third quarter to take a 7-4 lead.

Late in the third is when Yale started to re-take command of the game, controlling possession and leaning on their stars to execute against ‘Cuse’s zone. The Bulldogs ended the game on a 5-1 run to turn a 7-4 third quarter deficit into a 9-8 win.

Down 7-4, Yale took over the game by making a switch at the draw circle to take control and keep SU chasing the rest of the way.

After the Orange’s goal at the 8:19 mark of the third quarter that gave them that three-goal lead, the Bulldogs won six of the last eight draw controls to make possession much stingier to come by for ‘Cuse.

In the draw department, SU lost the first three of the game and six of the last eight. In between, they won eight of 10 draws as they were going on their 7-1 run in the middle of the game. There’s not always a direct correlation between the two, but on Sunday, there was.

As a result of Yale winning six of the last eight draws, the Orange mustered only five total shots after their goal that made it 7-4. So, in the game’s final 23-plus minutes, SU took only five shots. In total, ‘Cuse was held to 16 shots for the entire game by Yale’s defense, one of the toughest in the country. The Orange shot 50 percent for the day, but you’re not going to win too many games when you take 16 total shots.

Another big difference in this one was the star power. While Yale’s carried them to victory, SU’s were unable to measure up. Yale and ‘Cuse both scored 13 points in this game, but while SU’s top four scorers only scored five points among them, Yale’s top four scorers accounted for every point they scored.

Leading scorer and team leader Emma Ward (1A) was held to a single assist, a single shot and four turnovers in her final collegiate game. Leading goal scorer Emma Muchnick (2A) had two assists, but was held goalless, while third-leading scorer Caroline Trinkaus (2G) had two second-half goals.

In contrast, Yale’s Taylor Lane led all scorers with five points, while leading scorer Fallon Vaughn had a hat trick and four points. Leading goal scorer Jenna Collignon was held pointless for the first three quarters, but she proved to be the game-winner as she accounted for all three Bulldog goals in the fourth quarter. All three goals either tied the game or gave them the lead.

Ashlee Volpe (4G) was ‘Cuse’s brightest star on the day, playing like a true superstar and putting on a shooting display in the first half as she scored with her feet set, on the run and with her back to goal. The main problem with Volpe, who shot 80 percent on the day, is that she was only able to take five shots and was held without a goal in the second half after her domination in the first.

Alexa Vogelman (1G, 1A) and Bri Peters (1G, 1A) each finished with two points in support. Peters, who had only appeared in one game all season before this weekend, was a big part of the midfield rotation these two games and actually took ‘Cuse’s final shot of the season on their last possession with a chance to tie. But her shot hit a Yale defender, became a card for a dangerous shot, and the Bulldogs ran out the clock for the win.

Meghan Rode (6DC) led a much improved effort on draws for SU. While Yale did emerge with an 11-10 advantage on draws, that was much better than April’s game when won 19-of-26 (73 percent). But a second-half switch of draw taker proved to make a huge difference for Yale in winning six of the final eight draws to severely limit ‘Cuse’s chances late in the game.

The defense largely did a nice job in holding them to single-digits. After they struggled in April to figure out how to defend Yale’s stars, which included some failed face-guarding, the Orange went back to what they know best with their straight backer zone and no face-guarding. Although Yale’s stars did all the scoring, the results were pretty good with only nine goals surrendered.

A huge part of that was Dani Guyette (11SV), who bounced back from a two-save performance on Friday with 11 saves and a 55.0 save percentage yesterday. She had a bunch of saves that would be categorized as “steals” of would-be Yale goals, giving her teams a chance all the way until the end. Dani struggled a lot late in the year, but she reminded everyone of her abilities and how good she was for most of the season in this one.

On defender, the Orange may have found themselves a future piece in sophomore Izzy Lahah (3GB, 3CT), who didn’t play at all for most of the season until she started appearing in games as April progressed. She came into this weekend with four appearances and no starts, but got pushed into the starting lineup for these two games.

She was tremendous. Coming into the weekend with one ground ball and two caused turnovers, she had three GBs and three CTs in both games to play a big role in the defense holding both Ivy teams to nine tallies.

This was such a young Syracuse team with so many players who learned and grew throughout the season, and Izzy is one of the newest examples as someone who got thrown into the starting lineup in the NCAA Tournament and performed admirably. Bri Peters is another good example.

It was a frustrating season at times as a young team struggled with growing pains against a difficult schedule, and it ended with a 10-9 record. But, boy, is there a lot of exciting young talent ready to take the reigns next season after a year of learning on the job.